The AGL circumscription has an 18 year history. It resulted from the merger of three countries with Salesian presences: Rwanda, Burundi and Uganda. Previously, Rwanda and Burundi were part of a Delegation of the Central Africa Province (AFC), which included, in addition to the two countries, two communities in the eastern part of the Democratic Republic of Congo; while Uganda belonged to the East Africa Province (AFE), along with Kenya, Tanzania and Sudan (today AFE includes Kenya, Sudan and South Sudan).

It was on 6 June 2006 that the Provincial Councils of AFE and the Rwanda-Burundi Delegation of AFC met in Bombo for the handover and organisation of the future Vice-Province. And on 15 August 2006, the official inauguration of the AGL Vice-Province, placed under the patronage of St. Charles Lwanga, took place in Kimihurura, near Kigali, the capital of Rwanda. Fr Francis Alencherry, General Councillor for the Missions and Coordinator for the Africa and Madagascar Region (replacing Fr Valentin de Pablo, who died on 16 April 2006), represented the then Rector Major, Fr Pascual Chávez, and presided over the ceremony on his behalf. On the same occasion, during the Eucharistic celebration, the first Superior of AGL, Fr Gabriel Ngendakuriyo, was also installed, and five novices made their perpetual profession.

However, it should be noted that Salesians were present in the three countries that make up the current province long before it was inaugurated as a Vice-Province.

The Salesians arrived in Rwanda on 1st January 1954 at the request of Archbishop Deprimoz, Apostolic Vicar of Kabgayi, who had personally gone to Turin in 1952 to request a team of Salesians to set up what was to become the ‘official Don Bosco technical school in Kicukiro’. Six Salesians arrived in Rwanda: Fathers Charles Van Lommel, Henri Claes, Herman Croymans, Brother Henri Stuyck and young clerics Michel Vandewalle and Roger Vande Kerkhove. In Rwanda, the Salesians are in Butare, Kabgayi and Kigali.

In Burundi, Salesian work began on 1 July 1962 after a meeting between Bishop André Makarakiza, Bishop of Ngozi - who needed to set up an institute for young people in his diocese of Ngozi, which lacked a secondary school - and Fr Henri Claes who, taking advantage of a period of holiday from his mission in Rwanda, had gone to Burundi to sound out the possibility of establishing the Salesians in Burundi, after the minor seminary in Rwesero (in Rwanda) had been handed over to the local clergy. In Burundi today, Salesians are in Ngozi, Rukago, Buterere and Kagwema.

Sending Salesians to Uganda, on the other hand, was one of the results of Project Africa The task of sending the Salesians to Uganda had attracted the attention of the Rector Major, who saw the possibility of quickly and solidly establishing the Congregation in Uganda and finding good vocations. The project of sending Salesians to Uganda was entrusted to the Polish provinces. So it was that in 1987 Fr Augustin Dziedziel, Regional Superior for Eastern Europe, went to Uganda to meet Cardinal Nsubuga and discuss the future establishment of a Salesian presence in this country that had just suffered a civil war.

He was taken to the three parishes of Ggaba, Ndeba and Namaliga-Bombo by Fr Cyprian Kizito Lwanga, who later became the first Bishop of the diocese of Kasana-Luwero. Although Fr Dziedziel’s choice was to establish the first work in Ggaba, close to the capital, Kampala, and Lake Victoria, Cardinal Nsubuga's choice was Bombo-Namaliga, where the first Salesians, Fr Bernard Popowski, Henry Juszczyk, Thomas Grzegorzewski and Richard Jozwiak, settled to begin their first work in the country. In Uganda, the Salesians today are in Bombo, Kamuli, Namugongo, Gulu and Palabek.

Today, the Salesians of Don Bosco currently number 140 confreres, including 60 priests, 17 coadjutors, 85 perpetually professed, 55 temporarily professed and 10 novices. In total, they work in 14 communities: 6 in Rwanda, 4 in Burundi (including Kagwema) and 5 in Uganda. The Provincial House is located in Kimihurura, Rwanda, which also hosts all three formation houses: the Prenovitiate in Gatenga, the Novitiate in Butare and the Postnovitiate in Kabgayi.

The apostolates carried out are 6 parishes, 5 secondary schools, 7 vocational and technical schools and 11 oratories. The province also cares for refugees - mostly South Sudanese - in the settlement of Palabek, where it also looks after some kindergartens and primary schools.

The groups of the Salesian Family in the province, besides the Salesians of Don Bosco, are the Daughters of Mary Help of Christians (FMA), the Association of Mary Help of Christians (ADMA), the Past Pupils and Friends of Don Bosco (Ex.DB), the Volunteers of Don Bosco (VDB), the Volunteers with Don Bosco (CMB), the Salesian Cooperators and the Sisters of Charity of Jesus.

A video presenting the Salesian reality of AGL in 10 minutes can be seen on ANSChannel.

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