As Napoleon Bonaparte once said; history remembers kings and generals and the soldiers who actually fight in the battles and are felled by enemy bullets quite often are reduced to mere statistics and if they are not lucky, completely erased from the record. History is full of generals who won battles but no remembrances of the little known soldiers who paid the price for the victory.
This is what happened to Busoga region, where pitched battles were fought against the Holy Spirit Movement of Alice Lakwena, leading to her eventual defeat. Decades later, the natives of the poverty-stricken region have never lost hope and continue to look forward to the day their efforts will be rewarded.
“I want to thank the people of Luuka for helping me report Lakwena. She was not strong but she wasted our time. But when you reported her, we defeated her and it ended there. But these government people work in a lazy way. We wanted to help the families of those who helped us but they have delayed. If they do not have money now, they should plan for it,” President Museveni said in 2016 during celebrations to mark Independence Day in Luuka district.
Lakwena found the Basoga hostile to her movement not only did they report the rebels that they referred to as ‘Banyanya’ in their local dialect but also served as voluntary spies and hunted down the rebels like wild animals.
“We were tired of war. Many of us had lost relatives in the turbulent times that followed independence. When we heard that Lakwena had invaded us, we did not wait for government,” said Godfrey Tilutya, a resident of Nabikuyi village, Nawampiti sub-county in Luuka district while pointing at a spot where two Lakwena rebels were buried after being killed by a mob.
He is, however, bitter that thousands of people who lost their families, homes and businesses, among others have not been compensated.
“We need to be compensated like our colleagues in central Uganda (Luweero) who were compensated for the losses they suffered during the five-year National Resistance Army (NRA) bush war that brought President Museveni to power,” Tilutya said.
In the run up to the 2011 general election, NRM, in its 2011-2015 manifesto, vowed to compensate the people of Busoga sub-region for their contribution in the war against the Holy Spirit Movement of Alice Lakwena.
“The NRM shall address the socio- economic plight of the people who suffered as a result of the Lakwena war in the Busoga and Bukedi areas. The emphasis will be on restocking and other income-generating projects,” the manifesto read in part.
Though it had not been documented much earlier, the promise had been made as early as November 1988, a few days after Lakwena met her defeat in Busoga.
About 2,630 victims from the districts of Luuka, Jinja, Mayuge, Iganga, Kaliro and Namutumba have since come up to demand compensation. They claim to have suffered gunshot wounds or lost property such as homes, livestock, and farm crops to the marauding rebels.
Former Lands Minister Daudi Migereko, who was also the MP for Butembe County where some battles were fought, said President Museveni’s initial plan was to help improve educational infrastructure in the affected districts and this was done.
“Namasiga Primary School which had been grass thatched now has permanent structures, a seed secondary school was opened in Busedde, Bute Primary and Secondary Schools in Mayuge were also built as well as Busalamu Primary School in Luuka district, among other initiatives,” Mr Migereko said.
Ray of hope
In December 2015 while campaigning in Luuka District, ahead of the 2016 general election, President Museveni defended his government against accusations of indifference towards the plight of the Busoga combatants.
The first priority of the NRM after taking power, he said, was to stabilize the economy before embarking on strengthening the tax base and working on the infrastructure. He nevertheless reiterated his commitment to seeing the compensation come through. As he wound up the campaign, he said he would deploy the Prime Minister, Dr Ruhakana Rugunda, to assess the claims and advise government accordingly.
Mr Fred Mukisa, a former State Minister for Fisheries, said Dr Rugunda had indeed visited the region and held several meetings but the payments have, however, remained elusive.
But the State Minister for Karamoja Affairs, Mr Moses Kizige, said the Office of the Prime Minister had finalised the verification of claimants and forwarded the list to the Ministry of Defense and Veteran’s Affairs to effect the payments. He said some claimants have already received the money.
About the rebellion
Forces loyal to the rebel priestess entered Busoga sub-region on the morning of October 16, 1987 from Tororo through Buluguyi and announced their arrival by overrunning an NRA now Uganda Peoples’ Defense Forces (UPDF) detach at Kibimba Rice Scheme, forcing the soldiers to flee to Bugiri town.
The force then moved through Namayemba and Kitoodha before setting up camp in Muterere where they were two days later attacked by the NRA, but the attack was not decisive enough to force them to retreat.
