Alice Lakwena and the Holy Spirits: War in Northern Uganda, 1985-97

By Heike Behrend

Book Overview

In August 1986, Alice Auma, a young Acholi woman in northern Uganda, proclaiming herself under the orders of a Christian spirit named Lakwena, raised an army called the "Holy Spirit Mobile Forces." With it she waged a war against perceived evil, not only an external enemy represented by the National Resistance Army of the government, but internal enemies in the form of "impure" soldiers, witches, and sorcerers. She came very close to her goal of overthrowing the government but was defeated and fled to Kenya.

This book provides a unique view of Alice's movement, based on interviews with its members and including their own writings, examining their perceptions of the threat of external and internal evil. It concludes with an account of the successor movements into which Alice's forces fragmented and which still are active in the civil wars of the Sudan and Uganda.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: English
• ISBN: 0821413112
• ISBN13: 9780821413111
• Release Date: March 2000
• Publisher: Ohio University Press
• Length: 224 Pages
• Weight: 0.68 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.6" x 5.4" x 8.3"

Customer Reviews

A spirit-led war in Uganda

When a spirit named Lakwena possessed Alice Auma in 1985, it led to the raising of an army called the Holy Spirit Mobile Forces. The story is told in this book. To Western ears it is a bizarre tale. Alice went through two unsuccessful marriages then spent some time working as a prostitute before converting to Catholicism. She was then violently possessed by the "Christian" spirit of a deceased Italian soldier, Lawkena, and she disappeared into the Paraa National Park for 40 days. On her return, Alice spent some time working as a spirit medium and faith healer, until in August 1986 the spirit Lawkena ordered Alice to lead a war against evil in Uganda. Alice was able to recruit about 80 rebel soldiers and train them up in Holy Spirit Tactics. Soldiers were forbidden to take cover when attacked. They had to face the enemy standing erect with naked torso, and they had to sing church hymns as directed by the spirit. They were not allowed to aim their bullets at the enemy, as the spirits themselves had the job of deciding who deserved to die. Before a battle the spirits would decide how many rifles and how many bullets should be used. Soldiers were anointed with shea butter oil and ochre to make them bulletproof. After some initial failures, the Holy Spirit Mobile Forces had some surprising successes against the government army, and with each success Alice's reputation grew, as did the number of recruits. The rebel army aimed to capture the nation's capital, but it was resoundingly defeated by government forces in October 1987, and Alice escaped to Kenya where she died some 20 years later. The book is written as an anthropological study, so it is fairly dry and academic in places, but the underlying story is fascinating and helps to explain why instability still prevails in Northern Uganda today.