The Goan Community in Uganda is more than 100 years old and was brought to Uganda by the British to assist them with running the government’s administration system and to be teachers and accountants in Uganda’s education and budding business & trade sector. Some of them 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 this community. The school and the property were handed over to the Kampala City Council & Ministry of Education as a grant and were never run as a profit-making educational institution – hence it has stood the test of time and produced some of Uganda’s best professionals.
The historically 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 with ability to integrate with local and international populations. Their rock-solid integrity & dedication in service to the British Raj (as it was called in India), selfless service to others with a largehearted giving philosophy – all this stemmed from a deep faith and belief in the Lord Jesus Christ (hence Christ The King Church), which endeared them to the British and Ugandans.
Faith in the Lord God is the cornerstone of life and living in Goa where the entire day’s activity, both work and play were dedicated to the Lord. 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, the Goans of the time pooled their resources, talents & energies and built Christ The King Church in the centre of town, in 1930. Many Goans were baptized, 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 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, the Patron Saint of Goa & Patron of all missions, on 3rd December each year, was always undertaken with religious fervour. St Francis Xavier is intensely revered by Goans at home in Goa and all over the world. Affectionately called “Apostle Of The Indies” he was invited by the ruling Portuguese elite to Goa since Goa was a Portuguese Colony at the time. The incorruptible body of this Saint Goencho Saib (Lord of Goa) lies in state in the right transept, at Bom Jesu Basilica, in Goa.
In addition, the Goan Community celebrated their village feasts with a thanksgiving mass at Christ the King Church as every activity started with prayer and Christ The King Church was at the centre of every activity – both religious and cultural. The prayers and spiritual dedication at the Church were always followed up with melodious music and dancing at the Goan Institute on Buganda Road where they regaled the entire community of Goans and people from all cultures who joined with the celebrations with sumptuous culinary delights & some pomp.
It must be remembered that Goans were and still are very talented singers & musicians excelling with the saxophone, piano and drums, not forgetting their legendary violinists who created the bedrock and base for the now-famous Bollywood music & songs. Important to note that at one of these festive village celebrations, a Goan designer ( called a tailor at the time) was asked to design the national costume for Ugandan women. The best and most renowned designer in Kampala, Caetano Gomes obliged with a design that was affectionately called “Gomesi” – after the Goan designer Mr. Gomes.
When Goans returned to Uganda post expulsion, in the early 1990s, they re-instated celebrations of the main feasts, especially of their Patron, Saint Francis Xavier with the help of the then parish priest Rev. Paul Ssemogerere who supported Goan initiatives in the church and attended the prayers and very sportingly enjoyed the celebrations with the Goan community even though at times the language was alien. Some of these 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 & our own native Konkani accompanied by Goan instrumental maestros for the community. All of 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
Over the years, many of the Goans who came to Uganda moved back home or settled in other countries and the community reduced in number. Around the same time circa 2017, the current Parish Priest, Msgr. Gerald Kalumba undertook an ambitious re-design and reconstruction of the Church. Despite facing many debacles, delays, spiralling costs, and debilitating effects due to the closure of churches during the pandemic; prayers, faith and determination prevailed. With the contribution of all parishioners and several well-wishers, and the very reduced Goan community contributing and keeping things moving forward, each in their small way; Msgr. Kalumba overcame all the odds, completed the construction of the Church and re-opened the doors of the Church to all with Holy Week services and Easter celebrations in April 2023.
We as a community continue to find solace and dive intervention at this newly constructed church. It is with gratitude that we write this note thanking 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.
We as the Goan Community congratulate Msgr. Gerald Kalumba & the entire parish on the grand inauguration 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.
