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African Episcopacy »
Archbishop Joseph N. Kiwanuka
Pioneer of the
African Episcopacy
Ambrose J.
Bwangatto
Introduction
Uganda has been blessed by being the “first” among African countries to attain a
significant achievement in the Catholic church in the modern times. Uganda was
the first country to have a native Bishop ordained in modern times, in the names
of Archbishop Dr. Joseph N. Kiwanuka, whose life is the centre of this
biographical sketch. On October 18, 1964, Uganda was the first country to have
her saints canonised in the universal church. On July 31, 1969 – August 2, 1969,
Uganda was the first country to host a reigning Supreme Pontiff of the Catholic
Church in Sub-Saharan African His Holiness Pope Paul VI. In 1998, Uganda was the
first country to have one of her sons becoming a Papal Nuncio to Algeria and
Tunisia, His Excellency Archbishop Augustine Kasujja. But the most significant
event was the elevation of Rev. Dr. Joseph Kiwanuka to the Episcopacy in the
Catholic hierarchy in 1939. It drew a lot of protest from missionaries and
colonial administrators who were gravely concerned about the competency of the
natives in administrative roles. This was taken as a revolutionary experiment as
many missionaries remained in doubts. The main question was: Were the natives
ready to lead their own church? But Joseph Kiwanuka rose impressively to meet
the larger-than-life expectations placed upon him. Under Bishop Kiwanuka, Masaka
diocese shone as an example of authentically African, authentically Catholic
Christianity, and as a testament to the power of the gospel to simultaneously
transform and adapt to local culture.
Parentage
Joseph Nakabaale Kiwanuka was the first native African to be ordained a Catholic
bishop in modern times. He was born at Nakirebe in Mawokota county, Uganda, the
child of Catholic parents, Victoro Katumba Munduekanika of the monkey clan and
Felicitas Nankya Ssabawebwa Namukasa of the lungfish clan. Joseph was baptized
at Rubaga, Kampala, on June 25, 1899. If we scale back briefly into history, it
was twenty years after the arrival of Catholic missionaries in Uganda, the heart
of Africa, and fourteen years after the African Holocaust of the Martyrs of
Uganda at Namugongo had taken place, on June 11, 1899 a baby boy was born to
Victor Kato Mmundwekanika Katumba and Felicitas Namukasa Ssabaweebwa Nankya.
Here it should be noted that Kiwanuka's father bore the Christian name of Saint
Victor I, the first African Pope of the Catholic Church whose reign was between
the year 189 and 199. According to the "Liber Pontificalis," Victor was an
African, the son of Felix. He is remembered for having decreed that after an
emergency baptism, whether in river, spring, sea, or marsh, the neophyte should
be treated as a Christian in full standing. Baby Kiwanuka's mother bore the
Christian name of Saint Felicitas, one of the African first women martyr saints
of early Christianity. Felicity, Perpetua's Christian maid, had been a slave.
She and Perpetua were great friends. They shared their belief in and love for
Jesus. Felicitas, too, was willing to sacrifice her life for Jesus and for her
faith. Felicitas was also a young wife. While in prison for her faith, she
became a mother as well. Her little baby was adopted by a good Christian woman.
Felicitas was happy because now she could die a martyr. Hand in hand Perpetua
and Felicity bravely faced martyrdom together. They were charged by wild animals
and then beheaded. They died around the year 202. The martyrs were so faithful
to Christ that they made great sacrifices. They even gave up their lives for
him. [1]
Two weeks after
Kiwanuka was born, following the important practice of sacramental initiation
the baby boy was baptized and christened with the name Joseph.
[2]
For
Africans a name is not just an identification tag. A name is the person whose
personality is shaped by the name together with its spiritual connections. To
Victor and Felicitas these Christian names inspired dedication to their
Christian Catholic Faith, which they unabashingly expressed through their daily
practices including family morning and evening prayers, family and civic
responsibility, hard work, good neighborliness, sociability and weekly Sunday
Mass attendance they fulfilled after having walked the eight miles distance from
their home to the Mission station. Their home, Kiwanuka's birth place was
situated in the village called Nnakirebe in Mawokota county of Buganda Kingdom
in Uganda. It is here that Archbishop Kiwanuka grew up under the parental
guidance reminiscent of the words of Luke the Evangelist speaking about Our
Lord Jesus the Christ that, He, "...increased in wisdom and in years, and in
favor with God and man." (2:52).
