[4] For Hannington's early education a tutor had been engaged, but when he was thirteen he was sent to the Temple School at Brighton, where he remained for the next two-and-a-half years, although he was an indifferent student.

[8] Having been ordained priest, in 1875 James became curate-in-charge at St George's, Hurstpierpoint where he stayed until volunteering for missionary work in East Africa in 1882.

[1] After arriving at Freretown, near Mombasa, in Kenya, Hannington determined to pioneer a shorter and healthier highland road to Buganda, using Christian porters and undercutting the Arab slave route to the south.

The sudden intrusion of German imperialism at the coast made the Kabaka of Buganda Mwanga II, even more suspicious of Hannington's motives.

[11] Together with his team, he safely reached a spot near Lake Victoria on 21 October, but, under the orders of Mwanga II of Buganda, the missionaries were imprisoned in Busoga by Basoga chiefs.

Alexander Murdoch Mackay, who had first-hand knowledge of events from the Buganda side, in letters dated 2 May 1886, wrote: "Had the matter of the Busoga route been the real point at issue, the king needed only to adopt our advice at the time, and request the Bishop to return to the neighbourhood of Kwa Sundu in Kavirondo, whither the boat had gone for him.

Further we gave the King perfectly to understand who they were, and why they came via the east, viz., to avoid the Germans"[12][page needed]Widespread persecution of Christians followed, many being killed or sold to Arab slavers.

[13] Joseph Mukasa Balikuddembe, a Roman Catholic and an official at Mwanga's court, rebuked the king for the deed, and was beheaded for it.