Rubya (or Rubyia) is the site of a Catholic Church mission to the south of Bukoba near the west bank of Lake Victoria in Muleba District, Kagera Region, Tanzania. A seminary was established at Rubya in 1904, one of the first in German East Africa, as it then was. The seminary still operates. There is a cathedral, a nursing school and a district hospital, all operated by the church.
The Catholic Church, also known as the Roman Catholic Church, is the largest Christian church, with approximately 1.3 billion baptised Catholics worldwide as of 2016. As the world's "oldest continuously functioning international institution", it has played a prominent role in the history and development of Western civilisation. The church is headed by the Bishop of Rome, known as the Pope. Its central administration, the Holy See, is in the Vatican City, an enclave within the city of Rome in Italy.
Bukoba is a city situated in the north west of The United Republic of Tanzania on the south western shores of Lake Victoria. It is the capital of the Kagera region, and the administrative seat for Bukoba Urban District. Population estimate: 100,000. The city is served by Bukoba Airport and regular ferry connections to and from Mwanza, as well as roads linking to Uganda's Rakai District for the cross border car commuters with plans underway for a standard gauge railway construction to fulfil the high ambitions of Uganda.
Lake Victoria is one of the African Great Lakes. The lake was named after Queen Victoria by the explorer John Hanning Speke, the first Briton to document it. Speke accomplished this in 1858, while on an expedition with Richard Francis Burton to locate the source of the Nile River.
Rubya is in the Kagera Region of north-western Tanzania, at an elevation of about 1,500 metres (4,900ft) above sea level. It is located on the edge of a sandstone escarpment with a view of Lake Victoria. The mission is about 20 kilometres (12mi) from Muleba and 80 kilometres (50mi) from Bukoba. The village of Nyakalembe is nearby, and provides shops and a Sunday market.[1] The climate is mild, with temperatures in the 15°C (59°F) to 26°C (79°F) range. Annual precipitation is about 1,300 millimetres (51in). The Rubya Seminary covers 1.3 square kilometres (0.50sqmi).[2]
Seminary
In 1894 the Apostolic Vicariate of Victoria–Nyanza was split into the vicariates of Southern Victoria Nyanza, south of Lake Victoria, an eastern portion called "Upper Nile" that was given to the English Mill Hill Missionaries, and a northern portion called "Northern Nyanza" that covered the south and west of today's Uganda.[3]John Joseph Hirth was appointed vicar Apostolic of Southern Victoria Nyanza, at that time part of German East Africa, on 13 July 1894.[4] The junior seminary of Bukumbi was officially opened in 1903, and in 1904 was transferred first to Bukoba and then to Rubya, near the bishop's home.[5] The St. Mary's Seminary opened in Rubya in November 1904.[2]
The Apostolic Vicariate of Southern Nyanza was a Roman Catholic mission territory in Eastern and Central Africa. It was an apostolic vicariate split out from the larger Vicariate of Nyanza in June 1894. It lost territory to the Apostolic Vicariate of Kivu in 1912, and was divided into the vicariates of Bukoba and Mwanza in 1929.
John Joseph Hirth was a Catholic Bishop in German East Africa, known as the founder of the church in Rwanda.
German East Africa (GEA) was a German colony in the African Great Lakes region, which included present-day Burundi, Rwanda, and the mainland part of Tanzania. GEA's area was 994,996 square kilometres (384,170 sq mi), which was nearly three times the area of present-day Germany, and double the area of metropolitan Germany then.
Hirth was closely involved in the seminary program.[5] According to some missionaries, training priests was more important to him than converting the people.[6] Subjects included Latin, history, geography, writing, arithmetic, Gregorian chants and German.[7] Hirth forbade all forms of physical punishment, humiliation or mockery of the students.[8]
Hirth was increasingly interested in Rwanda, and starting in 1903 he brought many of the brightest Rwandan pupils to study at Rubya.[9] In 1909 the major seminary was opened for pupils who had completed six years of the minor seminary. By 1911 there were 85 students at Rubya.[7] Hirth moved to Rwanda in 1912, when the new Apostolic Vicariate of Kivu was formed, and Bishop Joseph Sweens became responsible for the Southern Victoria Nyanza vicariate and for the seminary.[10] When a seminary was established in 1913 at Kabgayi in Rwanda, some of the students from Rubyia were transferred there.[11] Thirty three seminarians in total returned to Rwanda, of whom eighteen were from the major seminary.[12] The students, with a good understanding of Latin, found to their amusement that the old European priests were less than fluent in that language.[11]
Rwanda, officially the Republic of Rwanda, is a country in Central and East Africa and one of the smallest countries on the African mainland. Located a few degrees south of the Equator, Rwanda is bordered by Uganda, Tanzania, Burundi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo. Rwanda is in the African Great Lakes region and is highly elevated; its geography is dominated by mountains in the west and savanna to the east, with numerous lakes throughout the country. The climate is temperate to subtropical, with two rainy seasons and two dry seasons each year.
