Charles Lwanga

Ugandan Martyr 

1860-1886

In Uganda, Charles Lwanga was a member of the Baganda tribe, a powerful and well organized tribe that lived under the rule of a king, Kabaka Mwanga II. 

During this time, there were Christian missionaries coming to Uganda from Europe and North Africa. Many Ugandans were converted and baptized. Kabaka Mwanga, similar to the famous Old Testament king Nebuchadnezzar in his love for power, was nervous that the new Christians were threatening his authority. The Christians did not behave like he did, and they would resist him when he asked them to do things they thought were wrong. Charles Lwanga, the head page, took it upon himself to protect the young palace pages from the king's sexual advances. Kabaka Mwanga did not like being refused and in his pride, decided to kill all the Christians.

Charles Lwanga was aware of Kabaka Mwanga's anger and baptized as many of the pages as he could, teaching them about God whenever possible. He wanted them to know God and be ready for anything that was to come. The next day, Kabaka Mwanga called for Charles Lwanga and told him, “You can renounce your faith, or you can die.” 

Charles had likely heard the story of Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego in his study of the Bible. He knew that God would use his faith to help build the faith of others, even under threat of fire, whether or not that ended in God's immediate and miraculous salvation, or in offering his body as a Christian martyr. He knew what God wanted him to do- to be brave and stand for his faith in God, even to the point of death. 

Charles and 44 other young Christian men, known as the Ugandan Martyrs, were killed under the rule of Kabaka Mwanga. They were dragged miles to their execution sites, tortured and maimed, and burned alive. Their martydom is remembered with two large shrines in Kampala, Uganda, which continues to receive millions of visitors annually and hosts between 1-4 million pilgrims for the feast day of the Ugandan Martyrs on June 3rd. 

Charles and his friends were faithful to God, all the way to the very end of their lives. Kabaka Mwanga thought that he could stop the Christians by killing them and making them afraid, but because of the courageous faith of Charles and his friends, many, many more people in Uganda became Christians. A popular phrase persists among Ugandan Christians, "The blood of the martyrs is the seed of the Christian church in Uganda."