This is how this column works. I
flip the laptop open and start typing my latest escapade or ridicule a
politician or the system. Then once in a blue moon, I get an e-mail from the
unflappable Penlope at Sunday Vision asking
me to tailor it to a specific event – in this case Martyrs Day. It was an out
of the blue request because she ‘trashes’ everything that I write that has to
do with religion as unchristian. But what the heck, I forgive her.
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| Namugongo Shrine |
You may find this incredibly hard
to believe, but until Penlope’s request came through, I didn’t know much about
Martyrs Day save for that if it fell on a weekday, it would be a public
holiday. So, it is a public holiday today – except, it’s a Sunday, and the
public holiday feel has been wasted.
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| Beer and Pork Are A Martyrs Day Must |
I used to think Martyrs Day was a
kivulu or kiggunda of sorts. I thought that because on the news bulletins,
all they show is people eating pork ribs, drinking beer and making merry. After
all, why would Silk Events which, is known for concerts and the KCCA Carnival
always be in the mix - providing audio/visual equipment for people to watch
whatever was going on.
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| Elvis Sekyanzi's Silk Events Is Always In The Namugongo Mix |
Slithering off topic for a
paragraph or two, Ivan Muziki, is soft spoken. He doesn’t look religious at all
– not that I half expected him to spend his free time idling at the Shell Jinja
Road roundabout babbling to motorists stuck in traffic about how the end is
nigh. Somewhere down the road, I discovered that he takes religion seriously
and is a mulokole - which of course,
put us on a collision course because my interpretation of religion differs from
his. Asking him about Martyrs Day drew a blank along the lines of: “I don’t
have time for your questions!” I also forgive him.
Getting back, over the past few
weeks, people and for reasons known to themselves, packed luggage and started
walking – not tell a lie, trekking from wherever they live, to the suburb of Namugongo.
I had to say trekking because there is a reason. Whenever I heard of people
walking to Namugongo, I always presumed they were the people who lived in the
neighbourhood. I mean why drive there when you can walk – it makes sense
doesn’t it?
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| The Trek To Namugongo |
But pause up. What is Martyrs Day
all about? There is no need to educate the Catholics I guess, but for those of
other faiths, back in 1884 when Kabaka Mwanga II succeeded to the throne, he was concerned at
the growing influence of Christianity and the rise of a new class of officials,
distinct from the traditional territorial chiefs, who were educated, had a
religious orientation, and wished to reform Ganda society. To solve the
‘problem’, he rounded up 23 Anglican and 22 Catholic converts to Christianity in and had
them barbecued somewhere between 31st January 1885 and 27th January 1887. “Nasty just” as the youth of today would say.
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| Kabaka Mwanga II |
But there is something I don’t get. Is celebrating
Martyrs Day not a sick and morbid thought? Why would people – Ivan and Christians
at that, trek from all corners of Uganda to Namugongo for a pork and beer fest to
celebrate people who were barbecued to death? I could be wrong on this, because
to the best of my knowledge, Jews don’t trek to Auschwitz in Poland to
celebrate the lives of the 1.3m million who perished there, nor do people find
their way down to Kanungu in Rukungiri District to celebrate the 158 who met
their fate in an inferno.
What people might instead want to do today, is to head
to Namugongo to solemnly remember and pay homage to those who died and give the
whole kivulu thing a break.
Pictures: Daily Monitor, The Investigator, New Vision
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