The Unknown Gold Mines In Uganda's Tourism Industry

As we near to the 3rd of June this year, everyone in Uganda and across the entire world think of the Uganda Namugongo Catholic and protestant shrines and Uganda will definitely receive lots of Christian visitors from all corners of the world, I recently discovered there is also a Muslim Martyrs mosque in Namugongo as well but one hardly gets to hear of it, that not enough, I also recently discovered the first Muslim Mosque in Uganda is still standing with many Art facts and history behind the Islamic faith Uganda,

(Masjid Qiblatain Mosque Kasubi) The First Mosque in Uganda, picture is of a reconstructed structure at the exact location of the original mosque

Kasubi Muteesa 1 Royal Mosque (1856) was the first mosque in Uganda originally built with Bamboo, it was reconstructed in 1967 and the mosque had two QIBLAS, Muslims everywhere in the world face towards the *Kaaba* when praying (its Cuboid house in the valley of Mecca that was built by the Prophet Ibrahim who the Christians call Abraham), all prayers in mosques are conducted while facing this direction.

“Masjid Qiblatain” in this case therefore is known as the mosque with two prayer directions, this was because the original Baganda Muslims thought it acceptable to accord their obedience and respect to the Kabaka and by doing this they decided to conduct their prayers facing the direction of the King's Palace as the Baganda Culture then required, but this later changed as time went by as the Mosque received subsequent visitors to the palace that told their contemporaries that in fact there is only one correct prayer direction which is towards the Kaaba and the prayer direction of this mosque had to be changed, it was from this that Muteesa 1 Kasubi Masjid Mosque was referred to as “Masjid Qiblatain” one facing MUZIBU AZAAL MPANGA and the other facing MECCA, its said that there are only two mosques in the entire world that have two QIBLAS and Uganda having one of the two existing mosques worldwide is a very big tourist asset,

At the site, some of the Items that Kabaka Moteesa 1 owned back then are still well preserved and can be viewed by all tourists on requests, Kabaka Muteesa 1’s hand written QUR’AN and Kettle are still safely preserved,

Kabaka Muteesa 1’s hand written Islamic holy book - Qur’an (Not opened), since 1856

Kabaka Muteesa 1’s hand written Islamic holy book - Qur’an (opened), since 1856

Kabaka Muteesa 1’s Kettle that is still at the Masjid Qiblatain Mosque Kasubi since 1856

The Mosque is just next to the Popular Kasubi Tombs but the mosque premises are not enclosed in the current Kasubi Tombs under reconstruction, the premises currently hold a primary school “Kasubi Modern Islamic Primary School”

But the administration also decided to introduce a youth engagement Association whose activities are mostly targeting Muslim youth, it intends to achieve empowerment among the youth by providing them with a platform to come together and share ideas, but it also offers better networking opportunities for different youth from different corners in terms of finding jobs and business opportunities, they have activities like saving funds together and raising enough funds to do some projects majorly in agriculture.

We had time with the Head teacher of the primary school Mr. Matovu Hakim and he shares the same thougt as mine, this place is one of the best touring sites around this Country, with this very rich history it would be very meningful to the muslim tourists from all over the world, but not only the international market , am sure even the local islamic community across the country would love to know this kind of information as well, moslem schools and higher tertiary institutions affilliated to the islamic faith are in a very much postion to kick start this, if for example they choose to schedule either annual or half annaul visits to this place or even make more regular for their students to study more of this History, am sure the reults will be overwhelmingly positive, if you are reading this, feel free to go check it out.