"Tell the Kibaka I die for Uganda"

St. Joseph Mukasa, one of the Martyrs of Uganda, was beheaded by order of Mwanga, kabaka (ruler) of Buganda. (on this day in 1885).

Back in the 1980s I was with a group of missionaries who went to Uganda to work with the churches there. It was both an exhilerating and challenging experience for all of us. Included in our group was a Navajo pastor, a native American from Teec Nos Pos, Arizona. The Ugandans had never seen this type of person, so they were quite fascinated with him.

The group was led by a pioneer missionary--Dr. David Scates. David and I had become good friends through the work on the Navajo Reservation. David, while studying at the School of World Mission at Fuller Theological Seminary, made the acquaintance of Ugandan church leaders who had either fled Uganda because of Iddi Amin or because they wanted to advance their own education. When the government of Iddi Amin was overthrown, these leaders were preparing to go back into Uganda.

Adonijah Kirinda invited David to bring a team of missionaries to teach in both the rural areas and in the capital city of Kampala. Adonijah prepared a letter of invitation which was required so that we could visas into the country. Dr. Scates collected all our passports, visa applications, funds, and made copies of the letter to send to the Ugandan embassy in the USA. Having prepared the package he took it to the GPO in Grand Junction, Colorado to send it off.

About two weeks later the package returned,unopened with a stamped message, "INSUFFICIENT POSTAGE: REFUSED." We were packed and ready to go and now we had no visas. Dr. Scates acting out of faith and hope told us, "We will try to get our visas in Kenya before we fly into Uganda."

We landed in Kenya, stayed for two days, and while there went to the Ugandan Embassy. But our letter was missing. So David recommended we put down the name of a famous Christian in Uganda as the person who invited us. Within an hour we had visas and were ready to go on to Uganda.

We were in Uganda for about six weeks. Everywhere we went people would ask us why we were there. Our standard answer, "We are here at the invitation of Adonijah Kirinda." But, all the time we were there we never saw Adonijah. We were told he was on important business in California. Oh yes, I visited the gravesite of the Anglican bishop who was executed bythe kabaka. On the gravestone are these words: "Tell the Kabaka I die for Uganda." Now back to our story. When we told people who invited us, we would hear hushed "ohs" and "ahs." Then one day one of the Ugandans and I were invited to lunch at the home of the Minister of Communication for Uganda. He arranged for us to have a real bath and I remember the layer of red mud that was in the tub when I finished.

After lunch the Minister again raised the question, "What are you doing here?" I told him the same story and he said, "Oh, I undertand that Mr. Kirinda is some trouble with the government." That raised a small alarm, but I didn't panic.

Finally, it came time for us to leave. We were waiting at the airport for the Ugandan airlines to find a plane that could take all of us and a hundred other people back to Nairobi. While we were waiting, the man who served as our host told us this.

Adonijah Kirinda was involved in a plot to overthrow the government. That is why he was not in the country at that time. And here we are telling everyone that we are connected with this guy. It is not an exaggeration to say that God miraculously protected us from an unseen danger that we were totally oblivious to. Ugandan jails are not exactly the Hotel Hilton. Being involved in the violent overthrow of a government can sometimes get your head removed. But we boarded our flight to Nairobi, complete with livestock, chickens, and cargo and returned to Kenya.

"Tell the Kabaka I die for Uganda."