|
Uganda Yakan Religion
One of the most successful millenarian religions in
Uganda
was the Yakan cult, which arose in Sudan in the late
nineteenth
century. Leaders from Kakwa society (whose territory
extends
across the Uganda-Sudan border) traveled south in search
of
protection against epidemics, Arab slave caravans, and
European
military forces, all of which were sweeping Kakwa society
in the
1890s. They returned home from the neighboring Lugbara
territory
with spring water they called "the water of Yakan." To
those who
drank it, they promised restored health, eternal life, and
the
return of the ancestors and dead cattle. In Kakwa society,
Yakan
leaders promised protection from bullets, and many Yakan
leaders
predicted the arrival of wagonloads of rifles to drive out
all
Europeans.
When sleeping sickness ravaged Lugbara society in 1911,
Lugbara leaders sought out the Yakan prophets. One of
them--
Rembe--traveled to Uganda and dispensed the water of
Yakan. He
was subsequently deported to Sudan and executed in 1917.
With its
new martyr, the cult flourished. When the British
administration
declared the sect illegal, people built shrines inside the
walls
of their homesteads, and believers used Yakan water to
provide
what they believed was spiritual protection against
British
patrols. The ban on the Yakan religion was impossible to
enforce,
and when it was lifted, Yakan believers felt their faith
was
vindicated.
As the religion developed, people began to use trance
and
speaking in tongues to strengthen and demonstrate their
faith. In
some areas, Yakan leaders appointed their followers to
positions
of prestige, and, as their power increased, a gradual
reorganization of villages began to take place. Religious
notables exercised political authority, and eventually
they
became so oppressive that their followers revolted.
Colonial
troops came in to restore peace, and the Yakan religion
declined
in influence but did not disappear. Promises of a
millennium
continued to arise in similar form in the 1980s.
Data as of December 1990
|
