Black African Cult from Hell

Over the last decade East Africa has been home to a spate of religous cults led by charismatic figures, telling people the world is about to end, and they must prepare for a new reality.



One Cult group is The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God.

The Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God was a breakaway group from the Roman Catholic Church that formed in Uganda in the late 1980s. As the name implies the group strongly emphasized the Ten Commandments. This emphasis meant they even discouraged talking out of fear of breaking the commandment about giving false witness. They also believed that their strict adherence to the Ten Commandments would be advantageous after the apocalypse.

This proved significant as the group had a strong emphasis on the apocalypse, highlighted by their booklet A Timely Message from Heaven: The End of the Present Time. New members were required to study it and be trained in it, reading it as many as six times. They also taught that Mother Mary had a special role in the apocalypse, and communicated to the leadership. They saw themselves as like Noah's Ark, a ship of righteousness in a sea of depravity.

The group tended to be secretive and as mentioned above, was literally silent. Therefore it was relatively unknown to the outside world until 2000, although in 1998 the school they ran received governmental sanction due to unsanitary conditions and violation of child labor statutes.

In March of 2000, around 300 followers died in a fire in what is considered a cult suicide. Investigations conducted after the fire discovered mass graves, raising the death toll to over 1,000. This may mean it was larger than the Jonestown suicide in 1978, but some speculate the death toll was only around 800. There are also allegations that the event was more of a mass murder by the leader.



Joseph Kibweteere was the leader of a suicidal cult that splintered from the Roman Catholic Church in Uganda.

Many details of Mr. Kibwetree's life, and especially death, remain unclear. What is known is that he came from a strongly pious Catholic background and was likely wealthy by Ugandan standards. The second idea comes from the fact he ran for political office in 1980 and had enough land to donate for a school of his own design. The Catholic school he founded and led was apparently orthodox and at that point he had a positive image in the community. In 1960 he married a woman who would prove to outlive him.

The Uganda he lived in suffered from both religious and political upheaval which likely influenced him. The strongest aspect of that on him might be movements that emphasized miracles and Marian apparitions. In 1984 he claimed to be experiencing sightings of Mary.

Around 1989 he came into contact with a woman named Credonia Mwerinde. She had a background of claimed experiences dating back further than Kibwetree. Her father claimed to have had a vision of his dead daughter Evangelista as early as 1960. His children and grandchildren would be effected by this. By 1989 Credonia and her Ursula were travelling through Uganda spreading the family's message. When Credonia met Joseph he welcomed her with open arms and shared his own experiences. This would lead to their forming the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God.

After the death of Credonia's father he became leader of the group. In the 1990s they strongly emphasized apocalypticism in their booklet A Timely Message from Heaven: The End of the Present Time. Hence he led an elite group of six men and six women deemed to be the "new apostles." These apostles had an equal number of women because of the emphasis they placed on Mother Mary as instrumental in sweeping them toward heaven. Reportedly he stated that the year 2000 would be followed by "year 1 of the new world." These and other claims had little effect on the wider world. For the most part he remained an obscure figure in Uganda and never formally split with the Catholic Church.

In March 2000 the group began slaughtering cattle and buying massive amounts of Coca-Cola. These events did not initially raise alarm, but they were preparation for a feast before death. On March 17, by coincidence St. Patrick's day, Kibweteere apparently died in the groups mass suicide. Although he had initially been rumored to have escaped and the exact time of death is unclear.

Indeed a great deal remains unclear about his story and the movement. The BBC reported that Joseph Kibweteere had been treated for bipolar disorder a year or so before the group suicide. At the time the Ugandan authorities considered him a fugitive and mass-murderer because they believed him to have escaped. The date and nature of the apocalypse they expected is debated. There is one camp that indicates they believed it would come in 1999 and that the 2000 suicide was caused by the failure of that prophecy. This would seem confirmed by some of their activities of 1999, but in their literature 2000 is often seen as the end year. The nature of his role and significance to the events is also disputed. As these events occurred five years ago satisfactory answers to these and other questions may never be forthcoming.