Etyang Ezekiel, a resident of Bugeso village in Iwemba Sub County was
found with a human skeleton at his home. After his arrest at the
weekend, Etyang confessed to police of practicing witchcraft.
Kyeyune Idris, the officer in charge of Bugiri police station, said
that they arrested the suspect following a tip off from residents .
He says Etyang told police that he had exhumed the body of a resident
who died recently in the area to perform rituals and become rich.
Kyeyune says the suspect faces charges of disturbing the peace of the
dead as soon as investigations are complete. Some of the bones had
blood.
Etyang who was arrested after a family dog was seen munching on the
skull. But Etyang claims that he had smeared chicken blood on the skull
as one way of cleansing the spirit of the deceased.
Clovis
Bamuroho (carrying a sack) of Karambi sub-county, Kabarole district was
evicted last month after his daughter-in-law ran away, spreading
rumours that the family she had married into were cannibals. Residents
found human bones in Bamuroho’s house, which they made him carry in a
sack. All pictures by Hope Mafaranga
Zakumumpa
disclosed that they also arrested Annet Anirwoth, 30, and Gladys
Arombo, 19, because they were Malenia’s colleagues who were found with
her at the time of arrest to help them with investigations. Anirwoth and
Arombo have denied being cannibals.
“We
are considering DNA tests for the smoked foot and blood sample of
Giramyu’s mother, Jessica Akumu to ascertain whether it belonged to the
deceased baby. We shall also visit the grave to ascertain whether the
body is there or not. We are still expecting a police surgeon from
Kampala,” he said.
The CID boss warned residents not to tamper with the grave to distort evidence.
Residents say such cases are rife in Sonsyo and Walukuba sub-counties.
Residents
of Karambi sub-county evicted Tereza and destroyed her gardens in
February, after accusing her of cannibalism. It was said Tereza had
previously been evicted from Kooki and Kyaggwe
Ugandans eating people
In
Kyenjojo, there areas like Kyarusozi, Kisenyi and Katooke said to have
been notoriously dangerous until recently when the religion of
Owobusobozi Bisaaka launched a war on cannibalism.
In Kabalore, places like Kabusoke, Kagore, Nyabwina and Kanyasi were visited and the habit still goes on. In Isingiro, Katoma,
Nyamarungo, Endizi, Mbare, Kyanyanda, Rwangabo, Kihanda, Rugaaga and
Bukanga were mentioned. In Masindi, Kilannyi, Kisabagwa and Kisanja were
visited.
In
Buganda, Kyaggwe (Buikwe, Mukono) is largely believed to be the home
of night dancing and the Butiko clan, patrons of a dance in Kabaka’s
court known as Amaggunju, is pointed at as the originators of night dancing.
However,
night dancing of a cannibalistic nature is more reported in Buluuli
county where, people are still warned never to walk alone after night
fall.
In
Uganda, the Lord's Resistance Army are also accused of routine ritual
or magical cannibalism. Children returning from the LRA rebel camps
told how they were forced at gunpoint to drink the blood of murdered
victims.
The cannibalism book
In
October 2011, Prof Heike Behrend and others published a shocking book
on cannibalism in Uganda based on a long and intensive fieldwork in Toro
area. The book, Resurrecting Cannibals; The Catholic Church, Witch-Hunts and the Production of Pagans in Western Uganda, offers
first hand incidents of crusades, exorcisms, cleansing and the
afterlives of ex cannibals, uses the African spiritual relationship
between body, food and society to reconstruct a pre-colonial cosmology
of consumption and digestion.
Behrend,
the professor of Anthropology and African Studies at the University of
Cologne, Germany, also explains how cannibalism draws on both
pre-Christian ideas and church dogma of the bodily resurrection and the
ritual of Holy Communion. His co-author, James Currey, is also the
author of Alice Lakwena and the Holy Spirits (1999), and co-editor of Spirit Possession, Modernity and Power in Africa (1999)
According
to the book, Toro cannibals are witches: they bewitch people who die
only to be resurrected and eaten. The cannibals are however being
diminished by a lay movement of the Catholic Church, the Uganda Martyrs
Guild (UMG), which organizes witch-hunts to cleanse the country. Other
forces in the fight are Owobusobozi Bisaka, the Seventh Day Adventists
and the many Pentecostal churches.