Schooling
and Priestly Vocation
In 1910 Joseph
Kiwanuka joined Mitala Maria Mission Elementary School. It is during this
schooling period there that he was inspired with desires for a priestly
vocation. At this tender age the first priestly ordination in Uganda became his
immediate motivation for the priesthood. On June 29, 1913 two Ugandans were for
the first time ordained as Catholic priests. Soon after ordination the two new
priests Rev. Basil Lumu and Rev. Victor Mukasa Womeraka toured the country. In
Mitala Maria Father Victor Mukasa Womeraka impressed the little Kiwanuka so much
that from this point on, he decided to become a priest like him.
Kiwanuka was
admitted to Bukalasa Minor Seminary. A Minor Seminary combines a Middle School
and a High School curriculum specifically designed for those students who were
aspiring to becoming priests. On August 2, 1914, Kiwanuka entered the Minor
Seminary. Due to physical challenges Kiwanuka had incurred by an accident which
had badly affected his ankle while he was still in Elementary School, he had
such ups and downs which almost failed him. At the Minor Seminary, his
intelligence was exhibited by his highly pronounced gift in Latin. In the end he
received admission to the Major Seminary.
In September 1919 Kiwanuka entered Katigondo Major Seminary.
Here the major subjects of study were Philosophy and Theology. It is in these
subjects that he excelled and exhibited his intellectual acumen, which later on
was going to be the basis of his selection for higher studies in Rome.
[3]
Ordination to the Priesthood
Joseph Kiwanuka
was ordained priest by the missionary of missionaries in Uganda the late
Archbishop Henry Streicher. The ordination took place at Villa Maria Church the
mother of churches in the region, on May 26, 1929.
After his
ordination to the priesthood, the then Bishop Streicher took a decisively
historic decision. He sent Fr. Kiwanuka to the Angelicum University in Rome to
study Church Law commonly known as Canon Law. There after he had successfully
completed the Licentiate which is the equivalent of Master's degree he embarked
on doctoral studies. The doctoral thesis he wrote was on Marriage Contract.
In this he scored a summa cum laude the highest grade possible in
such academic exercises. The University faculty was enrapture by the splendor of
such intellectual achievement. Dr. Kiwanuka had decisively shattered the myth of
African intellectual inferiority. The doors of the Roman universities and other
educational institutions of the Western world were since then flung open for
more students from Africa.
Missionaries to Yourselves
Dr. Kiwanuka has
often been characterized as a man of vision, a person who is ahead of his time.
After he had completed his doctoral studies in Rome he now aspired to fulfilling
a wish he had expressed to his superiors some years back. The wish seemed to
have been foreseeing what later in 1969 would be the admonition to Africa of a
reigning Pope on his first visit to the African continent.
What Pope Paul VI said to the African Episcopate congregated
in Kampala/Uganda in 1969 urging them to be "Missionaries to Yourselves" is what
was consuming Dr. Kiwanuka at the end of his doctoral studies in Rome. This is
in reference to the Pope’s visit and as he looked out at the face of the African
Catholic Church shaped by Joseph Kiwanuka, he said: “You can and you must have
an African Christianity…. Now you Africans are your own missionaries, with an
indigenous apostolate totally your own. [4]”
He decided to
join the missionary society of the White Fathers thereby becoming the first
Black White Father in the order’s history.
To achieve this, in October 1932, he entered the White
Fathers' novitiate in Algiers of Algeria in North Africa. And on January 6,
1934, he took his missionary oath at Entebbe, Uganda. He was then respectively
appointed vicar at Bikira Mission Station in Masaka District/Uganda and at
Bujuni in Mubende District. With this pastoral experience he was appointed
Professor to teach at Katigondo Major Seminary where he took his position on
July 27, 1938. . In 1947, Kiwanuka played an important role at the General
Chapter of the Missionaries of Africa in Algiers by championing the
international character of missionary personnel in Uganda and resisting
compliance with the desire of the British colonial office to admit only British,
Commonwealth and English speaking missionaries to Uganda
[5].
The
Pioneering Bishop
In the course of
the two thousand years, Christianity has been extended to the African continent
in three stages. The first stage which is early Christianity, makes Christianity
in Africa qualify to be as old as Christianity itself. Even before Christianity
was factually Christianity, antecedently, the Founder of Christianity, the Word
made Flesh, as a baby resided for a seven some years in Africa, exactly in Egypt
as his place of refuge. At the expiration of His ministry on Earth after He had
ascended to Heaven, there came the first Christian Pentecost at which the
African presence is well noted in the Acts of the Apostles ( Acts 2: 7-11).
