Similar Endings, Different Dynamics

First it was 150 dead. Then it was 350, and gradually the count reached and surpassed the 913 that died at the Peoples Temple community in Jonestown, Guyana. It has now risen above 1,000, and the search for victims of Uganda's Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God continues.

The sheer extent of the tragedy in Kanungu, Uganda, calls forth comparison with Jonestown, where in November 1978 the visit of California Representative Leo J. Ryan became the catalyst for the group to turn in upon itself and commit mass suicide, and to murder the minority who would not participate.

On the surface, Jonestown and Kanungu have striking similarities: More than 900 known dead, both exhibited some primary characteristics of so-called "cults"--charismatic leaders and geographic isolation. But closer reflection shows some equally striking differences--despite equally tragic ends.

As our knowledge of the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God (MRTC) has expanded, so has our knowledge of its inner dynamics, helped immensely by the emergence of Peter Ahimbisibwe, a young man who so far is the only known Movement survivor.

The MRTC seems to have really begun with the coming together of Credonia Mwerinde and Joseph Kibwetere. On August 24, 1988, Mwerinde, a young woman with a reputation for being sexually loose, had the first of what she said was a series of visions of the Virgin Mary and began to share her story with those who would listen. In 1991, Kibwetere traveled to Nyanmitanga, Uganda, to hear Mwerinde and was so impressed that he invited her to live in his home.

This became the headquarters of the Movement for three years until they moved to Kanangu in 1994. By this time, Kibwetere had separated from his wife and had been excommunicated from the Roman Catholic Church. The pair led the group, but accounts vary as to which one held ultimate authority.

Mwerinde's visions had also attracted other Catholics, including the priest Dominic Kataribabo, who in the 1980s earned a master's degree in religious studies from Los Angeles' Loyola Marymount University, a Catholic institution. He had been disciplined by his Ugandan bishop, who reprimanded and eventually excommunicated him in the early 1990s for raising funds for the Movement. He eventually left the church and worked exclusively for the MRTC.

Beginning in 1994, the Movement developed as an ordered community, adherents accepting a disciplined life and new behavioral rules as conditions of membership (somewhat like life in other Catholic orders). Its primary center was in Kanungu, but other groups emerged at several nearby towns. Members were united in their acceptance of the material received by Mwerinde from her reported visions.

As families joined, they adopted the group rules designed to prevent any further breaking of the Ten Commandments. They refrained from sex and any unnecessary verbal interaction (a means of refraining from adultery and profaning the Lord's name). They developed a sign language that they used whenever possible.

As the group formed around the visions, it moved to separate itself from society and the church. For MRTC, the Catholic Church was high on the list of those who were regularly breaking the Ten Commandments that caused God such great offense. In return, as soon as the Movement became large enough for church officials to take note, its leaders were excommunicated, and it was written off as not Catholic.

Integral to the group was a belief that the world was disintegrating around them it, but as with apocalyptic groups through the centuries, they also had hope that God or the Virgin would deliver them. The end of the century provided an occasion for actualizing that belief, and as December 31 approached they began to liquidate assets and prepare for the coming deliverance predicted by Mwerinde and Kibwetere.

When deliverance did not come, the pair did as other leaders have done and revised their prediction. It would still happen, they said, but at some point during 2000. Many accepted that revision; they had placed their faith in the Virgin Mary and had confidence in her chosen mouthpiece. However, if we are to believe Ahimbisibwe's account, a significant number of members lost their confidence in Mwerinde's contact with the divine realm and demanded the money and resources they had donated be returned. That demand created a crisis that threatened to bankrupt if not destroy the group.

At this point, one of two possible scenarios become possible. Which actually unfolded remains unclear for now.

First, it is possible that the resources of the group (never large but substantial in Ugandan terms) had been spent on the buildings they had erected and the ongoing expenses of keeping the community together. There was no cash to return to the dissidents (there were so many of them), and if they left it would be a massive challenge for the rest to keep the faith. Everything would be undone. The words of the Virgin that began the Movement would be disconfirmed.

It could be at this point that the leadership decided that the only course was to kill the dissidents and then to end the Movement in the collective death of the faithful. This action assumes the commitment of the leaders to the truth of the visions and their belief that the destruction of the Movement was the only way for its gains to remain.

In this senario, both Mwerinde and Kibwetere would have had to join the trusted aides who assisted them in the group's murderous destruction and die in the final March 17 conflagration that brought the situation to the world's attention. A fair number of aides would have been needed to carry out the many murders that preceded the final conflagration, and at least one would have been sure to notice the absence of the two leaders during the interval between the sealing of the church doors and the explosion in Kanungu.

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