The Church, which was built by the Goan community in 1930 and was reconstructed in April this year, played a prominent role in celebrating the Feast of Saint Francis Xavier and feasts of Goan villages
The Goan choir at the old Christ the King Church in Kampala.
The Goan community in Uganda is over 100 years old after Goans were brought to Uganda by the British to assist them with running the government’s administration system and to be teachers and accountants in the education and budding business and trade sector of Uganda.
Some embraced business and ran some of the best established trading companies at the time. The Norman Godinho Primary School, now Buganda Road primary School, is a testimony within the city of the contribution towards education made in the past by the Goan community. The school and property, later handed over to Kampala City Council and the Ministry of Education, has stood the test of time and produced some of Uganda’s best professionals.
The famed Speke Hotel, Antlers Inn and City House were all Goan family businesses which provided the spark for a booming hospitality industry in Uganda.
Goans had excellent linguistic skills, a culture similar to their European counterparts and an ability to integrate with local and international populations. Goans endeared themselves to the British and Ugandans with their rock solid integrity and dedicated, selfless service to others with a largehearted giving philosophy, all this stemming from a deep faith in the Lord Jesus Christ.
CENTRE OF FAITH, WORSHIP
The Christ the King Church has been the centre of faith and worship for Goans and Catholics from all over the city and country too.
Goans being a simple, humble, pious and educated people wanted to grow in their faith in their new home that had already embraced Catholicism. With the help of the Mill Hill missionaries, Goans pooled resources, talents and energies and built the Christ the King Church in the centre of the town in 1930. Many Goans were baptised, confirmed and married at this beautiful church and people of all ethnic cultures would join in the Feast Masses and Novenas along with the Goan congregation. Being ideally located, it attracted people from all walks of life and from all corners of the globe making Christ the King Parish truly cosmopolitan and international.
Celebration of the Feast of the Saints, in particular the Feast of St Francis Xavier, Patron Saint of Goa, on December 3 each year was always undertaken with religious fervour.
In addition, the Goan community celebrated their individual village feasts with a Thanksgiving Mass at Christ the King Church, which was at the centre of every activity, both religious and cultural.
Some of the Goan choir members along with Parish Priest Msgr Gerald Kalumba at the reconstructed Christ the King Church in Kampala.
Prayers and spiritual dedication at the Church were always followed up with social gatherings at the Goan Institute on Buganda Road, where Goans and people from all cultures joined in the celebrations.
At one of these festive village celebrations, a renowned Goan designer (called a tailor at the time) was asked by a group of Ugandans to design the national costume for Ugandan women. Caetano Gomes, the most renowned Goan designer in Kampala, obliged with a design that was affectionately called “Gomesi”, in honour of the celebrated Goan designer.
The return of the Goan Community to the Christ the King Church post expulsion was around 1989-1990s and Goans re-instated celebrations of the main feasts, especially of their Patron, Saint Francis Xavier. This was done with help of then parish priest Rev. Paul Ssemogerere, who supported Goan initiatives in the church and celebrated services and prayers and very sportingly enjoyed the celebrations.
Some of these prayerful initiatives were the Way of the Cross on Friday evenings, Wednesday Novena devotion and the end of month Saturday Mass, where the Goan choir participated with scripture reading, hymns in English and our own native Konkani accompanied by Goan instrumental maestros for the community. All these religious and festive celebrations were shared with our Ugandan parishioners and with other Indian community members, who also attended services at Christ the King Church.
CHURCH RECONSTRUCTION
Over the years, many Goans who came to Uganda moved back home or settled to other countries and the community reduced in number. Sometime around 2017, the current Parish Priest, Msgr. Gerald Kalumba, undertook an ambitious re-design and reconstruction of the Church.
Despite many debacles, delays, spiralling costs, and debilitating effects due to closure of churches during the Covid pandemic, prayers, faith and determination prevailed.
With contributions from parishioners and well-wishers, and a very reduced Goan community contributing and keeping things moving forward, Msgr. Kalumba overcame all odds, completed the construction of the Church and re-opened the doors of the Church with Holy Week services and Easter celebrations in April 2023.
The Goan community continues to find solace and divine intervention at this newly constructed church. It is with gratitude that we thank the parish priests, past and present, the clergy and laity and fellow parishioners at Christ the King Church for continuing to embrace us Goans as a community, making us feel warmly welcome and comfortable and at home in Uganda.
The Goan Community congratulates Msgr. Gerald Kalumba and the entire parish on the grand opening, rededication and blessing of the newly constructed Christ the King Church and we pray that the lives of all who enter this hallowed house of God be touched and blessed as much as we have been as a community.
(The writer has been living in Kampala since 1990, and organises the celebrations of Goan Feasts at Christ the King Church)
