Just because Mwanga II was a murderous anti-Christian doesn't make him a pedophile. I know this is no place to be sticking up for kings like Mwanga II, the last Kabaka of Buganda. Lest you think I am making this up, you should know that Buganda was the largest kingdom within the British Protectorate of Uganda. But before I can stick up for Mwanga, I suppose I should level the charges against him.
Mwanga martyred twenty-two Christians during the mid-1880s, making a grisly spectacle of their deaths. He was fearful that Christian missionaries were undermining his rule. Given that the Scramble for Africa, a polite name for the Euro-frenzy to seize land from the indigenous people, was in full swing, he was probably right about that. The death of the Anglican Archbishop James Harrington was a catalyst for professions and persecution of Christianity, leading up to the purge of young pages in his court who had become Christians. Accounts of the story described these young men as having been saved from Mwanga's pedophilia, though since the young king was only seventeen himself, the term seems inappropriate.
In any event, twenty-two Bugandans were killed, most by being rolled in reed mats and burned alive. The list of those killed includes Charles Lwanga, Mugagga, and my personal favorite, Gonzaga Gonza. He had the fortune (good or bad?) to be decapitated rather than burned to death.
Funny thing about Mwanga. When the British were gathering up Buganda into their great big protective arms, he signed on but then had some colonized-regret. He declared war, lost fled the country, was imprisoned by the Germans (Tanzania), escaped, raised another army, was defeated, captured, and re-imprisoned by the British in the Seychelles. He comes the funny part. Before he died in prison, he became a Christian.
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