Janani Luwum

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Janani Jakaliya Luwum (1922 – 17 February 1977), an Acholi by tribe from Northern Uganda, was the 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 murdered in 1977 by either Idi Amin personally or by his henchmen.

Contents 1 Career 2 Arrest and death 3 References 4 External links

[edit] Career

Janani Luwum joined the Anglican Church in Uganda and became a deacon in 1955. 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 1961 he was consecrated bishop of the Anglican Church Province of northern Uganda at Gulu. After five years he was appointed archbishop of the Metropolitan Province of Uganda, Rwanda, Burundi and Boga in DR Congo, becoming the second African to hold this position.

[edit] Arrest and death

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

On 16 February 1977, Luwum was arrested together with two cabinet ministers, Erinayo Wilson Oryema and Charles Oboth Ofumbi. The same day Idi Amin convened a rally in Kampala with the three accused present. A few other "suspects" were paraded forth to read out "confessions" implicating the three men. The archbishop was accused of being an agent of the exiled former president Milton Obote, and for planning to stage a coup. The next day, Radio Uganda announced that the three had been killed when the car transporting them to an interrogation center 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.^[1] When Luwum's body was released to his relatives, it was riddled with bullets. Henry Kyemba, Minister of Health in Amin's government, later wrote in his book A State of Blood, that “The bodies were bullet-riddled. The archbishop had been shot through the mouth and at least three bullets in the chest. The ministers had been shot in a similar way but one only in the chest and not through the mouth. Oryema had a bullet wound through the leg.”^[2]

According to the later testimony of witnesses, the victims had been taken to an army barracks, where they were bullied, beaten and finally shot. Some reports say that Amin himself pulled the trigger.^[3]

Janani Luwum was survived by a widow, Mary Lawinyo Luwum and nine children. He was buried at his home village of Mucwini in the Kitgum District. He is recognised as a martyr by the Church of England and his death is commemorated on 17 February. His statue is among the Twentieth Century Martyrs on the front of Westminster Abbey in London.

[edit] References

[edit] External links

• The Greatest Ugandan Ever! Part 2
• Janani Luwum - biographical sketch from collection: Biographical sketches of memorable Christians of the past, by James Kiefer
• "Not even an archbishop was spared", The Weekly Observer, February 16, 2006