The mission of Victoria Nyanza was founded in 1878 by the
White Fathers of
Charles Lavigerie. It was erected into an
apostolic vicariate on 31 May 1883, with Mgr.
Léon Livinhac as the first vicar Apostolic. When Livinhac became Superior General of the Society of White Fathers in October 1889,
John Joseph Hirth was appointed his successor. A civil war broke out in Buganda in 1892, during which the Catholic camp was totally defeated. The war pitted supporters of the French Catholic missions against supporters of the British missions in Buganda, backed by a small force of Sudanese soldiers under Captain
Frederick Lugard of the Indian Army. Lugard's
maxim gun proved decisive. Hirth and the White Fathers moved to the
Bukoba kingdoms of Kiziba and Bugabo in 1892 with about fifty
Baganda Christian converts. In December 1892 they founded a mission at
Kashozi, in what is now the extreme north of Tanzania. Victoria Nyanza was divided into three autonomous missions by a decree of 6 July 1894. The
Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Nyanza was in
German East Africa. Mgr. Hirth retained the government and became the first Apostolic Vicar. The
Apostolic Vicariate of Upper Nile in British territory was given to the
Mill Hill Missionaries, containing the provinces of
Kyaggive and
Kampala Mengo. The remaining provinces of
Buganda were assigned to the
Apostolic Vicariate of Northern Nyanza under the White Fathers, as well as the three Kingdoms of
Unyoro,
Toro and
Ankole.
Antonin Guillermain was made Apostolic Vicar of Northern Nyanza. ==References==