Uganda Martyrs (with Saint Charles Lwanga in the center) by Albert Wider (Wikimedia Commons)
In yesterday's In Jesus In Love Blog, Kittredge Cherry introduces the disturbing execution of 45 Ugandan male pages who were burned to death on June 3, 1886 for refusing to have sex with their gay King Mwanga II. She wrote: "These boys and young men were canonized by the Roman Catholic and Anglican churches, leaving some truths hidden by their halos." I knew nothing about this story, "but they are famous in much of Africa" wrote Cherry and June 3 is a national holiday in Uganda. The King was a bisexual teenager with wives, children, who had sex with other male teens without their consent. male sex partners. It's a shocking tale, and one used to harm gay Africans today.
Some of the future Uganda Martyrs were photographed in 1885, less than a year before they were killed, at Bukumbi Mission in Mwanza (northern Tanganyika). They went there to welcome the new Catholic bishop, Leon Livinhac.
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