THE CHURCH IN 'UGANDA.* THE history of the Anglican Church
in Uganda dates back to 1877. The beginning was full of disaster. Two missionaries reached Lake Victoria Nyanza on January 29th in that year, and they were joined two months later by two more. But one of the newcomers died within a few weeks of his arrival, and two of the others met with their deaths in endeavouring to protect an Arab trader from one of the native rulers. But recruits were not wanting, and one of the original company, Alexander Mackay, who had been compelled by illness to return to the coast, took up the work again. In February, 1879, there were seven missionaries at the capital. But there were difficulties ahead,—from heathendom, from Mohammedanism, which had lately gained a considerable foothold in the country, and, sad to say, from a French Roman Catholic mission. The story of how M. Lourdel and his companions bore themselves in the Court of King Mutesa is painful reading. Politics, it must be remembered, wore combined with religion, and the two make a very virulent mixture. We are not surprised that in the following year the King resolved to return to the religion of his fathers. In 1884 he died, and was succeeded by his son Mwanga. It was a change very much for the worse. Mwanga was a thorough savage, with all the ferocity, and the even more dangerous suspicion, of that character. The " white man will eat the country up," he said in quite genuine fear, and not, it is only fair to acknowledge, without some reason. The exploita- tion of the Congo Free State by the most devout of Roman Catholic Monarchs is not by any means a new phenomenon. It was fear, beyond all doubt, that prompted the murder of Bishop Hannington in 1885. This act was the beginning of an evil time, endured by the young Church with admirable courage and patience. Various changes which we need not speak of followed, till we reach in 1890 the commencement of Bishop Tucker's labours, nearly synchronising, as no one who is interested in East African history can forget, with the end of those of Alexander Mackay. This worker for truth, who was as practical as he was heroic, passed away on February 8th, 1890 (misprinted " 1900 "), and on April 25th following Alfred R. Tucker was consecrated Bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa.
It was a position of singular difficulty, because it was com- plicated to the utmost by political considerations, themselves entangled by the claims of the Roman Church. Early in the story came the recognition of British influence in Uganda, a concession purchased by Heligoland and other assets more or less substantial. It was an excellent bargain, looked at from the purely African standpoint (from the naval point of view it was one to be regarded with ever-increasing regret); but at one time it looked as if it might be a dead loss. In June, 1892, the East Africa Company, unable to endure the financial strain of the situation, announced its intention of retiring from the country. Government would not help, and things looked black indeed. But private munificence rose nobly to the occasion. A year's grace could be secured by raising £30,000, and this sum was soon collected. How well the occasion was used is told in these pages. We shall not attempt to give the narrative. But this we may say,—no one can read it without feeling that, whatever others may have done, the work could not have been done successfully, or done at all, without Bishop Tucker. Something, however, must be said about his action in the matter of slavery. Here his decision and energy have earned the profound gratitude of all who are jealous of the honour of Britain. King Mutesa, with whom
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Eighteen nail in Uganda, B Aifrod B. Tucker, Bishop of Uganda. 4 vols. London: Edward Arnold. [808. not.)
the story of Uganda, as far as we are now concerned with it, begins, was described by Alexander Mackay as the " greatest slave-bunter in the world." He had six thousand men engaged all the year round in plundering the neighbouring tribes of human booty. The prices were low—a female slave for a hundred percussion-caps—but the traffic was enormously large. Mackay wrote in 1881. Happily a change was not far off. In 1889 the Arab power was broken down, and things began to mend. Still, much remained to be done, as the Bishop soon found out for himself. Shortly after his return to Africa in 1894 he was compelled to take a decided course. He was on his way to Jilore on the s.s. Juba,' and in the party were two Galls, girls, rescued slaves, who were being taken to the Jilore Mission Station. Seine Somali chiefs who were on their way back from Zanzibar were on board. One of them claimed the elder of the girls as his property. She had been a slave in Somaliland, had been stolen thence by an Arab trader, and shipped on board a dhow for the Pemba slave market. The dhow was captured and the girl released with other captives. She had letters of freedom bearing the seal of the East Africa Company. One of the Company's officials was travelling with the chiefs, and was in no little perplexity. Might be take the girl on with him, on the understanding that he would not give her up unless the chief could make out his claim P The Bishop absolutely refused. He would himself give an undertaking to produce her in Court if the case wore to be tried. This offer was accepted, but the case never came on. " These girls are now baptised Christians, and have been happily married." This affair ended well enough, but the victory was not by any means won. By 1895 the question of immediate abolition had become pressing. The Bishop strongly urged it, but the local Administration—the Mombasa country was now in question— was adverse. The Bishop's letter was suppressed, "but letters from two young ladies of the Mission who had spent some eighteen months in the field were published in the Blue-book. But then they had declared for deferred abolition." The truth is that the authorities were half-hearted. In the end it was the Home Government itself, strongly moved by Dr. Tucker and others, that made the decision.
