(Posted 02nd June 2025)

They come by air, they come by bus, they come by car and they even come by foot, in their tens of thousands, to attend the annual Martyr’s Day celebrations at the Namugongo Shrine outside the Ugandan capital of Kampala.

As every year, Catholic faithful with a close affinity to the celebration of the Ugandan Martyr’s, who were made Saints of the Church by Pope Paul VI during his visit to the country in October 1964, come from all over Africa and in fact around the world to Uganda to pray and pay tribute to their favourite saints. Thousands of them in fact walk to the venue, from within Uganda but also from Rwanda, South Sudan, Eastern Congo and as far as Tanzania, their journey often taking weeks to complete.

Visitor numbers from abroad are swelling year after year as religious pilgrimages have been turned into religiously motivated travels by the marketers of both private sector and the Uganda Tourism Board. Such tours are now a growing market segment which originally sprang from the Christian’s pilgrimages to Rome, and to the Holy Land, the Hindu pilgrimages across India and the Islamic duty to attend Haj or perform Umrah visits to Mecca and Medina.

In days long gone, few would know of the Ugandan martyrs who got burned alive on the 03rd of June 1886, but with the power of the new media, the social media, the instant global news business and the need to diversify the tourism attractions beyond the gorillas and chimpanzees, it was only a matter of time before this event had become a major attraction to showcase to visitors.

This coming Tuesday will be a public holiday in Uganda, celebrated ever since Pope Paul VI’s proclamation of sainthood for the 22 Catholics among the victims of Kabaka Mwanga II. For those from abroad, it is a warm welcome from us all and enjoy your time in the .

Adds the ATCNews Managing Editor: Besides the main festivities and celebrations in Namugongo, outside Kampala along the main highway to Jinja, are celebrations also held at the Munyonyo Shrine, a short distance away from the lakeside Munyonyo resotr complex.

Both venues are dedicated to the martyrs, which besides the Catholics murdered by the then Kabaka also include Anglicans – even though the Anglican Church, unlike the Catholic Church, does not have saints.

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