Book cover with photo

Alice Auma (b. 1956) is an Acholi spirit-medium who, as the head of the Holy Spirit Movement, led a millennial rebellion against the Ugandan government forces of President Yoweri Museveni from August 1986 until November 1987. The primary spirit she purportedly channeled was that of a dead Italian army officer called "Lakwena", which means messenger. The combined persona of Alice Auma channeling the spirit Lakwena is often referred to as Alice Lakwena. cover of the book Alice Lakwena and the Holy Spirits by Heike Behrend. ... cover of the book Alice Lakwena and the Holy Spirits by Heike Behrend. ... 1956 (MCMLVI) was a leap year starting on Sunday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Acholiland, Uganda Children in an IDP camp in Kitgum The Acholi are an ethnolinguistic group of the upper Nile valley dwelling on the east bank of the White Nile, about a hundred miles north of Lake Albert. ... The Holy Spirit Movement (HSM) was the Ugandan rebel group led by Alice Auma, a spirit-medium under the direction of the spirit Lakwena. ... Millennialism (or chiliasm), from millennium, which literally means thousand years, is primarily a belief expressed in some Christian denominations, and literature, that there will be a Golden Age or Paradise on Earth where Christ will reign prior to the final judgment and future eternal state, primarily derived from the book... Yoweri Kaguta Museveni became President of Uganda on January 29, 1986. ... August is the eighth month of the year in the Gregorian Calendar and one of seven Gregorian months with the length of 31 days. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... Look up November in Wiktionary, the free dictionary. ... 1987 (MCMLXXXVII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The English word spirit comes from the Latin spiritus, meaning breath. ...

Alice Auma was born in 1956. After two marriages in which she proved infertile, she moved away from her hometown. She eventually converted to Catholicism and on 25 May 1985 was purportedly possessed by a Christian spirit, Lakwena, and went ‘insane’, unable to either hear or speak. Her father took her to eleven different witches but none could help. According to the story, finally Lakwena guided her to Paraa National Park where she disappeared for 40 days and returned a spirit-medium. Infertility is the inability to naturally conceive a child or the inability to carry a pregnancy to term. ... This article considers Catholicism in the broadest ecclesiastical sense. ... May 25 is the 145th day of the year in the Gregorian calendar (146th in leap years). ... This article is about the year. ...

Prior to the defeat of Tito Okello, Alice Auma was one of many spirit-mediums working near the town of Gulu as an minor oracle and spiritual healer. In the midst of the chaos of the anti-NRA insurgency of the Uganda People's Democratic Army and the increasingly brutal counterinsurgency of the National Resistance Army, it is claimed that on 6 August 1986 Lakwena ordered Alice to stop her work as a diviner and healer, which was pointless in the midst of war, and create a Holy Spirit Movement (HSM) to fight evil and end the bloodshed. Through this divine mission that coincidentally required the retaking of the capital of Kampala, the Acholi would redeem themselves from the violence they had collectively done to the civilians of the Luwero triangle and initiate a paradise on earth. An explanation was given in a letter given to local missionaries: Tito Okello (1914 - June 3, 1996) was the leader of Uganda from July 1985 until January 1986. ... An oracle is a person or agency considered to be a source of wise counsel or prophetic opinion; an infallible authority, usually spiritual in nature. ... The Uganda Peoples Democratic Army (UPDA) was a rebel group operating in northern Uganda from March 1986 to June 1988. ... The National Resistance Army (NRA) began as a guerilla army of Uganda in the 1980s, led by Yoweri Museveni. ... August 6 is the 218th day of the year in the Gregorian Calendar (219th in leap years), with 147 days remaining. ... 1986 (MCMLXXXVI) was a common year starting on Wednesday of the Gregorian calendar. ... The Holy Spirit Movement (HSM) was the Ugandan rebel group led by Alice Auma, a spirit-medium under the direction of the spirit Lakwena. ... Location of Kampala within Uganda. ... Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ...

The good Lord who had sent the Lakwena decided to change his work from that of a doctor to that of a military commander for one simple reason: it is useless to cure a man today only that he be killed the next. So it became an obligation on his part to stop the bloodshed before continuing his work as a doctor.

This came in the midst of a profound spiritual crisis matched only by the threat posed by the occupying southern forces. The increased level of societal tension and number of deaths was attributed to witchcraft. Simultaneously, the soldiers fleeing back into Acholi from the defeat at Kampala often refused purification ceremonies to protect the community from the vengeful spirits of the people they had killed, and the elders found that they no longer had the authority to force compliance. These new evil spirits could then be used for even more witchcraft, creating the sense of a religious crisis spiraling out of control. Location of Kampala within Uganda. ... Witchcraft, in various historical, religious and mythical contexts, is the use of certain kinds of alleged supernatural or magical powers. ...

