{UAH} Christianity needed martyrs; Kabaka Mwanga had a country to govern - Commentary - monitor.co.ug
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Christianity needed martyrs; Kabaka Mwanga had a country to govern - Commentary
In Summary
Their competing agendas and mean rivalries aside, some of the activities of the religious organisations posed a real danger to the stability and hierarchical order of the kingdom.
In the last quarter of the nineteenth-century, ours was a very dark part of the world. Our people had not been exposed to the advances in mathematics, science, complex systematic thought and the arts as had happened in Europe, Asia and the Americas.
But the king of Buganda, Kabaka Mwanga, had a country to govern. Within just a few decades, his kingdom had witnessed the aggressive drive of Christian missionaries from Europe and the entrenchment of Islam from the East.
Their competing agendas and mean rivalries aside, some of the activities of the religious organisations posed a real danger to the stability and hierarchical order of the kingdom.
As salesmen of purported Absolute Truth, it was only natural that the rival missions should leave Buganda's leadership confused or in polarised positions.
If God had failed to resolve the differences between the great prophets, not to mention the differences between the missionaries, who would blame the Africans for their confusion and suspicion?
Indeed, the Africans often changed devotion from one faith to another, or even seemingly embraced two of the new faiths simultaneously, and without always abandoning their traditional gods!
In spite of the obvious need to respect the interests of the existing authority, some of the missionaries approached their work with contempt.
To recruit youths from the palace and brainwash them with the power of a strange God to the point where they belittled the highest earthly authority they knew; this was bound to humiliate and offend the king, who did not belong to a tradition where the king can be freely denigrated by palace boys.
Four generations later, in a bigger country, President Museveni and Premier Mbabazi are feuding over the allegiance of their party youth. Tear-gas cans have exploded; whips have come out; a death or two any time tomorrow cannot be ruled out.
From China to the Middle East to Latin America, defiant young people are still openly martyred in public squares.
But we are in the 1880's. From over a century earlier, in Europe, the French and German Enlightenment had been dismantling the framework of medieval religious certainties.
The intellectual ethos in Europe was in the direction of reason, of observed evidence and scientific knowledge. The greatest thinkers of the time were more likely to be agnostics or atheists than believers in God.
The nineteenth was the century of John Stuart Mill, T. H. Huxley, Herbert Spencer and Fredrick Nietzsche. It was the century of the British naturalist and evolutionist, Charles Darwin. Not only Christianity, but religion in general, was under unprecedented attack.
Against this backdrop, the future of Christianity could not be assured without finding for it new homes abroad. Coming together with the needs of those who were building empires, obscure second and third-rate priests were sent to spread the word of God among Africa's illiterate natives.
Incapable of making an impact in the European league, here they could become – and indeed became – heroes.
Especially under Catholicism, Christianity has a strong sado-masochist tradition, the idea that suffering and martyrdom strengthen faith.
But after setting up the victims, it also has a tendency of demonising the agencies that deliver the martyrs it needs to keep alive the awe and mystery of the faith.
In the 18th Century, Buganda was not a liberal democracy.
Neither was most of Europe. The rights we either take for granted today or those that international protocols want protected were not necessarily recognised. This was the environment in which the king of Buganda had a country to govern.
Some of the Christian recruits were being brainwashed in caves and returning to his palace. Could he be absolutely certain that none was coming back as a conspirator?
His brutality is not justified by their defiance, even though it is recorded that he gave them a chance to renounce their new way.
But as we celebrate the example of their devotion, we do well to remember that they were pawns in an enterprise that was rapidly losing the support of the greatest minds in Europe.
Mr Tacca is a novelist, socio-political commentator altaccaone@gmail.com.
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