Among the missionary band of brothers in Antioch where these followers of Christ
were for the first time nicknamed Christians, were two Africans. And it is said
that it was the African Evangelist Saint Mark who introduced early Christianity
to Africa through Egypt as the gateway. With this beginning early Christianity
was extended to the northern region of Africa till it was interrupted by the
Islamic appearance in the seventh century.
The second stage
involves the Portuguese patronized Christianity in Africa. Notable to this
extension was the establishment of a diocese in Mbanza Congo at the head of
which was Henry son of King Alfonso who was consecrated bishop in 1518 to be
the first black African bishop of early modern times.
The third stage
of the Christian extension in Africa is marked by circumstances of contemporary
modern times. It is during this period that Bishop Kiwanuka emerges as the first
pioneering African Bishop. With the experience of five years of pastoral work,
and while he was now bent on the formation of future priests from Uganda and
Tanzania as a Professor of theology at Katigondo Major Seminary, Dr. Kiwanuka
received news of his nomination as bishop from His Holiness Pope Pius XII, on
May 25, 1939, the very year in which he reached the age of 40. He was later
consecrated bishop by the same Holy Father in Saint Peter's Basilica together
with other eleven missionary bishops, on the Feast of Christ the King of October
29, 1939. Like Pius XI before him, Pope Pius XII believed that “the missions in
Africa represent today the richest harvest of conversion,” and that Africans
were the most effective missionaries on their own continent.
Prior to the consecration the Ugandan Church was
changing. Bishop Streicher had retired in 1933, and Rome divided his old diocese
in two. Masaka, the larger half, was administered for six years under a vicar
general, while Rome delayed acting upon Streicher’s wishes that an African be
ordained as bishop, a moved rumored to be opposed by British authorities. But
Kiwanuka thought that the kind of leadership he is to exercise is different from
what others perceived it to be. In his wisdom, he told the priests that “After
much reflection, I discovered that the leadership people want me to exercise in
the country is not political as such but leadership of offering good and wise
education which will help our nation and put it on the right path. In such
responsibility I can be a leader without necessarily annoying the political
rulers [6]”. Another interesting point to note
was that given the feelings of the time, Dr. Kiwanuka's nomination for a
bishopric had aroused a controversy among missionary circles. For that fact it
was made clear that his elevation to the episcopacy was not less than an
experiment and/or a test. Much of the future development and growth of the
episcopate in Africa was destined to depend on what Bishop Kiwanuka would make
out of this elevation. Bishop Kiwanuka seized the day without losing sight of
the future. He seized the challenge and earnestly faced it. Masaka became a
test for the whole African continent.
Spirituality
Spirituality was the center piece of Bishop Kiwanuka's
pastoral activities. His spirituality can be understood better with the
circumstances in which he exercised his ministry. There were many programs to
accomplish and many plans to draw, but all these had the wellbeing of the people
as the fulcrum. So prayer was the major motivation for all his working life.
This is exemplified by the standard scheduling of his day. Daily he opened the
day with early morning prayers followed by an hour long meditation , meditating
in company of a group of priests and religious of the diocesan headquarters
staff. Interspersed with work his day would continue in the following manner. He
would celebrate the daily Holy Sacrifice of Mass, pray the breviary, pray the
angelus at midday, say night prayers, the rosary and ended the day by entrusting
himself and his people to the protection of the Blessed Virgin Mary. Such a
disposition is what is reflected in his motto as inscribed in his Episcopal
insignia saying that: Show Yourself That You Are the Mother. [Monstra Te Esse
Matrem], this was a challenge to himself, his diocese and his church to live out
authentic catholicity and show motherhood to all peoples. His prayer life
concurs with what Waaijman writes about prayer: “Prayer is the last thing
achieved in revelation. It is an overflow of the highest and most perfect trust
of the soul. There is no question here regarding the fulfillment of prayer. The
prayer is its own fulfillment. The soul prays in the words of the Psalms: let
not my prayer and your love depart from me. To be able to pray, that is the
greatest gift presented to the soul in revelation [7]”.
In 1947, Kiwanuka played an important role at the General Chapter of the
Missionaries of Africa in Algiers by championing the international character of
missionary personnel in Uganda and resisting compliance with the desire of the
British colonial office to admit only British, Commonwealth and English speaking
missionaries to Uganda. [8]
Beginning with the approach and practice in his original
diocese of Masaka in Uganda, Bishop Kiwanuka's life and work for the people
entrusted to him was based on the principle of integral development as may be
summarized in the adage: " A sound mind in a sound body." Whatever he devised
to do, whatever he did and whatever he asked the people under his leadership to
do, reflected the ideal of integral development. He cared for the spiritual as
well as for the material well being of the people for whom he was the leader.