The insurgency led by Lakwena required that Alice be possessed by numerous other spirits to achieve its aims, which was unusual in the context of Acholi spirit-behavior. After a series of spectacular victories, Alice led the Holy Spirit Movement south out of Acholiland towards Kampala, where she garnered much support from other ethnic groups that had grievances with the Museveni government. However, the military setbacks inevitably suffered by the HSM prompted some followers to accuse Alice of being a witch using spirits for destructive ends. As the HSM suffered its final defeat under withering artillery fire in the forests near Kampala, Lakwena left Alice and she fled. The Holy Spirit Movement (HSM) was the Ugandan rebel group led by Alice Auma, a spirit-medium under the direction of the spirit Lakwena. ... Categories: Stub | Uganda ... Yoweri Kaguta Museveni became President of Uganda on January 29, 1986. ... Historically, artillery refers to any engine used for the discharge of projectiles during war. ... Location of Kampala within Uganda. ...

Alice Auma currently lives in the Ifo refugee camp in northern Kenya and claims to have been abandoned by the spirits. In November 2004 she was implicated in child trafficking from Gulu to the refugee camp.

The Tale of Paraa

Acholiland

While Alice’s practice as a medium immediately after returning to Gulu does not seem to have been particularly successful, the tale of Paraa became the central text of the Holy Spirit Movement, in particular in the discourse about the insurgency being a rebellion of nature itself, and deserves explication. According to the story, Lakwena first held court with all the animals of the park on the theme of the ongoing war in the south and destruction of the environment by warring parties: Download high resolution version (500x616, 69 KB)Acholiland, Uganda. ... Download high resolution version (500x616, 69 KB)Acholiland, Uganda. ... Categories: Stub | Uganda ... The Holy Spirit Movement (HSM) was the Ugandan rebel group led by Alice Auma, a spirit-medium under the direction of the spirit Lakwena. ... An insurgency is an armed revolt or insurrection against an established civil or political authority, such as a constituted government or an occupation by an invading force. ...

Lakwena said to the animals: ‘You animals, God sent me to ask you whether you bear responsibility for the bloodshed in Uganda.’ The animals denied blame, and the buffalo displayed a wound on his leg, and the hippopotamus displayed a wound on his arm.

Lakwena then questioned the water about the war: To meet Wikipedias quality standards, this article or section may require cleanup. ... Binomial name Hippopotamus amphibius Linnaeus, 1758 The Hippopotamus (Hippopotamus amphibius a. ...

Lakwena said to the waterfall: ‘Water, I am coming to ask you about the sins and bloodshed in this world.’ And the water said: ‘The people with two legs kill their brothers and throw their bodies into the water.’ The spirit asked the water what it did with the sinners, and the water said: ‘I fight against the sinners, for they are the ones to blame for the bloodshed. Go and fight against the sinners, because they throw their brothers into the water.

After briefly returning home, Lakwena led Alice to Mount Kilak, which greeted their arrival with large explosions, to deal with the issue of witchcraft: SINNER is a German Heavy Melodic Metal Band. ...

The spirit Lakwena said to the mountain or to the rock: ‘God has sent me to find out why there is theft in the world.’ The mountain answered: ‘I have gone nowhere and have stolen no one’s children. But people come here to me and name the names of those whom I should kill [by casting spells]. Some ask me for medicine [to bewitch]. This is the sin of the people. I want to give you water to heal diseases. But you must fight against the sinners.

In the climax to the story, God Himself specifies who is to blame for all of the suffering and bloodshed: Michelangelos depiction of God in the painting Creation of the Sun and Moon in the Sistine Chapel Krishna, the eighth incarnation of Vishnu, one of the manifestations of the ultimate reality or God in Hinduism This article discusses the term God in the context of monotheism and henotheism. ...

God said that there was a tribe in Uganda that was hated everywhere. This tribe was the Acholi. And God ordered that a lamb be offered, so that they should repent their sins and to put an end to the bloodshed in Acholi.

Other Resources

The authoritative, and perhaps only significant, source of information on the intersection of Acholi traditional beliefs and the religious inner workings of the Holy Spirit Movement is: Behrend, Heike. Mitch Cohen, trans. Alice Lakwena and the Holy Spirits: War in Northern Uganda, 1985-97, James Currey, 2000. ISBN 0821413112. (Originally published as Behrend, H. 1993. Alice und die Geister: Krieg in Norden Uganda. Trickster, Munich.)

A modicum of relevant information may be garnered from the beginnings of the reports listed at the bottom of the Lord's Resistance Army page. The conflict forces many civilians to live in internally displaced person (IDP) camps. ...

The Real Faces of the Ugandan Civil War