Alice Lakwena: Obedient to 'divine calling'

Winding endlessly through the dusty maze of leafless acacia fences, mud huts and kiosks plated with flattened tin containers of USA food aid, I had begun to believe we were going round in circles when, finally, we reached bloc C24.

One of the signs on the gate read: Welcome to the house of Alice Lakwena. Weapons forbidden, screams another notice with a painting of an AK-47 rifle crossed diagonally by a red stripe, definitely not the conventional welcome mat.

This is Ifo camp, the biggest of the three refugee camps in Dadaab, northern Kenya. Located 80 km from the Kenya-Somali border, Dadaab plays host to 40,000 refugees, majority of them of Somali origin. The refugees share their desolate exile with other minority communities such as Somali Bantus, Ethiopian Gabrana, South Sudanese and 46 followers of the Holy Spirit Movement of Uganda, including their leader and self-declared prophetess Alice Lakwena who is 48 years old.

Turbulent history

I knew little about the Holy Spirit Movement, and its place in Uganda's turbulent history amongst dictators, insurgencies, counter-insurgencies, single party democracies and radical religious guerrilla movements. Perhaps what spun my attention most was the idea of meeting the spirit-medium of Alice Lakwena, a highly regarded personality in the refugee camps often, and fondly, referred to as the prophetess. Still a resonant name back in Uganda, she is known . . . even revered, for her healing powers among the different communities of Dadaab.

I soon learnt that in 1986 under the guidance of spirits, Alice Lakwena led a 10,000-strong insurgency from northern Uganda against Yoweri Museveni's National Resistance Army (NRA). Her troops used spirits, charms and stone "grenades" to arrive outside the gates of Kampala having defied all prior knowledge in military manoeuvres, walking in a straight line towards oncoming enemy fire!

There was some reminiscence to Joan of Arc, though in Africa and without the tragic ending as she so affirmatively repeated to me throughout our conversation:

"The Holy Spirit Movement is not dead – it's very much alive. We will not surrender to anybody. I do not have time for that. If it comes to that, I will wage a three-day Holy War to reach everlasting peace and unity in Uganda; I have gone on for the mission of God not my own interest." 

Hers was unmistakably the neatest compound in the entire camp. Even better kept than those of international agencies who manage the refugee camps. An internal patio was carpeted with flattened sand similar to the Japanese sand gardens, half in the shade and encircled by three brightly painted houses, simple yet complete with mabati roofs, gutters and window frames. She even enjoys the comfort of electricity, courtesy of a generator, which is not a common commodity among refugees.

We stooped through the doorway of the house on the left, into an immaculate room without decorations save for two posters on opposite ends – the Holy Spirit Jazz Band printed above two figures playing saxophones and The Holy Spirit Movement's 20 Safety Precautions. Below the latter, dressed in a bright kikoy and purple head scarf, sat the grandiose figure of Alice Lakwena.

Prophet of Uganda

"I am Alice Lakwena, the prophet of Uganda. I came here in December 1987," she introduces herself.

Comfortable with being called Mama Alice, she has an imposing look with an easily discernible mischievous gaze, a voice capable of fluctuating from soft to ear splitting levels especially when correcting a misinterpretation of herself or her Holy Spirit Movement or when releasing sudden outbursts of laughter at a mzungu who has come to ask her "silly questions". But, overall, she is as outspoken as she is gigantic and doesn't hesitate to tell you her story.

"I received the spirit on January 1, 1985 in Opit. Suddenly, the roof of my hut opened and a big light hundreds of metres high descended on me. Two people flew from above and took me alive . . . they lifted me, holding me on either side. People saw it and waited for me until midnight. That is why they know I have the spirit."

It was after this enlightening evening that Alice disappeared with 13 other witnesses in the Paraa National Park where she submerged herself in Murchison Falls for 40 days only to return as a traditional spiritual healer with the acquired name Lakwena.

Uganda at the time was in the midst of civil chaos between the insurgency of the Uganda People's Democratic Army led by former President Tito Okello and the counter-insurgency of Museveni's NRA. On August 6, 1986, the spirit Lakwena ordered Alice to stop her work as a healer, which was pointless in the midst of war, and create a Holy Spirit Movement to fight evil and end bloodshed in the country.