The rebels instead advanced further south, sneaked into Mayuge at Bulanga before attacking Magamaga Ordinance Depot on the morning of October 20, 1987.
They were repulsed, resulting in a number of battles in Busedde and Luuka where some of the rebel commanders such as Lt Col Kennedy Kilama who had been the commanding officer of the Uganda National Liberation Army (UNLA) in Rubongi Barracks in Tororo and Prof Isaac Newton Ojok, who had been the Minister for Education under the Obote II government were captured.
Some of the most notable battles took place in Namasiga, Bukaseme and Nabulagala. The final battle is, however, believed to have taken place in Naminyagwe Forest Reserve in Nawambiri village, Magada Sub- County in present day Namutumba District on Saturday October 24, 1987.
Who is Lakwena
Born in 1956 to Severino Lukoya and Ibarina Ayaa in Bungatira Sub- County in Gulu District, Alice Auma was raised as an Anglican but later converted to Catholicism. She attended Bungatira Primary School up to Primary Seven.
She later got married to an unidentified man in Patiko but they divorced on grounds that Auma was barren. She again got married to a one Alex Okello for three years, but they separated for the same reason.
After the failed marriages, Auma returned to her father’s home in 1979 and engaged in selling smoked fish at Opit railway station and flour in Pakwach.
According to Heike Behrend’s book Alice Lakwena and the Holy Spirit War in Northern Uganda 1985-1987, Auma became possessed by a spirit in January 1985 and was unable to either speak or hear.
In May the same year, she disappeared for nearly two months only to return claiming to have been given spiritual powers. She told her followers that Lakwena (Luo word for messenger) had guided her to a place called Wang-Jok at Murchison Falls National Park where for 40 days she received instructions for work as a traditional spirit medium. About the spirit Lakwena, Auma said he was the spirit of an Italian army captain who had drowned in River Nile during the First World War and he spoke 74 languages, including Latin.
According to Auma, while at Wang-Jok, she was welcomed jubilantly by all animals in the park. She claimed to have had conversations with wild animals about the Luweero Bush War that was raging in Uganda at the time. Auma asked them if they were responsible for the bloodshed and according to Behrend, the animals denied the blame.
Auma then asked water about the war to which water said animals with two legs (people) were killing their brothers and throwing their bodies in water. Then the spirit Lakwena asked Auma to go and fight the sinners, giving her stones and water with which she returned to Opit and began healing people. Beside the railway, she built a small mud and wattle temple where she reigned claiming to be god’s representative.
Healer becomes military commander
On August 6, 1986, according to Behrend, god ordered Auma to stop her work as a healer and form the Holy Spirit Movement to fight the NRM government and rid Uganda of bad governance.
“The good lord has appeared to me and told me to change my work as a doctor to that of a military commander for one simple reason: It is useless to cure a man today only to be killed the next day,” Auma noted.
Her divine mission was to purify first her native Acholiland and then Uganda.
After a short time, Auma’s Holy Spirit Movement started absorbing thousands to its camp who came to listen to Lakwena’s ‘holy’ doctrine. It expanded to about 10,000 members.
She then set up camp in Kilak in Pader District which became the starting point of her journey to capture Kampala. Lakwena required her to dictate to the fighters twice a day, at 7am and 7pm, during which they were smeared with oil mixed with red soil which they believed, would protect them against enemy bullets. Eating pork was banned because it was considered unholy, and no one was allowed to hide behind an anthill or smoke among other rules.
Auma’s manipulation seemed to work at the beginning. For several initial encounters, the NRA soldiers faced by rampant hymn singers dropped their weapons and fled.
To Auma, the battle was already won, and she blamed the deaths of her fighters to violation of the holy war rules.
However, towards November 1987, the influence of the ‘holy spirit’ and Auma’s own power seemed to be fading as more people died and the enemies (NRA) no longer fled the battle.
In Jinja, about 80kms east of Kampala, the Holy Spirit Movement were smashed by heavy artillery fire of the NRA, forcing Auma to abandon her fighters and flee on a bicycle towards the east. She eventually crossed to Kenya in November 1987. She lived in Ifo refugee camp near Dadaab in northern Kenya until her death in 2007.
