Kivebulaya, Apolo

(1864-1933)

   Anglican missionary in Uganda

   Apolo Kivebulaya, an Anglican priest with the Church of England in Uganda, was an outstanding missionary and evangelist of the late 19th century He was baptized in 1895, when he took the Western name Apolo. Soon afterward, he offered his services to Anglican missionaries as a catechist (unordained lay minister), and was sent in 1896 to Boga, a western Ugandan village. Though the tribal chief had requested a Christian teacher, he was offended by the denunciation of polygamy and traditional magical practices. Kivebulaya was blamed for the death of the chief's sister, and he was beaten by a mob and turned over to the British authorities for trial. He spent several months in jail before the charges were dropped. The manner in which he bore the experience won over the people of Boga, and eventually even the chief converted.

   Settling in Boga, Kivebulaya expanded his ministry to include literacy training. He was ordained as a deacon in 1900 and as a priest three years later. In 1915, the border between Uganda and the Congo was changed, and suddenly Boga was in the Belgian Congo (now the Democratic Republic of the Congo). Kivebulaya remained at his post, and his parish remained attached to the church in Uganda. Eventually, the region became the site of a set of churches.

   In 1922, Kivebulaya was named a canon, in recognition of his faithful and effective ministry. The work became the core of what in 1972 became a separate diocese, now part of the Church of Christ in the Congo - Province of the Anglican Church in the Congo.

   Kivebulaya died on May 30, 1933.

   See also Africa, sub-Saharan.

   Further reading:

   ■ A. B. Lloyd, Apolo of the Pygmy Forest 1923 (London: Church Missionary Society, 1937)

   ■ Anne Luck, African Saint: The Story of Apolo Kivebu-laya (London: SCM Press, 1963)

   ■ M. Louise Pirouet, Black Evangelists: The Spread of Christianity in Uganda 1891-1914 (London: Rex Collings, 1978).