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On March 17, 2000 an estimated 338 members of The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God (MRTCG) died near the village of Kanungu, Uganda in what appeared to be a mass suicide. Within a few days additional bodies were recovered beyond the site were the explosion occurred bring bringing the count to nearly eight hundred persons. It was clearly evident that at least some of these bodies had been murdered.
The task of developing reliable information about this tragedy in the remote southeast corner of Uganda has been difficult for several reasons. First, little was known about the group prior to the tragedy. Second, as of this writing there is no evidence that any of the principal participants survived. Third, the magnitude of the tragedy simply overwhelmed the resources of the Ugandan officials to conduct a thorough investigation of either the scene or the corpses of those who perished. Fourth, with so little factual information to draw upon, media coverage, both in Africa and beyond, drew upon popular cultural presuppositions about the mass suicide in Jonestown, Guyana in 1989.
While it is clear that many of the particulars about what happened to this sectarian
movement, and why, will never be known with certainty, a few scholars have begun to
piece together information that provides helpful perspective for understanding the
tragedy. Jean-Francois Mayer of the Department of Religious Studies at the University
of Fribourg, who has investigated and published on other incidences of religious
violence, traveled to South-western Uganda in the summer of 2000 to gather first hand
information.
When studying the emergence of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten
Commandments, it is essential that one grasp the environment in which it was rooted.
Uganda
is predominately Christian (about 66%) and about a third Roman Catholic.
The movement is claimed to go back back to Paulo Kashaku (father of founder Credonia
Mwerinde), who, in 1960, saw a vision of his deceased daughter, Evangelista. She told
him that he would be visited by apparitions from heaven. According to documents of the
movement, the prediction came to pass in 1988, when he was visited by Jesus, the Virgin
Mary, and St. Joseph. Their messages were a blessing on his family and a call to use his
land, near the city of Kanungu, as a gathering place for believers.
Kashaku's children and grandchildren were also said to see apparitions, most
importantly, his daughter, Credonia Mwerinde, who was a driving force behind the
movement. In June 1989, Credonia Mwerinde, with her daughter, Ursula Komuhangi, "were
instructed by Kashaku, upon instructions of the Blessed Virgin, to take the message to
other parts of the country." They met Joseph Kibwetere in June of that year, and
described to him their communication with the Virgin Mary.
Joseph Kibwetere was, as reported by Henri Cauvin of
The New York Times
, "a Roman Catholic known among many Ugandans for his piety, prayer and good works."
Kibwetere founded a Catholic school and become supervisor of other schools in the
region. He was also apparently a person of some means as he donated land upon which two
other Catholic schools were built.
Kibwetere also is reported to have had encounters with the Virgin Mary from as early
as 1984. He received Credonia Mwerinde into his home with open arms. This, she said, was
what the Virgin Mary had instructed to occur.
In 1992 Kibwetere and the members moved to Kanungu in the district of Rukunginri.
There, the group grew and flourished. Several hundred lived in a communal setting and
practiced an austere life-style. They built homes, a church, an office, and a school.
The movement remained virtualy unknown to the world until March 17, 2000, when an
estimated 338 people were reported to have died in flames in the boarded up old church
on the headquarters compound in Kanungu. Four days after the fire, investigators found
six bodies in the bottom of the latrine behind the church, covered in concrete. The
six had been brutally murdered, half undressed, and placed almost haphazardly in the
hole.
Soon two other mass graves were discovered. On March 24, 153 bodies were
found in mass graves in Rutoma about 30 miles south of Kanungu. Two more mass graves
were discovered on March 26 at the home of Dominic Kataribabo, an excommunicated Roman
Catholic priest and group leader. Authorities exhumed 74 bodies from a mass grave in
Kataribabo's yard and an additional 28 bodies were found beneath a concrete floor in
Katarirbado's home.
As new discoveries were being made, the international press reported that estimates
rose to as high as 1000, thus exceeding the number of deaths in Jonestown. The actually
number of deaths was later revised downward to about 780 persons. Further
investigation also revealed that the graves were dug over some time -- perhaps a year or
more. And in all the mass graves, there was evidence of murder by multiple methods. All
except the first were very orderly, the bodies reportedly had been completely undressed
and stacked like sardines.
The church fire itself seemed just as planned and orderly. In the days preceeding March
17th, the members had engaged in activities that seemed to have been preparation for the
end. "The group at Kanungu began to prepare for their deliverance...they slaughtered
cattle [and] purchased a large supply of Coca-Cola," noted J. Gordon Melton. Members
traveled across the country to invite both current members and previous members to come
back to the compound by the 17th, urging the importance of coming despite all costs.
The night of March 15th, the members consumed the beef and coke they had purchased and
celebrated the building of their new church.
The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God published a book
entitled "A Timely Message From Heaven: The End of the Present Time" detailing the
beliefs of the movement. Each member was required to read this document (or have it read
to them) many times before being allowed to join the group. This orientation could last
up to 4-6 days. The members then joined the first of three groups: the novices, comprised of the newest members, and wore black. The next group were those who promised
to follow the commandments and wore green. The fully professed members were "
those who were willing to die in the ark
," and they wore green and white.
