THE Ugandan cardinal who led his country's church through the years of Idi Amin's dictatorship died this week at the age of 76.
Cardinal Emmanuel Nsubugu, born in Kisulc in 1914 and ordained in 1946, became the first black archbishop of the Ugandan capital Kampala on his appointment to the post in 1969.
But during the most testing years of his leadership, following Amin's rise to power in Uganda two years later, Cardinal Nsubugu relentlessly spoke out against the regime's human rights violations and the excesses of the military against the civilian population. He was detained in 1972 and subsequently placed under house arrest.
When Amin was ousted in 1979 the cardinal, who had joined the college of cardinals three years earlier, led the Ugandan church in its efforts to give refuge to people fleeing the army during the civil war of President Milton Obotc's five year rule.