Janani Jakaliya Luwum was Archbishop of the Church of Uganda from 1974 to 1977 and one of the most influential leaders of the modern church in Africa. He was born in the village of Mucwini in the Kitgum District to Acholi parents and attended Gulu High School and Boroboro Teacher Training College, after which he taught at a primary school. He converted to Christianity in 1948, and in 1949 went to Buwalasi Theological College.

In 1950 he was attached to St. Philip's Church in Gulu and was ordained a deacon in 1953, and the following year he was ordained a priest. He served in the Upper Nile Diocese of Uganda and later in the Diocese of Mbale. In 1969 he was consecrated Bishop of the Diocese of Northern Uganda at Gulu, where Fr Hilary’s godmother, Mary Coleman, was a missionary at the time. After five years he was appointed Archbishop of the Metropolitan Province of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi, and Boga (in Zaire), becoming only the second African to hold this position.

Archbishop Luwum was a leading critic of the excesses of the Idi Amin regime that assumed power in 1971, and in 1977, delivered a note of protest to the dictator against the policies of arbitrary killings and unexplained disappearances. Shortly afterwards, he and other leading churchmen were accused of treason.

On 16 February 1977, he was arrested together with two cabinet ministers, and, at a rally in Kampala, Idi Amin produced spoof witnesses who read out confessions implicating the three men. The next day, Radio Uganda announced that the three had been killed when the car transporting them to an interrogation centre had collided with another vehicle. The accident, Radio Uganda reported, had occurred when the victims had tried to overpower the driver in an attempt to escape. But when Luwum's body was released to his relatives, it was riddled with bullets. Henry Kyemba, Amin’s minister of health, later wrote in his book, A State of Blood, that "the Archbishop had been shot through the mouth and at least three bullets in the chest.” According to Vice President of Uganda Mustafa Adrisi, and a Human rights commission, Amin's right-hand man, Isaac Maliyamungu, had carried out the murders. Janani Luwum was buried at his home village of Mucwini in the Kitgum District.

Archbishop Luwum is recognised as a martyr by the Anglican Communion and his statue is among the Twentieth Century Martyrs on the front of Westminster Abbey in London. Since 2015 Uganda has a public holiday on 16 February, to celebrate the life of Janani Luwum, and we are remembering him on the nearest Saturday.

Picture above: Janan Luwum's grave in Kitgum, Uganda. Photo by Micheal Kaluba - Own work, CC BY-SA 4.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=137519816