Most experts say Africas hardships push people to seek hope in religious cults. These groups thrive because of poverty, says Charles Onyango Obbo, editor of the Monitor, an independent newspaper in Uganda, and a close observer of cults. People have no support, and theyre susceptible to anyone who is able to tap into their insecurity. Additionally, they say, AIDS, which has ravaged East Africa, may also breed a fatalism that helps apocalyptic notions take root.
Some Africans turn to cults after rejecting mainstream Christian churches as Western or non-African. Agnes Masitsa, 30, who used to attend a Catholic church before she joined the Jerusalem Church of Christ, says of Catholicism: Its dull.
Catholic icons. Yet, the Ugandan doomsday cult, like many of the sects, drew on features of Roman Catholicism, a strong force in the region. Catholic icons were prominent in its buildings, and some of its leaders were defrocked priests, such as Dominic Kataribabo, 32, who reportedly studied theology in the Los Angeles area in the mid-1980s. He had told neighbors he was digging a pit in his house to install a refrigerator; police have now recovered 81 bodies from under the floor and 74 from a field nearby. Police are unsure whether Kataribabo died in the church fire.
Still, there is the question: How could so many killings have been carried out without drawing attention? Villagers were aware of Kibweteres sect, whose followers communicated mainly through sign language and apparently were apprehensive about violating any of the cults commandments. There were suspicions. Ugandan president Yoweri Mseveni told the BBC that intelligence reports about the dangerous nature of the group had been suppressed by some government officials. On Thursday, police arrested an assistant district commissioner, the Rev. Amooti Mutazindwa, for allegedly holding back a report suggesting the cult posed a security threat.
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