During his tenure as the bishop of Masaka, his diocese was distinguished by its
spiritual, educational, economic, medical and social effectiveness. In an
effort to combat the imagined threat of communism and advance the process of
democracy and popular political awareness in Uganda, he sent several of his
priests and lay leaders to study sociology, economics and political science in
universities and institutes abroad. He encouraged priests to study political and
economic principles, through regular conferences and privately given assignments
so that they assist the laity to understand political affairs. Kiwanuka’s
interest in education, prompted him to start a catholic university. The concept
of a Catholic University in Uganda dates back as far as the nineteen forties,
when the late Archbishop Kiwanuka conceived the idea. Unfortunately, various
circumstances impeded the foundation of a university at that time.The idea was
only realised in 1993 [9]. Consequently some
observers went to the extent of identifying Masaka diocese, as it were, an
independent entity even if Uganda as a country had not yet attained political
independence. No doubt Bishop Kiwanuka had passed the test with flying colors.
He was indeed an effective pioneer. Because of this, on December 13, 1951, one
of Professor Kiwanuka's former students at Katigondo Major Seminary in the
personality of the late Laurean Cardinal Rugambwa was elected to become the
second black African Catholic bishop of contemporary modern times and was
consecrated bishop on February 10, 1952. The same former student of Bishop
Kiwanuka became the first African to be elevated to the dignity of a Cardinal on
March 28, 1960.
The pioneering
of this African episcopacy has surely bore fruits. Since then there have been
more than ten African cardinals. According to the year's Annuario Pontificio
, that is the Annual Pontifical Directory of 2004, since the late
Archbishop Joseph N. Kiwanuka African bishops of contemporary modern times,
counting both the deceased and the living, number about seven hundred.
The Nunc
Dimittis
After he had seen what the Lord had done through him it is
appropriate to think that Archbishop Kiwanuka saw the end of his life in the
light of Simeon's canticle: " Lord, now lettest thou thy servant depart in
peace." (Luke 2:29-32). In 1960 Bishop Kiwanuka was appointed Archbishop of
Kampala and Primate of Uganda. In this position he spiritually and civically
helped guide the nation to political independence. With the Anglican Archbishop
of Uganda he helped promote reconciliation through ecumenism. By his
inculturational foresight, he promoted Africanist cultural elements to be
incorporated in the Christian liturgy. A case in point: He promoted the music of
his musicologistically talented protégé Mr. Joseph Kyagambiddwa, which became
originally influential as the real turning point in applying African
autochthonal music to Christian liturgy in Sub-Saharan Africa. He maintained an
interfaithfully Christian disposition such as helped to sustain mutual
understanding with other religions in general, and with Islam in Uganda, in
particular. With such experience in the background Archbishop Kiwanuka
effectively attended the Second Vatican Council. As Archbishop of Kampala he
untiringly promoted the process of the canonization of the Martyrs of Uganda
whose feast day is celebrated annually throughout the Christian world on June 3,
under the title of Saint Charles Lwanga and Companions. The canonization of the
martyrs, was a consequence of the African Holocaust which had taken place in
Uganda between 1885 and 1887. This canonization was the occasion at which for
the first time, black African Christians were declared to be Saints, in Saint
Peter's Basilica in Rome by Pope Paul VI with the assistance of Archbishop
Kiwanuka, on Mission Sunday of October 18, 1964. It was one of his most
culminating and touching points. In his homily during the mass for the
canonization, Pope Paul VI, made an eloquent account of the church in Africa and
her ancient and modern martyrs. “These African martyrs add a new page to that
list of victorious men and women that we call the martyrology, in which we find
the most magnificent as well as the tragic of stories. The page that they add is
worthy to take its place alongside those wonderful stories of ancient Africa,
which we who live today, being men of little faith, thought we should never see
repeated. We are familiar with the lives of the great saints, martyrs and
confessors, of Africa, such as Cyprian, Felicity and Perpetua, and the great
Augustine. Who would have imagined that one day we should be adding to that list
those names that are so dear to us, the names of Charles Lwanga, Matthias
Mulumba Kalemba and their twenty companions? [10]
On October 29, 1964 Archbishop Kiwanuka quietly celebrated, in Rome, the Silver
Jubilee of his episcopate. For his contribution to the growth of Christianity in
