Martyrs’ Day in Uganda commemorates the bold decision of some early converts to Christianity to give up their lives for the sake of the gospel. The day, marked on 3 June every year since the 1920s, is therefore a pivotal celebration in the life and history of Christianity in Uganda.
The story begins farther back in 1875 when the British-American explorer Henry Morton Stanley arrived in the court of the Kabaka Mutesa I in Munyonyo (outskirts of Kampala). The Kabaka, or king, warmly welcomed him as a new ally of his Buganda kingdom (in central Uganda) and an opportunity to face off Egyptian and Sudanese threats.
