The Uganda Martyrs pilgrimage legends at Namugongo

Record summary

The Uganda Martyrs tradition centers on the 1885–1887 executions of Catholic and Anglican converts under Kabaka Mwanga II and the later development of Namugongo as a major pilgrimage site. During 1990–2009, sermons, shrine narratives, testimonies, and commemorations continued to frame the martyrs as intercessors and sources of healing or protection. This is valuable for comparing canonization, local memory, and miracle narratives in a postcolonial African setting. Claims of supernatural intervention belong to devotional testimony and require source-specific assessment, while the historical circumstances and later institutional narratives should be distinguished.