The death of Bujjagali; the Man,the village, and the falls.

My thoughts on the death of Bujjagali; the Man,the village, and the falls.- By Eddie.

A few days ago, at Bujagali village which neighbors with Buwenda village( Where I stay ) ,dada Nabamba Budhagali,a prominent witch-doctor who is purported to be the custodian of all evils spirits in Uganda died aged over 100 years.
My heartfelt condolences to his family and all his followers. May his soul rest in eternal peace.

A few days after his death, I walked by his home, there was a heavy stench of smoke in the air, the whole place was filled with witch-doctors wearing embugo and smoking emindi. They all seemed to be drunk and dancing in similar fashion. May be it was a unique demonic dance.

During the mourning period, which lasted for 8 days, a lot of rituals were performed in according with his demonic faith. He was later buried at 2:30am in the middle of the night amidst drumming,dancing and smoking of emindi. The burial ceremony was conducted by another fella from Buganda who claims to be the “prophet and seer” of all evils spirits in Uganda.

There is now talk on the village that the evils spirits are poised to select another Bujagali to physically represent their interests on earth. The selection process and criteria is not known, but somehow a new Bujagali will mysteriously emerge out of the blue claiming to posses demonic powers.

Here are my simple observations about his death.

Blaming death on others/external forces:-
Medical Doctors said that he had ailments associated with people of old age, so his death didn’t surprise them. But still his followers claimed that he had been “re-called” (whatever that means!) by the evil spirits.

Fear of evil Spirits:-
Many Ugandans (including non-committed Christians) hold a lot of superstitious beliefs (that borders on foolishness) that I do not even understand. The fear and ‘respect’ that many Ugandans have for evil spirits and the great lengths they go into, to do all sorts of rituals to apparently appease family evil/demonic spirits to avert any perceived trouble is intriguing and interesting to note.

If the fear many Ugandans have for evil spirits was the same fear we had for poverty and ignorance, many Ugandans would be self driven at a very high speed in doing a lot of good so that poverty and ignorance does not ‘kill’ them. We would have many Ugandans interested in self Leadership, community transformation and in reading books to gain deeper knowledge and understanding on how to solve our problems.

If all this tremendous efforts (of appeasing demons) was instead directed into productive work, many Ugandans would probably not be languishing in so much poverty and dying of curable diseases.

Telling lies:-
Many years ago, the late dada Nabamba Bujagali passed word on the village, that he was going to ‘walk’ on the Nile River.My grandmother and I plus a host of other people from Bujagali village and surrounding villages pitched camp at the then Bujagali falls to witness his walking on water. We spent their two days hoping to see demonic forces performing wonders in our midst, but wapi,it was a hoax. The guy, after making us wait day and night, just came up with lame excuses leaving all of us disappointed.

Blessings – Edward