James Hannington
and the Martyrs of Uganda
James Hannington was born in Sussex, England, on September 3, 1847. He was educated at Temple School in Brighton and, as a young man, spent six years working in his father’s warehouse business. In 1867, the Hannington family became members of the Church of England, and the following year James entered St. Mary Hall, Oxford, where he eventually earned both his Bachelor of Arts and Master of Arts degrees.
After his ordination at Exeter, Hannington served for several years as a curate in his hometown. But God was calling him farther from home. In 1882, he offered himself to the Church Missionary Society for missionary work in the region of Victoria Nyanza in East Africa. His first journey was cut short by serious illness, forcing him to return to England. Yet his commitment to the mission remained strong. In 1884, he returned to Africa after being consecrated Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa.
Hannington’s mission field centered around the region of Lake Victoria. He hoped to establish a shorter and more direct route from Mombasa, on the coast of Kenya, into Buganda. Local guides and porters warned him that approaching Buganda from that direction could be seen as politically threatening. Messengers from King Mwanga also warned him to turn back. Hannington continued forward, however, believing that a new route would help open the way for the spread of the Gospel.
He and his companions were eventually captured and imprisoned. For a week they endured terrible conditions, deprivation, and suffering. Then, on October 29, 1885, Hannington and the surviving members of his party were put to death on the orders of King Mwanga.
Tradition records Hannington’s final words as, “Go, tell Mwanga I have purchased the road to Uganda with my blood.”
Hannington would not be the last Christian to die in Uganda. Other missionaries and Ugandan Christians would also give their lives for their faith before the Gospel became firmly established there. Yet the blood of those early martyrs did not mark the end of the Church in Uganda. Instead, the faith they proclaimed continued to grow, and today Uganda is home to a vibrant Christian community led largely by its own people.
There is also a remarkable final chapter to the story. King Mwanga, the ruler who ordered Hannington’s death and the persecution of other Christians, was eventually driven from power and exiled to the Seychelles in 1899. While there, he was received into the Anglican Church and baptized. He died in exile in 1903.
The story of James Hannington reminds us that those who carry the Gospel do not always live to see the harvest of the seeds they plant. Hannington never saw the thriving Church that would one day grow in Uganda. Yet he remained faithful to his calling even when that faithfulness cost him his life. His witness, along with that of the other martyrs of Uganda, became part of the foundation upon which generations of African Christians would build.
