Dr Damiano Kato Abooki – Security & Society Analysis Kampala
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
Uganda and East Africa have a long history of believing in man who claims power to turn bullets into water. From Maji Maji Rebellion in Tanzania (1905), to Alice Lakwena’s Holy Spirit Movement in Acholi (1986), to Joseph Kony’s LRA, to Owobusobozi Bisaka’s Faith of Unity in Kasese, to Marian apparitions, traditional healers, witchcraft and pentecostal stage – The pattern is same.
A desperate people, a charismatic man, blessed water or oil, promise of protection, demand for sacrifice. Result: Mass death, exploitation, and lost direction.
This independent article asks: Who sacrifices and why? It argues that silence due to political threats or academic arrogance is fertilizing the next tragedy. We must speak – With filing, with history, with moral clarity.
The Theatre of Miracles did not start in Kampala yesterday. It started when man first believed that a fellow man has power to turn bullets into water.
Man is religious animal, but also gullible when desperate.
1. MAJI MAJI REBELLION – 1905-1907 – TANGANYIKA
Germans had Maxim guns. Africans had spears. Kinjikitile Ngwale, a spirit medium, gave his people Maji Maji – Blessed water mixed with castor oil.
Message: Sprinkle this water, German bullet will turn into water. It will not penetrate your body. Shout “Maji Maji” and charge.
Tens of thousands of Wamatumbi, Wangindo, and other groups believed. Why? Because colonial forced labour, cotton, and hut tax oppression was unbearable. They needed miracle, not logic.
They attacked German bomas with spears. Germans fired machine guns. 75,000 to 300,000 died.
Lesson: Belief in man + blessed water + desperate people = Mass death. Water did not stop bullets.
2. ALICE LAKWENA – HOLY SPIRIT MOVEMENT – 1986-1987 – ACHOLI
Alice Auma Lakwena from Opit, Acholi. Claimed possession by spirit “Lakwena” – Meaning messenger. Gave her followers shea oil, stones blessed to become bombs, rules: No killing snake, no sex, sing holy songs.
Promise: Bullets will turn into water, if you are pure.
Context: Acholi youth had just lost war – Tito Okello overthrown, NRA took power, fear of revenge. State collapsed in north. Need for protector was high.
Thousands followed. At Corner Kilak, Jinja, they sang and charged NRA with stones. They were mowed down. Bullets did not turn into water.
But belief in woman with spirit was stronger than military intelligence.
3. JOSEPH KONY – FROM LAKWENA’S ASHES
After Lakwena fled to Kenya, her cousin Joseph Kony said: My spirit is more powerful. He mixed Acholi tradition, Christianity, Islam, witchcraft.
He told abducted children: I know future, I protect you from bullets with oil, I speak to spirits.
He demanded sacrifice – Not chicken, but children. Children sacrificed to his movement.
Why did people follow? Because when state fails, man looks for strong man with spiritual claim. Kony offered direction when government offered nothing in Acholiland.
4. TRADITIONAL HEALERS, WITCHCRAFT AND PENTECOSTAL STAGE
1- Traditional Healer – Busoga, Buganda, Ankole, Toro: “Bring white chicken, black cloth, 2 million. Your enemy will die, your promotion will come.” People pay.
– Marian Faith – Kibeho, Rwanda: Apparitions of Virgin Mary claimed since 1981. Thousands walk. Some true devotion, some business – Selling water, rosary at high price.
– Bisaka – Faith of Unity – Muhoro, Kagadi, Bwera, Kasese, Kampala: Owobusobozi Bisaka (1935-2021). Told followers: Do not go to hospital, do not go to church or mosque. Come to me, I am the contact with God. Touch heals. He built 1,000+ villages, a city without hospital or school – Only healing rooms. Millions followed. Government watched quietly – Votes.
– Pentecostal Witchcraft: Modern pastor uses same formula as traditional healer – Anointing oil with cinnamon and cloves, water from Israel, prophetic number – Only language changed. One says “Mizimu”, other says “Anointing”. Both sell quick fix.
Pattern: Man claims special anointing. Gives simple formula: Water, oil, touch, sacrifice. Promises protection. Desperate people pay.
5. WHO AND WHY PEOPLE SACRIFICE?
WHO sacrifices?
Not only illiterate village mother. Also Kampala businessman, minister, general – Who goes to witchdoctor at night in Kyengera or Kigali. The fearful, the greedy, the powerless who want power quickly, the powerful who fear losing power.
WHY?
a) Exchange Mentality: Our cultures taught – Nothing for nothing. Blood must be given for favour. If I give goat, spirit gives tender. If I give chicken, enemy dies. Human sacrifice is extreme extension of same logic – Bigger blood, bigger favour.
b) Illusion of Control: When you have no control over job, marriage, court case – Sacrifice gives feeling: “I have done something, now spirit must act.”
c) Loss of Direction: When school teaches but no job, when church teaches only prosperity not suffering, when politics teaches stealing – Man has no moral compass. So he returns to oldest compass – Sacrifice to unseen power.
Pentecostal witchcraft and traditional witchcraft are same market – One uses Bible verse, other uses blood.
6. SHOULD WE KEEP QUIET?
No.
If our grandparents kept quiet during Maji Maji, more would have died believing water stops bullets.
If we kept quiet during Lakwena, Kony would have got more children.
Keeping quiet because of political threats is betrayal. Article 29 protects worship, but not fraud, not child sacrifice, not mass deception.
Keeping quiet because “it is faith, don’t touch” is cowardice.
What we must say loudly in schools, barracks, churches:
1. No water turns bullets into water. Teach children history of Maji Maji in Primary 5.
2. No oil stops AK-47. Teach UPDF recruits about defeat at Corner Kilak.
3. No sacrifice brings government tender. Teach in schools and at Business Schools – Hard work, not blood.
4. Man will always believe in man when institutions fail. So build institutions that work – Hospital with drugs, court with justice, university with jobs – Then belief in man reduces.
CONCLUSION
Man has always believed in man – Maji Maji, Lakwena, Kony, Bisaka, Marian, witchcraft, pentecostal stage. He does so when desperate and directionless.
The question is not whether he will believe. He will. The question is: Will we keep quiet?
I say: Without filing, no audit. Without audit, no protection.
Silence of Inter-Religious Council, silence of Born-Again Federation, silence of academics who fear being called anti-faith, silence of government that fears losing votes – That silence is fertilizer for next Lakwena, next sacrifice, next mass grave.
The greatest miracle we need is not turning bullets into water. It is turning a desperate youth into an employed, thinking citizen who does not need to believe that lie again.
