By MARTHA LEAH NANGALAMA (assisted by COPILOT)
In Namugongo, where millions tread in remembrance, there is a pond. Some say its waters were first formed by the blood of the Uganda Martyrs—46 Christians who refused to betray their faith and paid the ultimate price under King / Kabaka Mwanga’s reign.
I drank from that pond. As a student at Uganda Martyrs Namugongo Girls Boarding School, we had no running water. No vaccines. We bathed in the pond, carried jerrycans of its muddy water back to school, and trusted it to sustain us. Somehow, we never fell sick.
Today, the Uganda Military Regime of Yoweri Kaguta Museveni has stepped in to “cleanse” this water. Now, it is bottled. Sold. Commercialized. But how does one purify history? Can the essence of sacrifice be distilled into something packaged?
The Namugongo Pond is no Walden Pond. It is a testament, a legacy, a wound. The faithful still walk for miles when other forms of transport exist, just as those before them walked toward martyrdom when renouncing their beliefs could have saved them.
Uganda Martyrs Day is not just about honoring the past—it is a reflection of the present. The walking pilgrims. The bottled water. The contrast is as raw as that pond once was.
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