Africa Pope Paul VI wrote Archbishop Kiwanuka a touching letter of appreciation
and congratulation, dated October 18, 1964. Archbishop Kiwanuka returned home in
Uganda where the local celebration of the Silver Jubilee of the African
episcopacy was held on Sunday, May 16, 1965. He returned to Rome for the last
session of the Second Vatican Council, at the end of which his health appeared
to be irrevocably failing. When all this was experienced and done, Archbishop
Joseph Nakabaale Kiwanuka returned to Uganda. In 1965 Obote's government in
Uganda underwent a political crisis, and Kiwanuka responded by publishing an
inspiring pastoral letter on political leadership and democratic maturity. This
was Kiwanuka's final legacy, for he died suddenly on February 22, 1966 10:50
p.m. at Lubaga hospital in Kampala. Writing to a friend a few months before his
death, Kiwanuka had this to say:
When you hear all this trouble, plus the weight of other
responsibilities, you feel like telling the Lord: My Lord you can see the years
I have served. They are sufficient. You better give the burden to another person
to carry. [11]
While applauding
the late Archbishop Kiwanuka, the Rev. Dr. John Mary Waliggo, one of his
prominent admirers, speaks of him thus:
“He positively resisted the thinking that because something
had never been done, it cannot be done. He squeezed ripe bananas to make juice
and he rejoiced on his success as a child. He resisted being unjustly dismissed
from the minor seminary and was successfully defended by the late Fr. Muswabuzi.
He resisted the discouragement that a black person could not become a White
Father and he succeeded to open up for other Africans. When he went to study in
Rome in 1929, he resisted the racism and discrimination against blacks and
showed African intelligence by getting a first-class distinction in his masters
and doctorate degrees. When he returned he resisted being discouraged that an
African cannot become bishop in the church. When he became bishop, he resisted
failure. He resisted the oppression of women by culture and dismantled some of
those oppressive cultural elements. Even as he died, he resisted the temptation
that where he had seemingly failed others may fail too. In his last will he
promised to pray in heaven for success in all those areas where people resisted
change due to ignorance. [12]
Conclusion
In conclusion, it
is worth noting that Archbishop Kiwanuka has become a symbol of true Christian
identity in Uganda inspiring a cross section of the Ugandan church in particular
and the whole population generally. This is evident in the many activities which
are carried out each year to reflect on the life of Archbishop Joseph Kiwanuka.
The annual Archbishop Kiwanuka memorial lecture brings to the fore those aspects
of life which made Kiwanuka a unique personality in the Ugandan society. The
various speakers selected to deliver this lecture put Kiwanuka’s legacy at the
centre and draw out those elements in his life which are ever valid and
applicable to life today and hence call for imitation of his virtues and
qualities.
Many church run
schools both primary and secondary and health facilities carry the legacy of
Kiwanuka in one way or another by bearing his name. Kiwanuka continues to make
the Ugandan people proud since he excelled in his ministry as a Bishop and
vocation as a Christian. His life as a bishop, as we saw earlier on, was all
inspired by the motto which he choose: Monstra Te Esse Matrem ( Demonstrate your
motherhood). His first diocese of Masaka in central Uganda, has the highest
number of vocations to the priesthood and has so far given the church five
bishops including a cardinal the primate of the whole of Uganda. The tomb of
Bishop Kiwanuka’s body in Lubaga cathedral, Kampala, has turned into a place of
prayer where hundreds of people who visit the cathedral kneel in moments of
silent prayer and invoke his intercession. His spirituality which was all
integral, that is permeating all the aspects of human life, has come to
influence the church in Uganda in her pastoral programs. His is a living legacy
for the Christians in Uganda and all people of good will and some of his
contemporaries still narrate in great detail his charisma and life which was all
inspiring.
References
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Bishop Kiwanuka, Letter to priests, Kitovu, 31 July 1947
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Kees Waaijman, Spirituality. Forms, Foundations, Methods
Peeters: Leuven, 2002
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Waliggo John Mary, A History of African Priests Nairobi:
Matianum Press Consultants, 1988
-
Waliggo John Mary , Essential Writings 1994-2001 Vol. 1 , Kampala, 2002
Unpublished
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http://www.fiuc.org/umu
-
http://www.dacb.org
-
http://www.newadvent.org/cathen/f.htm
-
http://www.bc.edu/lugira/churchdev
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