Kiwavu, Hosua

A Musamia, who before his conversion was a *musamize**(priest of the traditional Lubaale-worship), and was married to several wives. He decided to become a Christian in c. 1887, and fled with the other Christians to Ankole at the time of the Muslim coup in 1888. When he returned he burned his charms, chose one woman, Yokobedi, to become his wife, and was baptised. In 1894 he went to Busoga with Nuwa Kikwabanga when C.M.S. work was re-opened there. He was ordained deacon in 1899, having been trained by the Rev. R. H. Walker, and priest in 1901. He then went as the first pastor to Iganga and worked there until 1904. From 1904-1914 he worked as a pastor at various places in Busoga: Naminage, Nasuti, Kasozi, Wesunire and Kamuli. It was probably in 1915 that he and his wife led a party to the Sudan, but he did not stay long owing to his age and the difficulties of his work there: he suffered persecution and imprisonment. He returned to continue working in Busoga until 1923 when he retired to Ndeeba in Bugere, where he died in 1932. He was very hard-working and had considerable preaching powers, but was feared by many because of his somewhat fierce and uncompromising nature. He was known as “a Christian without blemish.” His wife worked hard among the women, preparing them for baptism and comfirmation, and taking care of girls who had run away from their husbands because they would not allow them to become Christians. She worked hard to cultivate a large banana-garden so that there might be food enough for all these people. Yokobedi and Yosua had no children.

Louise Pirouet

This article, used by permission, was written by Louise Pirouet, as part of A Dictionary of Christianity in Uganda (Department of Religious Studies, Makerere University College, 1969), p. 36. Copies available at Africana Section, Makerere University Library (AF Q 276.761 MAK and AR/MAK/99/1); Bishop Tucker Library, Uganda Christian University and in UK at the University of Birmingham; Crowther Centre Library, CMS Oxford and Louise Pirouet Papers, Cambridge Centre of African Studies.