Alice Auma

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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.

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.

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:
Lord's Resistance Army
HSM - Alice Auma
Joseph Kony - ICC
1987-1994
1994-2002
2002-2005

Bibliography

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.

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.

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:

Lakwena then questioned the water about the war:

After briefly returning home, Lakwena led Alice to Mount Kilak, which greeted their arrival with large explosions, to deal with the issue of witchcraft:

In the climax to the story, God Himself specifies who is to blame for all of the suffering and bloodshed:

References

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 Bibliography of the Lord's Resistance Army.

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