The cover of The Mission of Apolo Kivebulaya: Religious Encounter & Social Change In The Great Lakes c. 1865-1935. In the book by Prof Emma Wild-Wood, we see that Kivebulaya was not only an evangelist of the Mbuti pygmies in Congo and an active Christian missionary in the northern Great Lakes Region. He was also a man on the move, much like the pilgrims who are Namugongo-bound. PHOTO | FILE
One of the world’s largest religious gatherings will take place on June 3 at the Namugongo shrines in Wakiso District, Kampala, with believers from all over Africa undertaking a miles-long pilgrimage on foot to arrive for the yearly event.
This year’s Uganda Martyrs Day, like past stagings not affected by the Covid-19 pandemic, is expected to attract anywhere between 500,000 and millions of Christians from all over the world.
This tenacious propagation of the Word of God is the people’s embodiment of faith in the face of hardship. It is also a reminder of how humans may extend the boundaries of humanity by the sacrifices they are willing to make.
On top of this, pilgrims to Namugongo remind us of the life and ministry of Ugandan evangelist Apolo Waswa Kasirye Munubi Kivebulaya (1870-1933).
In the book The Mission of Apolo Kivebulaya: Religious Encounter & Social Change In The Great Lakes c. 1865-1935 by Prof Emma Wild-Wood, we see that Kivebulaya was not only an evangelist of the Mbuti pygmies in Congo and an active Christian missionary in the northern Great Lakes Region. He was also a man on the move, much like the pilgrims who are Namugongo-bound.
Translocal agent
Kivebulaya recognised Christianity as a transregional religion, so he sought to be a missionary for a worldwide community of Christians and potential Christians. The sweep of his vision viewed all nations as one nation in the name of God.
“The Lord loves us all…the Messiah died for us all…God gives life to us all…we are brothers and sisters with Jesus,” he said.
In the process, he showed very early on that our present-day pilgrims are agentive in their “peregrinations” (travels from one place to another on foot).
Accordingly, “placing this relatively humble protagonist [Kivebulaya] at the centre of national enquiry demonstrates the ways in which converts, who became propagators of Christianity, inculcated translocal religious and social change within developing transregional networks,” Prof Wild-Wood writes.
Kivebulaya’s ministry straddled two colonial systems, Congo’s and Uganda’s. In doing so, he situated the work of missionaries between the imperial powers and national leaderships. As a result, he historicised inequalities of power and showed how authorities of any kind operating in the absence of Christianity were oppressive. This historicisation was further expressed by the collaboration and communication that existed between different ethno-linguistic groups with the aid of Kivebulaya’s unbending commitment to equality between them.
Borderless vision of Christianity
As Ugandan elites and Christian Missionary Society (CMS) missionaries hinged their activities on ethno-nationalism and state-nationalism, Kivebulaya’s vision looked towards a borderless world in which Christianity reflected all humanity. By promoting a cosmopolitan view of belonging, which placed Christians in a global movement, he inspired the revivalists.
The latter pursued a universal Christian vision within the Anglican Church, initially. Breaking out of the chrysalis of denominational faith, they revitalised (or revived) the universalism of the Christian Gospel in the same way Kivebulaya had always preached.
In the 1920s, a movement known as Balokole or East African Revival emerged.
“The revival was largely responsible for disseminating admiration for Kivebulaya across the region. Histories of the revival often begin in 1933, after Kivebulaya’s death, with the dramatic scenes of repentance at Gahini Hospital, Rwanda, being identified as a sign of rupture from formulaic Anglicanism. Kivebulaya’s inspiration of early Balokole (‘saved ones’) began whilst he was still alive,” writes Prof Wild-Wood.
Indeed, many revivalists link this conversion rupture with the influence and example of Kivebulaya.
Their conversation proved the correctness of the Paulo Coelho dictum: “The world is changed by your example, not by your opinion.”
Proto-revivalist
The early revivalists sought to return the Church to the “zeal that created martyrs and propelled missionary activity.” They thus preached repentance, the public confession of sin and the expectation of altered social behaviour. This expectation envisioned the renunciation of clan or ethnic affiliations, too.
Furthermore, revivalists were inspired by the ‘Pilkington revival” of 1893. This revival, according to the Dictionary of African Christianity Biography, stated: “George Pilkington was a CMS lay missionary in Uganda. A graduate of the University of Cambridge and strongly influenced by the Keswick movement, he arrived in Buganda (now Uganda) with Bishop Alfred Tucker’s party in 1891. There he found a militarised society, rent by religious factionalism and the conflicts of the colonial scramble. Pilkington’s remarkable linguistic ability enabled him to quickly get alongside the Baganda soldiers and to realise their spiritual hunger and desire for literacy.”
Kivebulaya, the revivalists believed, was a living link to this revival. This revival was averse to elevating any single person above others, even though it recognised and celebrated singular personalities such as Kivebulaya.
In 1922, Simeoni Nsibambi (1897-1978), a prominent Christian at Namirembe, was struck by the exemplary greatness of Kivebulaya. As he preached passionately in Kampala markets and in Mengo Hospital, Nsibambi decided to broaden his ministry to western Uganda. He also prayed for the whole country.
“As a mark of asceticism, he stopped wearing shoes, which had become signs of wealth and eminence, and walked barefoot, as Kivebulaya did. He named one of his sons ‘Apolo’ after Kivebulaya. This son later became Prime Minister of Uganda,” writes Prof Wild-Wood.
Ecumene
Whole generations of church-persons, thanks to Kivebulaya, were committed to what is known as ecumene (a corruption of the word ‘ecumenical’). This means a cosmopolitan, multilingual world. By locating their revival in the context of global renewal, revivalists such as William Nagenda (1909-1973) and Bishop Festo Kivengere (1919-1988) travelled the Great Lakes Region for fellowship and evangelism. Kivengere is affectionately remembered for openly forgiving Idi Amin despite the unimaginable horrors Uganda’s third president subjected him to.
Kivebulaya faced many an uphill journey. Besides Ganda prejudices, he battled the forests and the colonist Belgians as he sought to bring Christianity to the world.
It is through his bare-footed, peripatetic ministry, alive to hardships of deprivation of every kind, that Kivebulaya bore proper witness to his Maker.
Consequently, the pilgrims travelling to Namugongo can be sure that whatever they are going through in the name of their faith, will renew their faith, as it did for Apolo Kivebulaya
