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Devil worship
People who believe in satanic powers have resorted to witchcraft… such bondage has led to acts of human sacrifice since devil worship involves shedding precious human blood
By Anthony Bugembe
DON’T ask who is behind the ritual murders. It is devil worshippers at work. Police, spiritual leaders and academicians, all agree that most of the ritual murders that have recently been taking place in the country bear the hallmark of devil worship.
“The cutting off of body parts of innocent victims is consistent with devil worship. The parts are offered as sacrifice to Lucifer, in exchange for wealth and prosperity”, explains Monsignor David Kyeyune, the national pastoral co-ordinator at the Uganda Catholic Secretariat in Nsambya.
Devil worship, according to Kyeyune, thrives in situations where people are obsessed with making quick money, often at the expense of human life.
“As people get more deeply involved in devil worship, the devil asks them to fulfil increasingly difficult demands, including making human sacrifices. Children are prime targets because they are presumed to be innocent and pure and, therefore, acceptable as sacrifices,” he further explains.
Kyeyune has carried out extensive research on devil worship in Uganda and Kenya.
Unlike in Kenya where about 10 years ago devil worship was organised and had ‘high priests, in Uganda it is reportedly still at individual level. However, if the rampant human scarifices continue the practice could gravitate into an organised institution. According to the priest-cum-academician, devil worship is a foreign culture imported from Kenya. “Devil worshipping was very rampant in Kenya in the 1990s. For example, in Nairobi they even had temples for worshipping the devil,” he says. A presidential commission of inquiry in Kenya during the 1990s, concluded that devil worship existed in the country.
Some of the devil worship rituals in the commission’s report include: human sacrifice, drinking human blood, eating human flesh, nudity of the participants in the ritual, incantations in unintelligible language, sexual abuse, especially of children; black magic, narcotic drugs and presence of snakes. Body parts such as tongues, eyes and limbs are also used in the rituals.
Initiation into devil worshipping is normally done at night and the initiates are always naked. The ritual involves drawing blood from the person to be initiated, mixing it with some substances before giving it to members to drink.
Sometimes a human being is killed during the initiation rites or a fresh body is brought in and its parts served to members.
“Anything that involves sacrificing a human being is devil worship. If someone does something that is meant to please Satan and does not treasure human life, then it is attributed to the devil,” says Robby Muhumuza, a researcher on false religions.
Even the Police agree the devil has a hand in the gruesome ritual murders that are causing a lot of public concern. Police spokesperson Judith Nabakooba strongly believes there is a link between the rampant ritual murders and devil worship.
“Devil worship is partly to blame for the increasing cases of human sacrifice in the country. Many people think that through worshipping the devil in the form of sacrificing human beings, they can get rid of bad luck and even get rich quick.” she says.
Children targeted
According to the 2008 Uganda Police Crime Report released on Thursday, ritual murders have risen by over 800% over the past year with children emerging as the most targeted victims. Earlier this year, an inter-ministerial Anti-Child Sacrifice/Human Trafficking Task Force, under the Uganda Police, was set up to combat ritual murders.
Since the beginning of this year, over 100 cases of suspected ritual murders have been recorded with the Police in different parts of the country. At first, the victims were mainly children, and the culprits mainly business people acting on the advice of unscrupulous traditional healers.
However, of late even grown-ups are also being targeted, as the practice moves away from the confines of urban centres, to cover the whole country. Mutilated bodies have been recovered with the head, limbs, genitals, tongue and other body parts missing.
According to Muhumuza, devil worshippers get the relevant body parts and take them to witchdoctors to use in devil worshipping rituals. “The witchdoctors claim the body parts are to be used to appease the devil on behalf of their clients,” Muhumuza adds.
Ethics and integrity state minister James Nsaba-Buturo blames the rampant ritual murders on a general moral decline of our society, characterised by devil worshipping. “The people who believe in satanic powers have resorted to witchcraft. They confide in witchdoctors and believe everything that is told to them. Such bondage has led to acts of human sacrifice because devil worship involves shedding precious human blood.
While Kenya’s devil worshippers are organised as a group, with temples where they go to worship the devil and even a ‘high priest’ to lead them in prayer, their Ugandan counterparts are still operating as individuals.