A visit to a suspected cannibal
It is 8: 30am. I
arrived at Rwimi town council offices and inquired from the secretary
if I could see the LC III chairman. She asked why and I told her I was
pursuing a cannibalism story.
One
of the women who was waiting for Abel Ngomayondi, the Rwimi town
council chairman, exclaimed in bewilderment: “Are you sure you want to
meet cannibals? Be careful, you may end up in their bellies. In fact in
my village Nyabwina there is a man called Africano Katwigi. That man
has really eaten people in this area!” She said.
Katwigi denied the allegations before sending away Saturday Vision reporters
The
woman, whose name is Annette Kabasinguzi, continued to narrate how, in
May this year, Katwigi ate one of her neighbour’s child and the
residents rose up, attacked his family and chopped his daughter, Angela
Mary Arinaitwe, to near-death.
“If
you insist on going there, make sure you don’t enter his house. If you
do, sit near the door and make sure you change the chair from its
original location. That is a tip for your safety.”
Kabasinguzi also advised me not to go alone. “Your family may never see you again. In fact New Vision
will come here to write about you when you go missing. If I was your
parent, I would not allow you to go there alone,” she pleaded.
That is why I called my colleague, Rogers Sunday, to accompany me.
Before
we left, Kabasinguzi gave us a brief. Cannibals, she explained, do not
eat a live person. “They use witchcraft to ‘kill’ their targeted
victims. The victim’s dead body remains sweating and soft and you can
see clearly that the dead body is active but the hospital will insist
that the victim is dead.”
She
also advised us not to eat anything they give us. “For us, even if
someone dies in that family, we just go and burry but we do not eat or
drink anything from there. And even when they greet us we don’t
respond,” she said.
Ngomayondi’s story
Ngomayondi,
the LC III Rwimi town council added that in May 2006 when he first
came to Rwimi, cannibalism was so rampant and common.
“It
has not really stopped despite the prayers and sensitization of the
communities,” he said. “My first shock was when we buried one of the
residents and in the following morning the grave had sank in. I stopped
being the doubting Thomas.”
Ngomayondi
also knew about Africano, whom the residents were accusing of being a
cannibal. He said he has ever taken a Charismatic group from Virika and
Yerya parishes to pray for Africano’s family so that they can stop
eating people.
“The
Charismatic people prayed and cast out the demon of eating people from
Africano’s family. It was not easy. I had police to keep law and order
because I knew people would turn violent and kill the whole family,”
he added.
“We
even carried out an operation in Kabusoke, Kagore, Nyabwina and
Kanyasi, and discovered human bones and fresh human meat from some
homes,” he said. “We burnt them and arrested the culprits. Can you
imagine you die and people follow you into your grave and eat your
fresh?” he asked.
Ngomoyondi
said that originally, the habit was extremely common among the Bakonzo
but now the Bakiga have been recruited into the practice and are
becoming the masters instead.
Kenya’s story
William Kenya showing one of the houses that was demolished after residents suspected the owner of cannibalism.
William
Kenya, the LC 1 chairman of Kagore said that, recently, one of the
girls he did not want to name, went crazy and started shouting: “They
are going to eat me! They are going to eat me!” Locals suspected one of
the old woman identified as Gladys to be behind the girl’s madness.
They arrested and forced Gladys to touch the girl. She got healed instantly.
“That was proof she was a cannibal. Gladys was chased from the village and her house was demolished.”
Mbabazi’s experience
At
first, Joyce Mbabazi, 30, did not want to tell me her story. Later she
opened up and narrated, in between tearful break downs, how her three
children collapsed and died suddenly in less than 10 minutes. It was in
2003. She believes her children were eaten by the cannibals.
“I
was in the kitchen,” she said. “A strong wind with a lot of dust blew
and covered my kids. I rushed to rescue them but by the time the dust
settled, the kids started dropping off to death one after the other.
