Kigungu commemorating the arrival of the missionaries
February 17, 2025
In 1879, a pair of French missionaries made their way across Lake Victoria and arrived at the Kigungu Peninsula, marking the first Catholic missionary presence in Uganda. To this day, an annual pilgrimage commemorates their landing.
Presently, Christianity holds sway as the predominant religion in Uganda, with about 80 percent of the population adhering to it, and nearly 40 percent identifying as Roman Catholic. This religious shift traces back to the historic moment when two French missionaries reached the northern shores of Lake Victoria.
On April 22, 1878, the inaugural caravan of a Roman Catholic society called the White Fathers embarked from Marseilles to Africa. After landing on Zanzibar on June 17, the missionaries trekked on foot into the African hinterland.
Their journey was arduous, especially as they traversed unfamiliar terrain. Upon reaching Lake Victoria, only two members of the group resolved to continue onward across the lake. These individuals, Father Simeon Lourdel and Brother Amans, successfully crossed the lake and reached the vicinity of Entebbe on the Kigungu Peninsula on February 17, 1879—an event now commemorated as the initiation of Catholicism in Uganda.
