In 1875 H.M. Stanley arrived in Bugandan kingdom ( Uganda) and initiated the sending of missionaries by the Church Missionary Society. 8 were sent but through death and illness only 2, Smith and Wilson, reached Uganda in 1877. Smith died later that year. Wilson was joined in 1878 by Alexander Mackay, who became the father of the gospel in Uganda - teacher, builder, evangelist, printer and pastor. Soon after Mackay’s arrival, Roman Catholic missionaries, French White Fathers, also arrived. Protestant and Catholic differences puzzled Mutesa the ruler of Uganda. He flirted with both missions, and the existence of pagan, Moslem, Protestant, and Catholic traditions provided a setting for considerable conflict. But, Mackay made some progress.

Mutesa died in 1884 and his son Mwanga, age 18, became ruler. While his father had played-off the religions, against each other, balancing the influence of the European colonial powers backing them. Mwanga took an aggressive approach, expelling missionaries, insisting Christian converts abandon their faith or die.

October 1885, Bishop Hannington, sent as the 1st bishop of Eastern Equatorial Africa, was assassinated at the border on Mwanga's orders. Horror followed, some of Mwanga’s young page boys had become Christian and been baptised. Mwanga, made sexual advances to them, he considered their refusal to be insolent disobedience threatening his absolute authority, he blamed their faith. In May 1886 he set out to destroy Christianity in Uganda. 32 mainly young Christians, Anglicans and Roman Catholics were slowly burned alive together on 31 January 1885. Others died in the months of persecution that followed.

Mwanga’s rage was directed at converts from his own people, Mackay and the Roman Catholics continued their work, quietly, away from the court. The situation eventually degenerated into civil war, order emerged only in the 1890s. But the great missionary work of Mackay and those he mentored like Apolo Kivebulaya was built on the foundations of the martyrs of Uganda.

Today the martyrs, Anglican and Roman Catholic, are commemorated together. The known victims include Joseph Mkasa, who protested the murder of Bishop Hannington, Charles Lwanga, a court official who had baptised some of the pages and tried to protect them, Andrew Kagwa a catechist, and Matthias Murumba, a judge.