Passing on to what is the direct subject of the book, the work of evangelising the Baganda—so the natives of Uganda are called—we cannot do better than give some figures. In 1887 there were 200 Christians and 100 natives under instruction in Uganda and the other provinces which are within the mission sphere; there were 50 communicants, and in the course of the year two baptitims. All the teachers were European. In 1907 there had been enlisted for the work 2,036 teachers. The number of baptised Christians had risen to 62,867. There were 18,078 communicants, and nearly 6,000 baptisms in the year. Of these more than 2,000 were infants, an interesting and significant indication of the number of Christian households. Eighty schools, with a total of more thait 30,000 scholars, were at work. Here, again, it is significant that the girls under instruction nearly equalled the boys in number. This "levelling up" of women is one of the most, satisfactory features of Christian work. On the whole, these figures are as good a record as any mission of modern times can show. Bishop Tucker does not attempt to conceal the existence of difficulties and drawbacks. The Baganda have very serious faults. We must be patient with them, as, indeed, with all, if Christianity raises their moral plane by a little. That it has done this, and, we might venture to say, by more than a little, no one who knows what Uganda is and what it was will deny. By what unsparing efforts, by what sacrifice of noble lives—it is as impossible to omit the name of George Pilkington as it was of Alexander Mackay—this result has been accomplished may be seen admirably set forth in these two volumes.
We shall conclude this notice by quoting a part of the Bishop's account of the consecration of the new Cathedral,—a building constructed of brick and reed in what seems, as lie describes it, a curiously happy combination: It was a significant ceremony, and some of the details bring a touch of light and colour into a picture which is not without dark shadow.. " By nine o'clock all were in their places, 4,500 inside the building and some 6,000 outside." The young King, and the Katikiro, his Premier—our readers will remember his visit to England at the Coronation—took their places, and after them the Commissioner and his suite. Then
came the procession of fifty clergy, European and native. The service went on, with the "Amens" "like the roll of distant thunder," as was said of Christian worship In a far-off pest. After this followed the eminently characteristic scene of the offertory. Its object was the building fund, a purely native affair, not a single half- Penny of European money having been spent on the building. What Europe had given was the one thing which Uganda, With all its zeal, could not do without,—the technical Skill of the architect-builder. The chief of the Industrial Mission, Mr. Borup, had been in charge of the work from the beginning, and without him it would have been impossible. The current coin of Uganda is the cowrie, and a thousand cowries go to the rupee (1s. 4d.) Gathering the cowries was 110 small task. They were brought in bags and laid down on the Communion-table. Ninety thousand were collected in
Of course, there were some whose offerings were larger. In all sixteen hundred and thirteen rupees were collected. But there were other gifts besides money. Two goats were brought up, not without difficulty, received, and then taken outside. Then was heard a lowing of oxen. The Bishop had to beg that these might be taken without the formality of a reception. Fowls, eggs, bananas, Indian corn, and other things were also given, the total value of the offerings being °vet £150. Some highly enlightened persons do not think much of cathedrals, clergy, offertories, and the like, but even they would allow that these things are better than King Xutesa with his pack of six thousand slave-hunters.
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