The Apostolic Vicariate of Kivu is the name that was given to two vicariates of the White Fathers, a Catholic missionary society in the Latin Roman Rite Catholic Church. Both vicariates served lands around Lake Kivu during the colonial era. The first vicariate, from 1912 to 1922, served what are now Rwanda and Burundi. The second vicariate, from 1929 to 1952, served territory in the east of the Belgian Congo.
Joseph Francis Marie Sweens, was a Dutch Roman Catholic missionary bishop who served as the Vicar Apostolic of South Nyanza in German East Africa, later in the British-administered Tanganyika Territory, now Tanzania.
During World War I (1914-1918) the French White Fathers had to leave the seminary and return home, or find a more hospitable vicariate.[13] In 1917 four priests were ordained at Rubya.[7] Conditions deteriorated in the major seminary during the 1920s, with low morale and lack of discipline. In 1929 the major seminary was closed, and only the junior seminary continued.[14] After his retirement, Sweens lived at Rubya among the seminarians until his death in 1950.[15]
World War I, also known as the First World War or the Great War, was a global war originating in Europe that lasted from 28 July 1914 to 11 November 1918. Contemporaneously described as "the war to end all wars", it led to the mobilisation of more than 70 million military personnel, including 60 million Europeans, making it one of the largest wars in history. It is also one of the deadliest conflicts in history, with an estimated nine million combatants and seven million civilian deaths as a direct result of the war, while resulting genocides and the 1918 influenza pandemic caused another 50 to 100 million deaths worldwide.
The Missionaries of Africa, commonly known as the White Fathers or the Society of the Missionaries of Africa are a Roman Catholic society of apostolic life. Founded in 1868 by Archbishop of Algiers Cardinal Charles Lavigerie, the society focuses on evangelism and education, mostly in Africa. In 2009, the White Fathers numbered 1,769 perpetually vowed members and 354 students preparing to enter the society.
The first African rector of the seminary was Joseph Benedict Labre, who took office in 1961. 2,930 students had attended the junior seminary by 2004. Of these, 265 had become priests, seven had become bishops and one had been made a cardinal.[6] As of 2004 there were 140 seminarians and 15 teachers. The junior seminary mainly relied for income on fees of US$120 per student per year, supplemented by some income from small-scale farming and a declining subsidy from Rome.[2]
Facilities
Rubya Hospital, which serves the district of Muleba, was opened in 1956.[1] The hospital was founded by Laurean Rugambwa, then Bishop of Rutabo and later the first African cardinal of modern times.[16] The future cardinal had received his secondary school education at the Rubya junior seminary.[17] The hospital can provide basic medical services, and has an airstrip.[1] In 1990 the hospital was having difficulty handling the growing number of HIV/AIDS patients, and realized there was a need for counselling patients and their families as well as providing clinical care.[18] They contacted WAMATA, a self-help organization for people with AIDS, obtained support from an international donor, and in June 1991 started a pioneer program for home-based care. Village health workers are a key element of the program, all people with AIDS who have been trained in home care and in managing the illness.[19] As of June 2011 the hospital was suffering from severe shortages of staff, equipment and supplies.[20]
Apart from the hospital, seminary and cathedral, there is a school of nursing. These are all operated by the diocese.[1] In 2011 the school of nursing had ten teachers and 113 pupils.[21] There are three primary schools, a secondary school and vocational schools for carpenters, mechanics and builders. Rubya also has a post office. Fifteen minutes walk to the south there is a mosque and a Lutheran church.[1]
Related Research Articles
Kagera is one of Tanzania's 31 administrative regions. The region is located in the northwestern corner of Tanzania on the western shore of Lake Victoria. The region neighbors Uganda, Rwanda, and Burundi and lies across the lake from Kenya. The region was known as West Lake before June 1979. The regional capital is the city of Bukoba. According to the 2012 national census, the region had a population of 2,458,023, which was lower than the pre-census projection of 2,763,329. For 2002-2012, the region's 3.2 percent average annual population growth rate was tied for the third highest in the country. It was also the ninth-most densely populated region, with 97 people per square kilometer.
Laurean Rugambwa was the first modern native African Cardinal of the Roman Catholic Church. He served as Archbishop of Dar es Salaam from 1968 to 1992, and was elevated to the cardinalate in 1960.
The Apostolic Vicariate of Northern (Victoria) Nyanza was a Roman Catholic missionary jurisdiction in present Uganda.
The Haya are an ethnic and linguistic tribe based in the Bukoba District, Muleba District and Karagwe District of Kagera Region in northwestern Tanzania, East Africa. In 1991 the Haya population was estimated to number 1,200,000. They speak the Haya language.
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The Roman Catholic Diocese of Bukoba is a diocese located in Bukoba in the Ecclesiastical province of Mwanza in Tanzania.
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The Apostolic Vicariate of Victoria Nyanza was a Catholic mission of the White Fathers in the region around Lake Victoria from 1883 to 1894.
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