Painting of Saint Andrew Kaggwa

Since the Catholic missionaries had left Uganda at this time, he also instructed, baptized and buried those he took in. Andrew Kaggwa was a Munyoro. At an early age he was captured and carried off as a slave by a party of Buganda, raiding the border country of Bugangaizi. Placed among the royal pages, Kaggwa stayed on as a page up to the time when the explorer H. M. Stanley visited Buganda in 1875.

Stanley had brought with him some European drums which the king, Mutesa I seriously fancied. As a result Kabaka Mutesa 1 appointed Kaggwa as the king’s master drummer and was in charge of some fifteen other drummers. Not long afterwards, he became bandmaster, in charge of all the court musicians, including buglers and cymbals-players.

When the young prince Mwanga took power after the death of the father Kaggwa,was not only reappointed bandmaster but given the title Mugowa, with authority over the entire militia from which the bandsmen were drawn. Though the king had desired to spare Kaggwa’s life from death because of his exceptional skill in music and drumming as the chief drummer, Mukasa, the chancellor continuously pressed the king for the death of Kaggwa.

Mukasa accused Kaggwa of being the principal Christian instructor of the king’s pages and other servants, and vowed not to eat until the king ordered for the death of Kaggwa. Mwanga then grudgingly acceded to the request.

As a result Kaggwa’s executioners sought to delay matters, expecting the king to pardon Kaggwa but then Kaggwa insisted that they kill him and take his arm to the chancellor. A few moments later they chopped his arm before they beheaded him and cut his body into pieces. Christians reverently buried his remains at the spot where he died a place not far from the modern Catholic Major Seminary of Ggaba.  Andrew Kaggwa was beatified by Pope Benedict XV in 1920. He was declared a canonized saint by Pope Paul VI in 1964.

See more on Uganda Martyrs Wikipedia