WORLD
APRIL
3, 2000 VOL. 155 NO. 13
Uganda's
Faithful Dead
A
fiery, murderous tragedy highlights the rapid rise of fringe Christian
groups in Africa
BY
SIMON ROBINSON/KANUNGU
All
that remains of the mud-and-concrete church building that nestled on the
side of a pretty, eucalyptus-studded hill near the town of Kanungu, in
southwestern Uganda, is a few sheets of corrugated tin that twist and snap
in the wind. More than a week after leaders of an obscure indigenous Christian
cult led, or perhaps forced, their followers into the building, poured
gasoline around and then set, or had their followers set, fire to the place,
the site has become a macabre graveyard. Police bulldozed the building
and its grisly contents--at least 330, and perhaps as many as 550, charred
corpses--into a trench dug by prisoners, burying the physical evidence
but not erasing the horror of one of Uganda's worst atrocities. "What most
disturbs me is the children who died," says Gervis Muteguya, who lost five
relatives in the fire. "Children are innocent. They had no choice in this."
Ugandan
police agree and are treating the deaths as murder. Late last week two
mass graves in a compound belonging to the cult 31 miles from the church
in Kanungu yielded at least 150 more bodies, including 60 children and
mostly women who had been strangled and hacked to death. Officials were
still trying to determine whether cult leader Joseph Kibwetere, 68, died
in the blaze or escaped. The onetime devout Roman Catholic teacher helped
create the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God
sect 10 years ago, after claiming he had been told by the Virgin Mary that
the world would soon end. In the mid-1990s, he established a base in remote
Kanungu. Using money provided by followers, who commonly sold their homes
and possessions upon joining, and funds from groups and individuals overseas,
Kibwetere built a small complex of houses, offices and a school. He recruited
followers from nearby rural districts and from as far away as the capital,
Kampala.
Among
them were Muteguya's mother, sister, brother, sister-in-law and niece.
"I tried to stop them, but it was impossible," says Muteguya, surveying
the long red-earth mound where they lie buried. "They were indoctrinated
in a manner that if you tried to argue with them, they kept quiet. You
ended up talking around like a mad person." Muteguya did manage to stop
his relatives from selling the small family farm and late last year tried
again to persuade his 16-year-old sister to leave the sect. "She came home
to the village a few times, and I think she had given up because my mother
had been transferred to a different place. But they knew our home, and
they would come and take her by force." That was around the time Kibwetere
announced that the world would end on Dec. 31. When it didn't, he apparently
set a new date and urged his devotees to sell whatever possessions they
had left. Locals said the cult held a party at which 70 crates of soft
drinks and three bulls were consumed. Two days later, they were dead.
The
tragedy has focused attention on the rise of fringe Christian groups in
Uganda and elsewhere in Africa. Christianity is growing faster in Africa
than anywhere else on earth. At current growth rates, in the next decade
the number of African Christians will exceed the number of European believers:
perhaps 520 million, in contrast to 470 million. This would leave African
Christians second only to Christians in Latin America, who number around
700 million. Most of the tremendous growth is coming not in such historic
mainstream denominations as Anglican and Roman Catholic but in newer, livelier,
indigenous churches. "People find the old churches a bit slow," says Winfred
Muthoni, an assistant in a popular Christian bookshop in Nairobi, Kenya.
"People want to get excited for God. They want to feel free to worship."
The
new churches use local languages and mix traditional African spiritual
beliefs with Pentecostal-style worship, including the use of drums, guitars
and charismatic preachers. They also address local problems--poverty, drought,
corruption--and offer a sense of belonging that is rare in a continent
whose politicians so often fail their people and where traditional social
structures are coming apart.
But
while the new African churches may attract growing numbers of followers,
mainstream churches question the depth of faith in the converted, as well
as the commitment of the new churches to their flock. Like the Movement
for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments sect, many of the new churches
are built around charismatic and exploitative leaders and often fade once
those leaders leave or die.
Most
African churches are not as extreme as Uganda's doomsday cult, of course.
But the tragedy in Kanungu may slow the proliferation of indigenous churches,
at least in Uganda. Last week the Ugandan government suspended registration
of all new religious organizations and said it would stop all-night services
in existing churches. "We have to do something," says Muteguya, clutching
his black-rimmed glasses in both hands. "It defeats my understanding as
to why my family would abandon their home and come here for this. Why?"
False
Prophets
The
apocalypse wrought by Idi Amin and years of civil war has made Ugandans
vulnerable to the lure of charismatic extremists:
THE
HOLY SPIRIT MOVEMENT -- A violent Christian sect, its prophet, Alice Lakwena,
led a failed uprising against the government from 1985 to 1996. Believers
often died in suicidal attacks, convinced that magic oil would protect
them from the bullets of government troops.
THE
LORD'S RESISTANCE ARMY -- Led by Joseph Kony, its goal is to run Uganda
according to the biblical Ten Commandments. It is notorious for kidnapping
children and using them as soldiers and sex slaves.
THE
WORLD MESSAGE LAST WARNING -- A doomsday group begun by Wilson Bushara,
it was disbanded by Ugandan police last September after its leaders were
charged with rape, kidnapping, illegal confinement and murder.
COPYRIGHT
© 2000 TIME INC.
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