Though the title for the full members apparently did not contain a message of violence
but rather referred to their place of burial on the compound, the titles may have played
an important role in the later deaths (see issues and controversies). The organization
of the community centered around the twelve apostles, called
Entumwa
(meaning messenger). Seen as the second generation from those apostles that followed
Jesus, these 12 were to prepare for the second coming. Since the movement believed that
at the second coming both Jesus and the Virgin Mary would return, six women were chosen,
joining six men to make up the chosen group. They were led by Kibwetere, who filled the
position of head apostle on Kashaku's death.
Apostle Dominic Kataribaabo claimed that the group did not consider itself a new
religious movement at all, but rather affiliated themselves with the Roman Catholics.
The emphasis on the Ten Commandments led to communication between the members through sign language, so that no commandments would be broken. And the members also participated in rituals similiar to those practiced in monastaries: nightly prayer, a bare lifestyle, etc.
The compound in Kanungu was seen as Noah's Ark, where the Second Coming of Christ was
to occur, allowing for those within to pass to the new world. It is clear that the group
expected the Second Coming to arrive shortly and bring a new world with it, but there is
still some dispute as to when this was to occur.
One critical question that remains is when the group believed the new world was to
come. Though he agrees that the group held apocalyptic beliefs, scholar Jean-Francois
Mayer disputes the widely-held belief that the group met its end after a failed prophecy
that the end of the world was to come on December 31st, 1999. The documents of the group
(namely,
A Timely Message from Heaven
, clearly states that the new earth "will begin with year one, after the year 2000."
Another document, from the founders themselves to local officials, states, "The year
2000 will not be followed by year 2001 but it will be followed by YEAR ONE in a new
generation."
This important observation, however, does not explain the death toll on March 17th
nor the mystery of the mass graves that dated back perhaps a year, or even longer,
before the fire that consumed more than three hundred persons. One possible conclusion
could be that the mass graves have to do with the strictly defined categories of
members. And, it is possible that those bodies found piled in the graves were in fact
those members who had not yet joined the ranks of "those who were ready to die in the
ark."
The location of the leaders will perhaps never be known because the bodies were so
badly burned there were no means of identification. However, it seems very unlikely
that they would have escaped unnoticed.
There was also some question as to whether the events could have been avoided if
officials had taken action earlier. An article in
The East African
suggested that the Uganda Human Rights Commission had been contacted a couple of years
previously about human rights violations and had not taken action. The NGO Board of the
Ministry of Internal Affairs had also received previous warning of disaster in the form
of a letter which stated, "When the year 2000 comes to an end, the present times or
generation will be changed and there will follow a new generation and a new earth."
The mysterious nature of the church fire in Kanungu led to many varied reports
immediately following the event. The initial response in the mass media was that the
group had planned an apocalyptic mass suicide. The fire was assumed to have been a mass
suicide and was compared to the mass suicide in
Jonestown, Guyana
. Comparisons were also made to the mass suicide of the
Solar Temple
group in Switzerland. Then, as more graves were discovered, a new theory of mass
murder developed. It was suggested that after a failed prophecy of the apocalypse, the
leaders had killed their discontented followers and then escaped.
While rumors spread about the cause of the tragedy, the details themselves were greatly
exploited in early coverage of the event. This is most likely due to the severe lack of
concrete evidence and confusion among the Ugandan officials and the community of Kanungu
about what transpired, but it also shows how eager the media was for another story like
that of Jonestown. News stories reported up to 1000 dead even though the deaths never
surpassed 800. Some reports included witness accounts that Kibwetere escaped, but
there has been no definite evidence found to support this, and Mayer suggests that this
is highly unlikely.
The lack of concrete information about the group itself invitably led to a number of
rumors about the leaders' past lives in the months preceeding the deaths. One African
paper,
New Vision
, declared that Joseph Kibwetere had faked his death in 1990, when he bought a coffin
and "told his followers to fill it with stones and dig a grave."
While dedicated scholars like Jean Francois Mayer continue to uncover information, some questions may never be answered as to what actually transpired in Kanungu on March 17, 2000, or why those events occurred. Those who look for easy answers may find them in proclaiming the leaders of this group to be the personification of evil or in denouncing the members as crazy. We caution against such explanations, for they explain nothing at all.
Religious
Tolerance Page
This page promotes freedom of religion and attempts to offer a nonbiased approach to
religious groups. The facts are not well-represented on this page,but it does provide
some insight as to how the deaths were covered by the media, and addresses the
controversy involved with the reason for the deaths.
CNN
World News
An overview of previous news coverage on the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten
Commandments of God, and links to similiar stories. Content is constantly changing, so
it will be necessary to use their search engine tolocate materials.
Infoplease
An article that compares the Ugandan group with other groups that met similiar ends.
Rick Ross
Page
Rick Ross runs an anti-cult web page that contains links to a number of related
articles and commentaries.
African Instituted (Independent) Churches
African Religion Web Resources
"Top 50 African Web Sites - Religion"
U.S. Department of State Annual Report on International Religious Freedom for 1999: Uganda
Religious Freedom Page: Nation Profiles, Uganda
Professor Mayer asks that we advise readers that this paper is not available for
circulation at this time. He anticipates that his research report will be published in
an academic journal in late 200l.
Created by
Elizabeth Auten
For: Soc 257: New Religious MOvements
Fall term, 2000
University of Virginia
Last modified: 07/20/01