Numerous other spirits

The movement, led by Lakwena, required that Alice be possessed by numerous other spirits to achieve its aims, which was unusual in the context of traditional Acholi spiritual behaviour.

"The Ugandan Government went to my place in Opit. But luckily I wasn't there, I was in Paraa. They rounded up hundreds of young boys and girls of my age and slaughtered them in Gulu. So when the people came to me in protest, Lakwena asked them to bring seven commanders and they brought seven commanders of the Tito Okello army, those who were already chased away by Museveni soldiers. When Lakwena asked them what they needed, they said they wanted their people to fight because the government was killing them, burning houses and raiding cattle. That is how the Holy Spirit Movement started in 1986."

By the middle of the conversation, I started to realise that she was not talking about herself in third person, but referring to his holiness the spirit Lakwena, which means the messenger in Acholi. Mama Alice insists she is a prophet chosen to heal and bring peace in Uganda: "That is the will of 'God', not mine, that is the will of the spirit not mine," she explains.

She reveals that she is in contact with other spirits other than Lakwena whom she calls Holy Hosts, which were sent to her in 1997. These, she says, assume human physical form and send messages from heaven proclaiming an imminent revolution in our world. She claims that even Jesus Christ was a Host of this kind.

Heike Behrend (1999) explores the roots of war in northern Uganda and claims that the Holy Spirit Movement was the most ideologically driven of all the rebel movements then and after. He presents the movement as a redemption crusade of the Acholi nation who had been caught in the crossfire of Uganda's many wars.

However Alice Lakwena herself is a Madi by tribe and believes her movement to be inter-tribal. "In God there is no segregation. As a movement we will bring love, peace and unity. In Uganda we must not have tribalism, the people of Uganda must unite because God is one and it is our motherland."

Heavy artillery

But in 1987 the Holy Spirit Movement was overpowered by the NRA about 50 km from the capital, Kampala. Some sources say that it was the spirit Lakwena that left Alice, therefore her soldiers were no longer protected from the bullets and their stones refused to turn into grenades making her troops vulnerable to the heavy artillery.

Mama Alice has a different story: "I remember it very painfully. It was in Jinja in November 1987. My commanders are the ones who sat down and asked me peacefully: 'Alice Lakwena, you are still a young girl and you are a woman. You can lead us! We are just 50 kilometres from Kampala, we can enter Kampala; you are free to go back'. So it was my own soldiers, not Museveni, who made me leave. Then I went to Tororo, where the spirit ordered me to come to Kenya."

She is angered by insinuations that her Holy Spirit Movement has something to do with Joseph Kony's Lord's Resistance Movement and his mission to apply the Ten Commandments in Uganda or even that he was her nephew.

"Why is it that you are asking about Kony? Has someone informed you that I am his wife? Why ask me about Kony? Why does he fight about the commandments of anybody? By the time the Holy Spirit Movement started, Joseph Kony was still digging his farm," she responds with rage.

On all accounts, Alice Lakwena has certainly survived the improbable: Abductions, dodging bullets, being imprisoned in Kenya in various secret locations away from her disciples and even defying numerous attacks by Somali insurgents (shiftas) in the refugee camps. She was transferred to Dadaab in the early 1990s and has been patiently waiting for President Museveni to repay the 3,000 cattle which she claims he took from her.

"Museveni must come here and repay. He was the one who sent his people to collect my cattle, to burn my houses and my farms. He must bring my money and I will go home. If it was in my interest to overpower Museveni he would not occupy that seat. But my work is to treat people and heal, that is my job. I want to go home," she said when asked whether she would return to her home following President Museveni's amnesty.

In the midst of negotiations for her anticipated return home, Alice Lakwena has resumed healing to keep alive the movement and its ideals. She is unconcerned about time or money. Apparently, "God" has revealed to her where to find mercury, petroleum and gold after she goes back to Uganda. She plans to use the information in achieving peace and equality for fellow Ugandans.

Greedy superpowers

What about the risks of possessing such resources in a world of scarcity and greedy superpowers?

"God ordered me to bring peace on earth, treat people and cure them. Because that was what I was doing in the beginning, God has given me mercury, petroleum and gold. Americans are killing so many Iraqis for nothing because there is no spirit. If the spirit was present, no one would fight," she says.

Nico Gnecchi is currently a student at the School of Oriental and African Studies in London. He is a freelance journalist.