Apolo Kivebulaya

He is sometimes referred to as the "apostle to the pygmies" for his work among the Bambuti people of the Ituri forest in eastern Congo.

Waswa grew up the son of peasants who apprenticed him to a witch doctor, but when he discovered the man tricking people out of their possessions, he left him to learn about Islam, which had been recently brought to the court of the Kabaka of Buganda, Muteesa, by Arab traders.

[1] When Waswa turned 13, Henry Morton Stanley, who had discovered David Livingstone in 1872, paid a visit to Mutesa's court and persuaded the chief to begin "reading" in the Christian religion.

The chief was probably more impressed with Stanley's guns than with his Bible, for Mutesa had already parted ways with the Arabs and now needed protection.

[1] Stanley's expedition opened the way for other missionaries too, notably Alexander Murdoch Mackay, who arrived in 1878.