They include; Ponsiano Ngondwe who hailed from Bulimu village while Mukasa Kiriwawanvu was born at Nammere village, both located in Kyampisi sub-county, Mukono district.
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The Tale of Two Uganda Martyrs Hailing From Lugazi Diocese, the official animators of Uganda Martyrs’ Day at Namugongo.
For over a week, Christians have been thronging to the Martyrs’ shrines at Namugongo, with some trekking hundreds of kilometres to express their love and trust to the martyrs who, they concertedly believe, are powerful prayer intercessors.
Worldwide the Uganda Martyrs Day is celebrated annually on June 3rd. The annual event honours the 45 Catholic and Anglican martyrs, who were killed by burning and beheading between 1885 and 1887 for their faith on orders of Kabaka Mwanga of Buganda.
The Catholic shrine festivities have been organized by Lugazi Diocese, an ancestral home of two of the 25 catholic martyrs.
They include; Ponsiano Ngondwe who hailed from Bulimu village while Mukasa Kiriwawanvu was born at Nammere village, both located in Kyampisi sub-county, Mukono district.
One peculiar similarity the two hold is that they were both dragged from prison to be persecuted. Ponsiano Ngondwe aged 35, was speared to death by the chief executioner Mukanjanga at Takajjunge-Munyonyo, at the outskirts of Kampala.
A catechist at St. Ponsiano Ngondwe sub-parish in Bulimu, Kyampisi sub-county, Mukono district, John Bosco Ssembuya says that Ngondwe, a royal guard in the palace of Kabaka reportedly picked a cow from Mukajanga’s herd in the routine round of collecting a cow from each herder as a levy to the monarch, which did not go down well with the chief executioner (Mukajanga) who ordered his arrest.
“Mukajanga speared Ngondwe to death, and as if that was not enough, he ordered his body to be shredded into bits which were scattered around Takajjunge in Munyonyo where his shrine was built,” Ssembuya recount in an interview with this reporter.
Mukasa Kiriwawanvu at the age of 20 years is said to have been jailed for hitting Gyaviira Musoke Mayanja, another martyr, with a log on the belly for laughing at him over his extraordinarily long legs.
Ssembuya, quoting archives, narrates that when the two were taken from prison, they joined the band wagon of believers who had confessed allegiance to Jesus, and they are said to have also accepted to be killed for the sake of religion.
“Kiriwawanvu is the only martyr who was not baptized because the routine of baptizing had passed when he was behind bars. However, we believe that he was spiritually baptized by the blood he shed when he was burnt to ashes at Nakiyanja in Namugongo,” he said.
Ponsiano Ngondwe of the Buganda Nyonyi Nyange clan, is brother to Bakusaggira Mbaziira, a father to Michael Mbaziira, who is the father to present-day clan head 70-year-old Francis Kisala Mbaziira, currently bed ridden, at Bulimu, the clan headquarters.
When our reporter visited him under the guidance of catechist Ssembuya, Mbaziira could not talk owing to the ailment he developed a few years back, and his younger sister, Teopista Nazziwa related the story.
Nazziwa said that Ponsiano Ngondwe was born to the late Bakusaggira Mbaziira and on growing up, he joined the Kabaka’s royal palace guards’ team and one of his duties was collecting revenue for the Kabaka including cows from individual herds.
In Nazziwa’s own reasoning, Catholics defaulting to the Pentecostal faith are misguided and she swears never to make that mistake.
“As a family and as a clan, we have realised a lot of breakthroughs in many issues through prayers to Ngondwe, as evidenced by the annual pilgrimage of thousands of followers to our ancestral home here at Bulimu to pay tribute to the fallen martyr (Ponsiano Ngondwe),” she said.
She said her late father Michael Mbaziira, a son to the martyr’s brother Bakusaggira Mbaziira, donated land for construction of Bulimu Church in remembrance of Ponsiano Ngondwe.
“In 1968, Cardinal Emmanuel Nsubuga visited Michael Mbaziira as he was following the roots of Ponsiano Ngondwe and during their conversation, the latter donated part of his land amounting to over eight acres of land for the construction of a shrine for the martyr,” she said.
She is also displeased with pilgrims who get into a drinking and pork eating bonanza at the cost of praying for breakthrough in their life dilemma’s, wondering how someone walks tens of kilometres for prayers and turns to booze instead.
Like many believers, Nazziwa is irked by what she called neglect for Ngondwe’s shrine, and implored the diocese to seek assistance from government to improve the Bulimu shrine to tourism levels marching the Munyonyo shrine.
She said that unfortunately, to date, apart from a primary school which was built by Bp. Mathias Ssekamanya, the first bishop of Lugazi diocese, the place is not yet developed.
“We currently pray in a makeshift shelter during the pilgrimage for Ngondwe in November and we need a well-defined shrine for the martyr, and our school needs to be upgraded,” she suggested.
There is a very old and almost obsolete small building which is said was the first church which was built where people used to pray which was constructed under the guidance of the late Cardinal Emmanuel Nsubuga in 1968 when he visited the place.
Vincent Zziwa, the village chairperson for Bulimu, Kyabakadde parish in Kyampisi sub-county where the shrine is located, was sad to note that although Bulimu is the mother to present day Lugazi diocese, it has been neglect to such alarming levels that Bulimu is dwarfed by shrines at Munyonyo and Namugongo.
In what sounded like an encouraging response, the sub-parish catechist Ssembuya said church projects are developed in a phased manner, adding that plans for bringing the much desired development of Bulimu are in the pipeline.
There is a two acre expanse dotted with huge old eucalyptus trees which serve to provide shelter to worshippers during the pilgrimage services. Our guide told us they were planted over four decades ago, but that they become useless when it rains during a service.
A retired village catechist called Ssalongo Bazibumbira Mulindwa Namaswala who served in that capacity for over 30 years, re-echoed the observation of many people, to the effect that by now, Bulimu would look much bigger than Munyonyo because he argued, it was more famous and should have attracted development much earlier.
Nazziwa Agnes, a business woman and bar tender noted that owing to limited services and fitting arrangements, pilgrimage to Bulimu is gradually losing gas, adding that whereas it used to last for at least a week, last year’s festivities ended after three days, and suggested that the solution is stepping up development which would act as a reflex action and attract more investments.
Who is Mukasa Kiriwawanvu?
As narrated by catechist Ssembuya, Kiriwawanvu was born at Nammere village in Kyampisi sub-county, but his family relocated to Namaliga in Nakifuma County, Mukono district. The land at his birth place was procured by Lugazi Diocese as a historical site for the Catholic Church. He is the only martyr who was never baptized because the baptism wave found him in jail.
He was picked from jail where he had been thrown for beating Gyaviira with a log for calling him names over his abnormally long legs. His father was called Rumanyika, a colleague of Kabaka Mwanga with whom they used to play the game of wrestling.
In 1986, Kiriwawanvu’s place was identified by Fr. Cyprian Katende and the Vicar General for (then) Ssezzibwa Deanery under Kampala Archdiocese. Nammere currently falls under Naggalama parish in Lugazi diocese.
The three acres of land at Nammere for Kiriwawanvu’s shrine was bought from Eva Nabatanzi, the landlady. The place is currently occupied by eucalyptus trees which were planted as a project for catechists in Naggalama parish to safeguard the land against possible land grabbers.
The catechist said there are plans for construction of a church at the site. Ssembuya conducted our reporter around a well from which Kiriwawanvu used to draw water right from his childhood. The well called Nababirye is now overgrown with grasses and needs refurbishment. Unfortunately, it is located outside the church land in a privately owned place, something which puts it at the verge of getting lost at the expense of development.
