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Today marks 140 years since the death of Bishop James Hannington of the Church Missionary Society, killed on his way to the Buganda Kingdom on October 29, 1885.

What many don’t realize is that this was actually his second attempt to reach Buganda. By then, the kingdom had become a prime destination for European explorers, missionaries, and Arab traders especially after H. M. Stanley’s famous letter to Europe, declaring that the Kabaka of Buganda had invited missionaries.

In this five-part series, I retrace Hannington’s journey. But this isn’t only his story. It’s also the story of the people he encountered, the lands he crossed, and the African voices too often reduced to the background in European writings.

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Part 2 arrives next week.


                                                                    Sources

  • Ashe, Robert Pickering. Chronicles of Uganda. London : Hodder and Stoughton, 1894 
  • Berry, Grinton . “Bishop Hannington and the Story of the Uganda Mission.” New York, Revell, 1908
  • “Church Missionary Gleaner (afterwards C.M.S. Gleaner).” [London: Church Missionary Society, year varies]. https://www.google.ca/books/edition/Church_missionary_gleaner_afterw_C_M_S_g/5xkFAAAAQAAJ.
  • Dawson, Edwin Collas. Lion-hearted: The Story of Bishop Hannington's Life, Told for Boys and Girls. United Kingdom: Seeley, 1890.
  • Europeans in East Africa: Biographical Database. Accessed September 27, 2025. https://www.europeansineastafrica.co.uk/_site/custom/database/default.asp?a=viewIndividual&pid=2&person=4252.
  • Hannington, James. Peril and Adventure in Central Africa. Being Illustrated Letters to the Youngsters at Home, by the Late Bishop H. With Illustrations from Original Sketches by the Bishop, and a Biographical Memoir. N.p.: London, 1886.
  • Proceedings of the Royal Geographical Society and Monthly Record of Geography. Vol. 1, no. 2 (February 1879): 135–38. Report of the Evening Meetings, Session 1878–79.
  • Michael, Charles D. James Hannington, Bishop and Martyr. London: SW Patridge & C. Ltd. 1910 
  • Rockel, Stephen. Caravan Porters of the Nyika: Labour, Culture, and Society in Nineteenth Century East Africa. University of Toronto, 1997.
  • Stock, Sarah Geraldina. The Story of Uganda and the Victoria Nyanza Mission. United Kingdom: Religious Tract Society, 1894.


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