Uganda Martyrs

The Uganda Martyrs are a group of 23 Anglican and 22 Catholic converts to Christianity in the historical kingdom of Buganda, now part of Uganda, who were executed between November 1885 and 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.

A few years later, the English Church Missionary Society used the deaths to enlist wider public support for the British acquisition of Uganda for the Empire. The Catholic Church beatified the martyrs of its faith in 1920 and canonized them in 1964.

Context

Publication in Britain of an 1875 letter purporting to be an invitation from the king of Buganda, Mutesa I, to send missionaries, resulted in the arrival of missionaries of the Anglican Church Missionary Society to Buganda in 1877. A group of French Catholic White Fathers appeared two years later. This was followed by a Zanzibar-based Arab attempt to introduce Islam. This effectively led to a three-way religious struggle for political influence at the Buganda royal court. By the mid-1880s, many had been converted by each of the three groups, and some of the converts held important posts at the king's court. Mutesa himself sympathized with Islam, but many prominent chiefs had become Christians.

Uganda

Coordinates: 1°N 32°E / 1°N 32°E / 1; 32

Uganda (/juːˈɡændə/ yew-GAN-də or /juːˈɡɑːndə/ yew-GAHN-də), officially the Republic of Uganda, is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the southwest by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. Uganda is the world's second most populous landlocked country after Ethiopia. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, shared with Kenya and Tanzania, situating the country in the African Great Lakes region. Uganda also lies within the Nile basin, and has a varied but generally a modified equatorial climate.

Uganda takes its name from the Buganda kingdom, which encompasses a large portion of the south of the country, including the capital Kampala. The people of Uganda were hunter-gatherers until 1,700 to 2,300 years ago, when Bantu-speaking populations migrated to the southern parts of the country.

Uganda (Commonwealth realm)

Uganda, today the Republic of Uganda, was a Commonwealth realm between 1962 and 1963. When British rule ended in 1962, the Uganda Independence Act 1963 transformed the Uganda Protectorate into an independent country called Uganda that retained the British monarch, Elizabeth II, as head of state. The royal succession was governed by the English Act of Settlement of 1701.

The Queen's position vis-a-vis Uganda was entirely separate from her role in any other country. The Queen's title when she was head of state in independent Uganda was: Her Majesty Elizabeth the Second, by the Grace of God, Queen of Uganda and of Her other Realms and Territories, Head of the Commonwealth. Her constitutional roles were mostly delegated to the Governor-General of Uganda. The following Governors-General held office:

Milton Obote held office as prime minister (and head of government) of Uganda during this period.

Uganda adopted a new constitution in 1963 which abolished the monarchy. Uganda became a republic within the Commonwealth. However, the new Ugandan state was deliberately not referred to as a republic, and the constituent native kingdoms (such as Buganda) continued in existence. Following the abolition of the monarchy by the proclamation of the State of Uganda on 9 October 1963, the Kabaka (King) of Uganda, Edward Mutesa II, became the first President of Uganda. The description "State" implied that the post-Commonwealth realm was not a republic but instead a "federation of tribal kingdoms". Uganda did not become a republic de jure until 1966 with Obote's conflict with President Edward Mutesa II.

List of minor planets: 1001–2000