“I don’t think it is an organised group working under the same leadership. They are controlled by the devil but they operate independently, not as an organised congregation. However, the bottom line is that they all work for the devil.” Muhumuza explains. Buturo concurs with Muhumuza: “These people operate on individual basis. It is really a desperate lot of individuals being misled into devil worship by witchdoctors.”
However, the Kenyan report notes that initiation into devil worship is presided over by a ‘high priest’ at night in secluded places. It is also believed that devil worshippers use wealth to lure new members.
Ki-Nigeria blamed
A number of religious leaders blame the proliferation of Nollywood movies (Ki-Nigeria) for cultivating devil worship in the country. Most of the Nigerian movies on the Ugandan market contain scenes of devil worship.
Sources also pointed a finger at some Christian church that has bizarre teachings that lure members of the congregation into devil worship unknowingly. There are unconfirmed reports that a pastor of one church in Kampala sprinkles the congregation with water mixed with drops of blood.
Most times, sacrificial rituals have been attributed to traditional medicine. However, Sylvia Namutebi (Maama Fiina), the head of traditional healers in the country, draws a distinctive line. “A genuine traditional healer cannot sacrifice a human being. Besides, sacrificing a person cannot make you rich. This is a foreign culture that has been copied from societies that believe in offering human sacrifices,” she argues, adding that in her 17-year career as a traditional healer, the ‘powers’ have never asked her to make a human sacrifice. To show that the ‘powers’ she serves don’t cherish human blood, Namutebi explains that a female traditional healer cannot practise during her menstrual periods.
Herbalists in Uganda are known to dispense medicines while witchdoctors are linked to the spiritual world and they demand different kinds of sacrifices, including human beings.
Radio presenter Roger Mugisha “The shadow” is a self-confessed former devil worshipper. He chose to worship the devil out of the desire for money and quick wealth and believed that the devil would grant him his wish. He says that in the spirit world, names are very important. To that effect, ‘The Shadow’ was short for ‘the shadow of death’. He was the brain behind the erotic dance group, Shadow’s Angels. Mugisha later disbanded the group after becoming born again in 2003.
Muhumuza says that some people engage in devil worship unknowingly usually through subscribing to witchcraft while others do it knowingly. However, he insists that whether knowingly or unknowingly, ritual sacrifice is a form of devil worship and should be discouraged in every possible way.
But what is the Uganda government doing about the whole situation? Dr. Buturo says: “This trend has generated a lot of concern on our part as the Government because it is our responsibility to ensure that people live peacefully. That is why next week, my office in conjunction with the ministries of health, gender and internal affairs are going to meet and find a way of tackling this emerging trend (of devil worship).”
On her part, Nabakooba calls upon the Government to put in place guidelines to check on the activities of witchdoctors since in most cases, they encourage human sacrifice. Nabakooba adds that it is always hard for the Police to bring to book some of the devil worshippers who engage in human sacrifice because of the discreet nature of their operations.
“Most of these (human) sacrifices are done stealthily and at awkward hours. When we start investigating, there are no people to give us personal accounts because most of the victims don’t live to see the next day. This makes it difficult to pin down these criminals,” she observes.
Kenya and Uganda are not the only East African countries having to contend with devil worship. In May 2008, Tanzanian president Jakaya Kikwete announced a crackdown on witchdoctors to save albinos in the country following reports that they were being killed for devil worship rituals involving their body parts. The sexual organs of male and female albinos were believed to have miraculous powers.
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What different body parts are wanted for
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Blood: Believed to boost one’s vitality when taken raw.
Skull: Placed in the foundation of new buildings to bring good luck to a business.
Brains: Eaten to achieve political power and success in business.
Hands: Built into shop entrances to attract customers. They are also burnt to ash and mixed into a paste, which is used to treat strokes.
Entire bodies: Buried on farms to secure big harvests.
Genitals, breasts and uteruses: They are used to treat infertility and to bring good luck. Those taken from young boys and virgin girls are especially prized as uncontaminated’ and, therefore, highly potent.
There is a belief among devil worshippers that body parts taken from live victims are rendered more potent by their screams.
Published on: Saturday, 28th March, 2009
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