Holy Spirit Movement

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The Holy Spirit Movement ( HSM ; German  Holy Spirit Movement ) was a Ugandan Christian-syncretistic rebel group founded in August 1986 by Alice Auma Lakwena , an ethnic Acholi .

history

Alice Auma described herself as a spiritual medium under the guidance of the Jok (lower deity, spirit) Lakewana (ambassador). Lakewana was the ghost of an Acholi soldier, according to Auma. He is said to have ordered her to found the HSM in 1985 at the height of the civil war. After the end of the rule of Milton Obote in 1985, numerous resistance groups emerged who fought President Yoweri Museveni in a civil war. Holy Spirit Movement was the name of the political wing of Alice Lakwena's organization while the military wing was known as the Holy Spirit Mobile Force . There was no organizational separation between these two wings.

The group was active with the Acholi living in northern Uganda . Auma mixed Christian esoteric and eschatological ideas with traditional myths to create an ideology of moral purity. "Lakwena" ordered her to bring the civil war to an end, the Holy Spirit Movement to form and with their followers, the Kampala from Museveni's NRA recapture.

After Alice Auma was able to gather some supporters behind her, she convinced the rebel group Uganda People's Democratic Army (UPDA) in November 1986 to place some of their fighters under their command. At the end of 1986 she commanded between 10,000 and 18,000 fighters. Two surprising victories over the government forces of the National Resistance Army (NRA) in November and December 1986 earned it great popularity and support, including from other ethnic groups. This popularity was also based on the strict but fair guidelines within the HSM, while other rebel groups and also the government troops often misused their military force.

Her spirit "Lakwena" had ordered its followers to arm themselves only with sticks and stones and to rub shea butter to protect themselves from bullets . If the fighter's soul was pure, this practice should protect him. The HSM fought like a regular army, they conquered territories and engaged in open battles with the NRA. To outsiders, some of their practices seem very strange. Spiritual controllers were integrated into each unit. Auma blessed stones so that they should explode like grenades. The fighters of the HSM went into the fights in cross formation and singing hymns.

The alliance between the HSM and the UPDA broke up again quickly, at the beginning of 1987 the UPDA tried to take over the civilian supply depots by terrorizing the supporters of the HSM. In August 1987, the HSM began an offensive, despite ongoing clashes with other rebel groups, to take over the Ugandan capital of Kampala and to initiate a paradise on earth. In November, the HSM advanced into areas where it no longer had public support and, after several severe defeats, was decisively beaten by the NRA 50 kilometers from Kampala.

The HSM left behind some small rebel groups, most of which soon slipped into criminality or were crushed by other rebel groups or the NRA. From one of these groups emerged the Lord's Salvation Army , led by Joseph Kony , Auma's cousin or nephew . Since 1992 the group has called itself Lord's Resistance Army . It used to be active in northern Uganda and is now active in the border area between South Sudan , the Central African Republic and the Democratic Republic of the Congo .

Alice Auma died at the age of 51 on January 17, 2007 in the Ifo refugee camp of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees (UNHCR) in the north-eastern province of Kenya , where her asylum had been granted.

literature

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ a b Alex Perry: In Africa. Journey to the future. Fischer, 2015 ISBN 9783100001931
  2. ^ Jason T. Riley: Peace in Northern Uganda: Recommendations for International Involvement in the Juba Peace Talks. ( Memento of the original from January 5, 2012 in the Internet Archive ) Info: The archive link was inserted automatically and has not yet been checked. Please check the original and archive link according to the instructions and then remove this notice. (PDF file; 177 kB) The Journal of International Policy Solutions, Vol. 8, 2008, p. 14 @1@ 2Template: Webachiv / IABot / irps.ucsd.edu