Kalemba Mathias Mulumba

On the way to Namugongo for execution, Kalemba is said to have stopped and asked to be put to death there and then in Old Kampala. His executioners butchered him on the spot, cutting off his limbs and tearing strips of flesh from his body, burning them before his eyes.

Born in Bunya County in eastern Uganda, Kalemba was a Musoga by tribe but the raiders belonging to the Otter clan of Buganda captured him. His captors then sold him as a slave to Magatto, uncle of the Chancellor Mukasa, a member of the Edible-Rat Clan. As a result Kalemba got assimilated into that clan.

He had a unique passion for religion, which led him first to Islam before it drove him into the Anglican Church after the arrival of the Anglican missionaries.

But then later when he interacted with the Catholic missionaries, he decided to join the Catholic Church. On May 31, 1880 he enrolled as a Catholic catechumen, but continued occasionally to attend Anglican Bible classes.

During the absence f of the Catholic missionaries from Uganda between 1882 and 1885, Kalemba organized a Christian community at Mityana where, together with the future martyrs Noe Mawaggali and Luke Banabakintu, he gave Christians instruction.

When persecution broke out in 1886, Kalemba was at the capital rebuilding the king’s palace that had burned down in February 1886. Although in imminent danger, he did not abscond from his official duty.

On 27^th May, Kalemba’s master, the chief of Ssingo arrested Kalemba and Luke Banabakintu who were taken to the palace, where the chancellor sentenced them to a savage death. Matthias Kalemba, the Mulumba, was declared “Blessed” by Pope Benedict XV in 1920, together with twenty-one other martyrs. Pope Paul VI proclaimed them canonized saints in 1964.

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Uganda Martyr Charles Lwanga

Lwanga was burnt to death on Mwanga’s orders on June 3, 1886 at the current Catholic Shrine in Namugongo. Pope Paul VI canonized Charles Lwanga and his companions on June 22,1964. The Catholic Church celebrates his memorial on June 3rd of the Roman calendar. Charles is the Patron of the African Youth of Catholic Action.

According to official Catholic Church documents, Lwanga was a crusader of faithfulness and chastity. It is said he jealously guarded his companions against the alleged “immoral acts and homosexual demands of then ruler of Buganda, Kabaka Mwanga.

Prior to being burnt to death, Lwanga was so peaceful and cheerful that he even requested to be untied such that he would help to assemble the sticks of the fire that he was to face.

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