Child Sacrifice is On the Rise in Uganda
The Monitor, Uganda
Robby Muhumuza

The story of toddler, Edrine Muguluma who was recently kidnapped and murdered in ritual sacrifice has shocked the nation. He is one of many children that are increasingly being killed in cold blood on the orders of witchdoctors and traditional healers that we must find a solution to.

To illustrate what I am talking about, I would like to share with you some stories that have made headlines in Uganda.

Shammim Muhammad, aged 5

On April 4, 1999, Jalia Katusiime, a hair dresser from Njeru town, Mukono district left her five-year-old daughter Shammim Muhammed with a neighbour, Francis Muwanga, to go and attend to a customer.

When she returned, both Shammim and Muwanga were missing. There followed a search for her . Her decomposing body was found on Namiya hill. Two of her fingers had been chopped off, her neck cut off and her tongue plucked out.

Her private parts were also missing. Police arrested Muwanga as the chief suspect. Later, he and his wife confessed that they had been advised by a witchdoctor, Yunus Samanya, that if they sacrificed a child to the spirits, they would become rich.

Muwanga, his wife and the witch doctor were sentenced to death on July 29, 1999 and are in prison.

Milly Nsonyiwa, aged 1

One-year-old Milly Nsonyiwa of Mukono district disappeared from her mother, Esther Nakachwa on January 22, 1999.

A month later, Milly’s remains were found in a shrine belonging to Kizito, a traditional healer in the same district. Her body had been cut into pieces – symbolic of sacrifice to the gods.

Reuben Mugabe, aged 12

40-year old James Kareju Mugisha of Kagando, Nyabushozi, Mbarara district was arrested on October 9, 1998, attempting to sell his 12-year-old son Reuben Mugabe to Strabag Construction Company for Shs3m for ritual sacrifice.

Mugisha, a father of 13 children had hoped to escape poverty by selling one of his sons. The above cases are a few of the children sacrificed or who narrowly escaped being sacrificed that have made it to the newspapers.

There is suspicion that the problem is much more widespread, especially in remote rural areas where there is minimal media coverage.

The New Vision reported 15 cases of child sacrifice in 1999 alone. The discovery of over 500 bodies of people who were killed and buried at various sites by the Joseph Kibwetere cult and who nobody had reported missing is an indication of how many children could go missing and are not reported.

In the cases that have been reported, children are kidnapped or stolen from parents or guardians, lured off by promises of sweets, biscuits or toys or sold off or offered by parents or guardians who believe in witchcraft and who are greedy for money and riches.

What are the factors leading to child sacrifice? What suggestions can be made on the way forward?

(AND HERE IT COMES)

Witchcraft

Almost all the cases of child sacrifice have revolved around witchcraft. The child sacrifices were carried out by witchdoctors or by their clients who have been advised or ordered to do so by witchdoctors, traditional healers, astrologists, traditional medicine men or cult leaders. (It is important to note that all witchdoctors are traditional healers but NOT all traditional healers or herbalists are witchdoctors and many of them do not sacrifice children).

Such sacrifices are purportedly to appease and invoke gods or spirits or ancestors to use their supernatural abilities to carry out the wishes of the witchdoctor or his or her clients. Such wishes could be the need for healing, protection against enemies or calamities or for riches, prosperity and success.

A number of children have been kidnapped from school.

They are then taken to a witchdoctor’s shrine.

The children are then killed and sacrificed. Most of the bodies have been found decapitated.

Some witchdoctors believe that ritual child sacrifice makes their magic more powerful. Body parts like fingers, genitals, or the heart are mixed with herbs or they are used to make charms or talismans that are given to clients.

Witchcraft, wherever it has occurred, has tended to go with human sacrifice and usually, children have been victims of such rituals.

In the 15th Century, witchcraft thrived in many parts of Europe and was in many instances linked to child sacrifice. For instance, during the reign of King Louis XIV in France, witch trials were held. In one trial of a High Priestess named la Voisin, the following evidence was given:

“The child was held over the altar, a sharp gash across the neck, a stifled cry, and warm drops fell into the chalice… The corpse was handed to la Voisin, who flung it callously into an oven fashioned for that purpose which glowed white in its fierceness. It was proved that regular traffic had been carried on for years with beggar women and the lowest prostitutes, who sold their children for this purpose. At her trial, la Voisin confessed that no less than 2,500 babies had been disposed of in this manner.”

In many traditional African religions linked with ancestral worship and the fear of malicious spirits, child sacrifice to appease the spirits was common.

However, with the advent of Christianity and Islam, many converts turned away from the practice of witchcraft and child sacrifice had died down.

However, there has been a re-insurgence of African-traditional culture, and religion, which has given witchcraft a new brave lease of life.

More people are openly coming out in the media, both newspapers and radio to associate with witchcraft under the guise of traditional medical practice and associated rituals. Consulting of traditional healers, diviners, witchdoctors, astrologers is touted as fashionable and nothing to be ashamed of.

This mentality has encouraged more people to openly consult witchdoctors some of whom are encouraging them to sacrifice children as part of the ritual to make the magic work or appease the gods or spirits.

Gone are the days when consulting witchdoctors would be done at night and in secrecy. Witchdoctors now are well organised and are using advertising a lot by putting up cloth banners near their shrines.

Advertisements with fantastic claims are aired on radio announcements and commercials as well as in the newspapers...

WHAT MORE CAN I SAY? (OH, just thought of something: IDIOTS!)