RELIGIONS INFLUENCES
UGANDA and the LORDS RESISTANCE ARMY
Part 4
The Holy Spirit Movement, formed in 1986 by Alice Lakwena. Lakwena considered herself a prophet, had mobilised Okello’s supporters and led them against Museveni’s National Resistance Army. She armed her followers with sticks and stones and managed to convince them the army’s bullets would bounce off their chests after she had anointed them with shea butter oil. Hundreds of followers died in suicide attacks on the UPDF and government installations. This group engaged the government in a bloody war from 1986 – 1996.
Lakwena’s rebellion was defeated by the UPDF and she fled to Kenya, where she is still in exile.
Her nephew, Joseph Kony, declared himself her “spiritual heir” and formed the LRA. This is thought to be the successor to the Holy Spirit Movement. The LRA rebels say they are fighting for the establishment of a government based on the biblical Ten Commandments.
The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments was started in 1988 by Credonia Mwerinde (said she had visions from the virgin Mary) and Joseph Kibwetere (psych patient and excommunicated from Catholic Church). Extreme adherence to the ten commandments and had the Catholic Church high on the list of those who broke the ten commandments. They prepared for the end of the world on 31 Dec 99 as predicted by their two leaders, when it didn’t happen they were then directed towards the final mass murder of this group. Between the predicted date and the time of the murder, a lot of members grew dissatisfied and demanded their money back and left. Many of these people were murdered, possibly by the leadership of the group. (Suicide in most African cultures is believed to make you a ghost so is shunned in most parts of Africa.) This disillusionment probably prompted the final act of mass murder to occur. There are also significant indicators of possible government involvement and cover-up and the follow on from other shut-downs of such movements. The group however, followed practices similar to Catholicism and acted very similar to traditional African Indigenous Churches.
In September 1999, the government disbanded, by force, another group calling itself the World Message Last Warning church. This had an approximate 1000 membership. It was listed as a type of doomsday cult as well. The leaders were charged with rape, kidnapping and illegal confinement. Evidence stated was young girls raped, boys held against their will and 18 unmarked graves. This was in the town of Luwero.
In November 1999, riot police invaded a camp led by a ‘prophetess’ who ate nothing but honey. This camp was seen as a security threat and somehow tied into rebel incursions.
Four factors emerge.
- Uganda is one of the most Christian countries in Africa, heavily Catholic and Protestant. Some indicators of disillusionment with these western religions in handling the ongoing tragedy of the area lead people to look for more extreme – Christian combined with indigenous beliefs – groups.
- Common threads run through these extremist groups that tie in with the guerilla groups, such as the LRA – rape, abductions, mutilations, murder, use of children as soldiers, etc.
- Successive governments have tended to repress such groups and the current does the same and there seems an identification with the suffering in the north, tied in with the ‘freedom fighters’ of religious type groups (LRA) and such apocalyptic-type cults.
- Possible government involvement in violent destruction of these groups.
Child slavery is an area most wish not to confront. Best to not know about it then you cannot be affected by it or feel responsible for it. It takes a few people with nerves of steel to deal with such horrors. It is up to the rest of us to give them every support they need.
