Government declared February 16, 2018 a public holiday in remembrance of the murder of Archbishop Janani Luwum in 1977.
Over the years, a lot has been reported of Janani Luwum, most especially in regard to events after 1948, the year in which he converted to Christianity through the preaching of Yusto Otunnu and his wife Josephine, both parents of former UPC president Olara Otunnu.
“During the preaching, Janani felt convicted: twice he broke out in heavy sweat. When this happened a third time, Janani, confessed Jesus Christ as his Lord and Saviour; and, he repented of his sins, crying out aloud before God and men.” Margret Ford, archbishop Luwum’s biographer, wrote in her book, ‘Janani: The Making of a Martyr.’
She added: “At the end of the assembly, Luwum spoke as if he was taking a vow; Today, I have become a leader in Christ’s army. I am prepared to die in the army of Jesus. As Jesus shed his blood for the people, if it is God’s will, I will do the same.”
It was not so long after that Janani Luwum’s work an impact started to offend the then president of Uganda, Idi Amin.
Luwum, in an unprecedented bold move, used his 1976 Christmas day sermon to admonish Amin’s regime, describing it as “ruthless”. He threatened a public demonstration if the situation did not improve.
“His sermon that was being relayed live felt the full power of state censorship when it got interrupted. Acting against the advice of his wife to flee into exile, Luwum routinely put his life on the block by personally going to SRB to demand the release of people wrongfully imprisoned. “He telephoned many times to arrange an appointment; each time an aide would say the president was very busy and would call back. He never did,” wrote Henry Kyemba — an insider in Amin’s government, in his book ‘A State of Blood’
One of his critics accused him of being on the Government side and he replied:”I face daily being picked up by the soldiers. While the opportunity is there I preach the Gospel with all my might, and my conscience is clear before God that I have not sided with the present Government which is utterly self-seeking. I have been threatened many times. Whenever I have the opportunity I have told the President the things the churches disapprove of. God is my witness.”
On February 16, 1977, Amin summoned religious, government, and military leaders to Kampala to condemn Luwum for “subversive acts.”
The archbishop and six other bishops including Festo Kivengere were publicly arraigned in a sham trial for smuggling arms, but it was clear that it was Janani Luwum with whom Amin was concerned.
As the church leaders were ordered to leave, one at a time, Archbishop Luwum said to Bishop Festo Kivengere, “They are going to kill me. I am not afraid.” He told the bishops not to be afraid, that he saw “God’s hand in this.”
Festo Kivengere, published a short book entitled ‘I Love Idi Amin’ detailing how he was one of the last people to see Luwum alive.
He waited outside the building where Luwum was interrogated until guards forced him to leave at gunpoint. Expecting arrest, Kivengere escaped Uganda on foot.
The next day, February 17, a government spokesperson claimed that Archbishop Luwum had died in a car accident. Later (to explain the bullet holes found in his body) the story was changed.
Within the same year Kivengere published his book with hope that Christians can pick a leaf from it.
“I love Idi Amin? It was almost a reckless statement—as though, to put it in contemporary terms, someone standing in the smoke from the Twin Towers erected a sign saying, “I love Osama.”
“The Holy Spirit showed me,” Kivengere wrote, “that I was getting hard in my spirit, and that my hardness and bitterness toward those who were persecuting us could only bring spiritual loss … So I had to ask for forgiveness from the Lord, and for grace to love President Amin more.”
Kivengere’s testimony goes beyond extraordinary forgiveness.
His book details outbreaks of revival as, in the same year as Amin’s terror.
editor@ugchristiannews.com
