uganda martyrs

The Uganda Martyrs were a group of 22 Catholic and 23 Anglican converts to Christianity in the kingdom of Buganda, now part of Uganda, who were executed between 31 January 1885 and 27 January 1887.
They were killed on orders of Mwanga II, the Kabaka (King) of Buganda. The deaths took place at a time when there was a three-way religious struggle for political influence at the Buganda royal court. The episode also occurred against the backdrop of the Scramble for Africa – the invasion, occupation, division, colonization and annexation of African territory by European powers. A few years after, the English Church Missionary Society used the deaths to enlist wider public support for the British acquisition of Uganda for the Empire. The 22 Catholic martyrs were beatified by the Catholic Church in 1920 and canonized in 1964 by Pope Paul VI at St. Peter's Basilica in Rome. In 2024, the remains of two Catholic martyrs, Charles Lwanga and Mathias Mulumba, were returned to Uganda.

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