The Singing Martyrs of Namugongo

In June 1886, forty-five young men were marched to the hill at Namugongo, Uganda, bound in reed mats and laid on a slow-burning pyre. King Mwanga II had demanded they renounce their Christian faith. They refused. The youngest, Kizito, was barely fourteen. Eyewitnesses reported that as the flames rose, the martyrs were singing — praying aloud, calling on the name of Christ.…