Kanungu cult massacre

The group had diverged from the Catholic Church in order to emphasize apocalypticism and alleged Marian apparitions.[3] The group had been called an inward-looking movement that wore matching uniforms and restricted their speech to avoid saying anything dishonest or sinful.[4][5] It was formed in 1989 after Credonia Mwerinde and Joseph Kibweteere claimed that they had seen visions of the Virgin Mary. The five primary leaders were Kibweteere, Mwerinde, Joseph Kasapurari, John Kamagara, and Dominic Kataribabo.[6] The group lived in a self-sustaining commune in Kanungu District, Uganda, with the group growing their own food and running schools. Members of the group lived mostly in silence, and used signs to communicate.[6]

As the new millennium approached preparations for the end mounted. In 1999, the state-owned New Vision newspaper ran an interview with a teenage member. He said, "The world ends next year. There is no time to waste. Some of our leaders talk directly to God. Any minute from now, when the end comes, every believer who will be at an as yet undisclosed spot will be saved."[7]

Leading up to the new millennium, cult leaders urged members to confess their sins and sell material possessions while attempts were made to bring former members back into the group. After the passing of 1 January 2000, without an apocalypse, many became disillusioned with the group and another date was chosen by leaders for the apocalypse to occur, with 17 March 2000 being announced, which the New York Times reported the leaders said would come "with ceremony, and finality".[8]

On that day, locals said they held a party at which 70 crates of soft drinks and three bulls were consumed.[9] This version of events has been criticised, most notably by Irving Hexham,[10] and an unidentified Ugandan source states that "no one can really explain the whys, hows, whats, where, when, et cetera." Minutes after the members arrived at the party, nearby villagers heard an explosion, and the building was gutted in an intense fire that killed all 530 in attendance. The windows and doors of the building had been boarded up to prevent people from leaving.[11][1] A neighbour who lived near to the cult later recounted that the fire caused everything to be covered in smoke, soot, and the stench of burnt flesh, and that many could not eat meat for several months after the fire.[6]

Four days after the church fire, police investigated Movement properties and discovered hundreds of bodies at sites across southern Uganda.[8] Six bodies were discovered sealed in the latrine of the Kanungu compound, as well as 153 bodies at a compound in Buhunage, 155 bodies at Dominic Kataribabo's estate at Rugazi, where they had been poisoned and stabbed, and another 81 bodies lay at leader Joseph Nymurinda's farm. Police stated in 2000 that they had been murdered about three weeks before the church inferno,[12] though a 2020 BBC report suggested that that the bodies had accumulated over several years.[6]

After the fire and bodies were discovered it was soon determined that the cult leaders were not to be found. As of 2022 they have not been located and no-one has been prosecuted in connection to the massacre. The 48-acre plot of land used by the cult has been incorporated into a tea plantation, but the owner has announced plans to create a memorial on parts of the property.[6]

• List of unsolved murders

• Vokes, Richard. 2009. Ghosts of Kanungu: fertility, secrecy and exchange in the Great Lakes of East Africa. Woodbridge: James Currey & Kampala: Fountain Publishers. xv + 240 pp. ISBN 9781847010094