Religion Must Not Be Dangerous To Our Children
- Category: Children
- Date 25-06-2000
- 419 views
Perhaps there has never been greater danger to Uganda’s children than has been demonstrated by some upcoming Christian religious sects. Children have always suffered indeed, drawing widespread outcry from several sections of our society, including religious leaders. So, the last person to plan a systematic, calculated destruction of young people would surely be a religious leader.
In March 2000, a self-made prophet of the doomsday cult, The Movement from the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God, Joseph Kibwetere, with his cohorts Rev. Fr. Dominic Kataribabo - a former Catholic Church Minister - and Credonia Mwerinde - a woman who claimed visions of the Virgin Mary leading to her abandonment of her sixth husband and turning herself into a self-styled nun, - put their act together and massacred about 1000 followers. It is breathtaking to note that nearly a half of the victims were children of varying ages.
According to reports, suckling babies, and other adolescents were among the people that were either burnt in the church inferno at Kanungu in Rukungiri district on Friday 17 March 2000, or whose bodies were subsequently discovered in mass graves.
Background to children’s participation
All the children who had joined the cult had, in one way or another, been influenced by their adult relatives (parents, grandparents, cousins, aunts etc). The majority of the followers of the cult were women and children estimated at over 70% of the whole sect membership.
Some couples agreed to join the new faith which was established in 1990, soon after their leader, Joseph Kibwetere, had disagreed on religious practices with his spouse. Therefore, for those unfortunate families where spouses reached total agreement and joined, they led even their children into the cult.
In other families, one spouse chose to take cult membership, mostly women, and they pulled children along with them. The children would follow, considering the attachment, love and comfort they always found in their mothers. Reports of such cases were recorded: One such case was Jane Barisingara, “…… Kibwetere approached and convinced her they had a cure to AIDS through prayer… She pulled all the children from school… to the camp”. (The Monitor March 25, 2000). Also, “… a woman from Kabale came with six children and all were burnt” (The Monitor March 20, 2000). “Zaverio Rungengera from Kakoba in Mbarara lost 13 children.” The same paper reported that Patrick Mubangizi from Kabale and his wife perished with their children.
Another big number of children were drawn into the cult by their parents, with the establishment of Ishayuriro Boarding Primary School at the cult headquarters in Kanungu. It enlisted pupils from cult members and non-members alike, initially for P1 to P4 grades. The conditions at the school were so harsh and dehumanizing that local government officials intervened and closed it in 1999. The pupils were forced to fast; taking dilute porridge in small quantities per day. They were made to attend compulsory prayer sessions and were not at liberty to talk to one another. Their communication, like for the rest of the members, was closely regulated by their unfriendly clique of leaders.
The children were also being exposed to long hours of hard work on the cult’s farm and plantations. They were also herded into a dormitory and made to sleep on the bare floor, sometimes with mere mats and no blankets. The poor hygiene standards were appalling and led to an outbreak of diseases, including itchy skin rash and measles. This incensed the Rukungiri District Local Authorities and the school was closed, at the instance of local councilors. However, some of the children remained at the camp, especially since their parents were already members of the cult. Since it was an abomination for the cult members to use conventional medical treatment, very many of the children lost their lives and were, probably, some of those discovered in the mass graves!
Then, there are those children who went to the cult camp, lured by the food scent of a feast. On Thursday March 16, 2000, the cult threw a grand party to which people were invited, including non-cult members. It was their last meal before the Virgin Mary would appear to open the gates of heaven and usher them into the heavenly grandeur; they who had forsaken everything earthly. There were seventy crates of soda, several bulls were slaughtered and other foodstuffs were quite ferried in.
Little wonder therefore that children were present at the camp compound and were herded into the church shortly before the blaze was started! Someone said, “For us, many of the people were coerced, specially the children, while others were curious people who had gone to participate in the feasting”. What a tragedy!!
