James Hannington Was Dragged away to be Murdered
Hannington sharing the gospel with Africans.
WHATEVER JAMES HANNINGTON WAS as a boy, he was not good at schoolwork. He was intelligent, however, and fascinated with the world around him, constantly sketching beetles, insects, plants, and geological specimens. But the boy often seemed just one step away from calamity. At seven he climbed the mast of his father’s yacht and caught the seat of his pants on a protrusion. At thirteen, he blew off one of his thumbs trying to smoke out some wasps with black powder.
Bored by book learning, he quit school at fifteen but returned six years later, intending to enter the ministry. Even then he did not commit himself to hard study until the death of his mother awakened a desire to accomplish something. In 1874, he became an Anglican deacon.
Although he was successful with church work in England, the murder of two missionaries in Africa inspired Hannington to offer himself as a missionary to Uganda. He sailed in 1882. Once there, he was beset by fevers. His arms were in such agony he had to tie his hands around his neck to relieve his pain. He mailed home comic portraits of his plight. Soon his health forced him home.
In 1885 he tried approaching Uganda from the northeast. King Mwanga II of Buganda ordered Ugandan chiefs to intercept him. On this day, 21 October 1885, they took Hannington prisoner, but allowed him a little freedom, which he used to walk out to look at the Nile.
“Suddenly about twenty ruffians set upon us. They violently threw me to the ground, and proceeded to strip me of all valuables. Thinking they were robbers I shouted for help, when they forced me up and hurried me away…. More than once I was violently brought into contact with banana trees, some trying in their haste to force me one way, others the other, and the exertion and struggling strained me in the most agonizing manner. In spite of all, and feeling I was being dragged away to be murdered at a distance, I sang ‘Safe in the Arms of Jesus’ and laughed at the very agony of my situation. My clothes were torn to pieces so that I was exposed; wet through with being dragged on the ground; strained in every limb, and for a whole hour expecting instant death, hurried along, dragged, pushed at five miles an hour, until we came to a hut...”
The Ugandans showed off Hannington for seven days. On his eighth, they speared him to death. He had kept his journal to the end. One of the Ugandans sold it to another party of Europeans, which is how his story was recorded for history.
—Dan Graves
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To get a better feel for Hannington, read this quote by him, "Christmas celebration despite bad conditions"
Ugandan suffering continued well into the twentieth century, one facet of which is described in Uganda: Ready to Forgive. Watch at RedeemTV.
Uganda: Ready to Forgive can be purchased at Vision Video.