Blood was oozing from both their nose and mouth.
"I
wailed and my neighbours came. We rushed them to a nearby clinic where
they were all pronounced dead. The doctor said all the hearts of the
three children were not beating,” she said.
For three days, neighbours were arguing over whether the kids should be buried or not.
“They
did not look like dead people. They looked fresh throughout and would
sometimes sweat. I insisted on not burying them until, without cause, I
dropped unconscious. When I gained my senses, burial preparations had
begun. To my surprise, one day after the burial, the soil of all the
three graves had sank in. The coffin had been removed. I now know that
we live in a dirty environment,” she says.
Monday’s story
Monday
Simpiriyo said his was a lucky survival. His wife kept dreaming about
Veneranda, Africano’s wife and Angela Mary Arinaitwe, Africano’s
daughter.
“I
married her in April 2007 but we could not get peace. My wife was
changing into something strange. She kept on shouting that Veneranda and
Arinaitwe were calling her,” he said.
"My
family lost four people and their bodies were removed from the grave.
Africano must have eaten them. When Africano’s family was attached,
Veneranda confessed that she trained her children in eating people. We
found in his house clothes that my uncle, who died during that time, was
buried in! What more evidence do you need?”
Face to face with Africano
When
we arrived at Africano’s home in Nyabwina, he was milking his cows.
Arinaitwe, the daughter who was beaten to near death when his home was
attacked, was seated on the veranda with other relatives. His wife,
Veneranda, invited us to enter the house but we refused. We had been
advised not to.
Arinaitwe's arm was broken and her left thumb chopped off
Africano
was restless and looked scared. We introduced ourselves to him saying
we had come to verify allegations that his family was accused of
cannibalism. He denied.
“I have lived here since 1972. These people saying I eat their dead relatives just don’t like me! I have a big land and cows …,”
We
asked him about how he feels as an innocent victim of mob justice with
no civil authority ready to protect or assist him but before he could
finish his statement, a boy who looked about 10 years showed up with an
urgent argument question for her aunt: “Aunt!” He inquired loudly, “is it true that human flesh is best with sweet potatoes?”
He was chased away by one of the women who were seated with Arinaitwe.
Africano
kept quiet for a while before resuming his denial of being the
cannibal. When we asked what the boy’s question meant, he asked us to
leave and if we had any more questions, take them to police.
Eriya
Elepot, the office in charge of Rwimi police station, said they get
two cases of cannibalism every month but they have learnt not to follow
them up because it wastes time.
“It is hard to get evidence for such cases because the law is silence about witchcraft and cannibals,” he said.
********************
Businge Rusoke Victoria, MP, Kabarole District
I
condemn cannibalism but I also equally condemn mob justice. The last
allegation of cannibalism in my constituency was four months ago.
Unfortunately,
I was at parliament. But I was told some people accused others of
cannibalism and without a trial, the suspects were evicted, property
destroyed, houses erased and animals killed. There is a group of people
who call themselves Abasabi, they pray for people complaining of strange illnesses.
They
sometimes point out to ‘cannibals’ and the community, without
investigation, acts on the suspects without proof. What hurts me is that
the entire family suffers whether true or false. I want to thank the
Isaazi Ly’abakuru elders who acted early and saved the suspects this
last time.
The
problem of cannibalism needs the collective efforts of leaders like
religious leaders, the media, and masses because it is not only
happening in Kabarole alone. It exists even in other parts of the
country.
Abel Ngomayondi, the LC III Rwimi town council chairman
Cannibals
use salt, water, food and visit people in their dreams recruiting them
into the practice. They pound human fresh and mix it with salt, water
and food and give it to their unsuspecting neighbours.
They
then follow them with herbs to make them start dreaming and getting
appetite for human fresh. I am told they do this mostly at parties or
funerals. The more they are, the safer their group will be. So to get
large numbers into the practice, they target parties or funerals.
Self-declared god, Dosteo Bisaka started his own religion in 1980. PHOTO/Hope Mafaranga