According to The New Vision Vol. 15 No. 71 (see: “Cult lured Playing Kids into Suicide”), “Children playing in the grounds of the Uganda doomsday cult headquarter were ushered back into a building just before it was set ablaze. The bodies of 78 children were among the remains of 330 people counted at Kanungu, South Western Uganda. A woman who had come to the compound to visit her mother, who was a member of the cult told police that she had seen children leave the cult’s church to go to play but that cult leaders then herded them back into the building.
Elsewhere, mass graves were continually discovered at Fr. Dominic Kataribabo’s house in Lugazi Bunyaruguru - Bushenyi and in Buhunga, Rujumbura - Rukungiri; all full of rotting bodies, among them, children. Another mass grave was discovered in Bushenyi district. Of the 81 bodies discovered in one mass grave in Bushenyi only seven were men and the rest were children and some women. There were also 59 children in the three graves in Buhunga, including the body of a two-year-old! Whenever the parents were killed, the remedy to the likely ensuing disturbance from their surviving children was to kill the children as well, it seems.
It is suspected, however, that more mass graves are existent in other yet unknown places where murders and mass burials occurred and it might again take too long or forever to unearth all the mass graves left behind by the cult. If they are existent, then many more children surely perished in this religious madness.
It is not only the Kibwetere cult that held beliefs that were dangerous to children. Many sections of our society have beliefs endanger children. Witchcraft is rampant and greatly characterized by child mutilation and murders in form of sacrifice. Accounts also have ever been made of insensitive Christians who grossly abuse children. Wilson Bushara’s Last Message Warning Church had similarly set up a camp where they committed crimes, ranging from defilement, rape, abduction and starvation of children under unhygienic conditions, to theft. Another priestess, Gwajwa Nabaasa had started a faith in Sembabule that is still growing strong. Every other individual is at liberty to start a church and have freedom of worship as provided for in Uganda’s 1995 Constitution, Chapter Four, Article 29 Section One, subsection C. “Freedom to practice any religion…”
Unfortunately, it is the innocent children that fall victims. They either miss their educational opportunities, social, economic and other secular necessities. This kills integral orientation This is too bad for our young ones. The statement by the United Nations Children’s agency UNICEF was apt and timely, “… that the death of children in the Kanungu fire and other related cases of violence against them negate the many gains Uganda has achieved in promoting, protecting and fulfilling the rights of children”.
Equally timely was the Easter Sunday sermon by His Eminence Emmanuel Cardinal Wamala the Archbishop of Kampala who decried child abuse in homes. He should have gone ahead to condemn all social child abuse prevailing in all corners of our society. That is when we would hope to have honest, upright and responsible leaders of the world of tomorrow.
Children form a sizeable proportion of the vulnerable and disadvantaged groups in all societies. And it should be remembered that survival of any society, religion or otherwise, lies in the wellbeing of the young. Thus a religious leader should be at the forefront in the defense of child welfare. Children must find comfort in religion.
Government and security agencies must also shed off the fear and complacence in tackling suspicious religious extremists who might cause great tragedy as has already been demonstrated. They should be watched, and any malicious moves by the religious leaders must be averted as quickly as possible. The upsurge of child abuse in the places of worship, where self-appointed visionaries here continued to hold our children at ransom underlies a serious moral problem. The young are always the obvious prey for the dangerous sects which are started by people with personality and social problems. Like the feast that Kibwetere threw on the eve of the fateful day (March 17), some other inducements are often offered to young people, such as booming music in public places and street corners. These should be watched closely.
The religious practices and groups that are injurious to children’s self-esteem, physical health, mental and psychological development and social relationships should be abhorred. Religion should rather endeavour to consolidate the gains it has already made in children promotion. Preparing the young to have a bright future through education and other amenities should become the centre of commitment for religious leaders. Only then shall we boast of any moral authority to advocate for a just and upright society. Otherwise, the Kanungu incident will always haunt us and reflect negatively on everyone and on religions which we cherish greatly.
By Venansio Ahabwe
Source: Child-Link Magazine