Northern Rhodesia: Alice Is at It Again

NORTHERN RHODESIA

During last winter’s elections that brought Kenneth Kaunda’s United National Independence Party to power, the only serious violence at the polls occurred in the northeastern districts, and they involved not Kaunda’s political opponents but the zealous followers of a religious prophetess named Alice Lenshina. It seems that Kaunda’s agents tried to force her people to vote. They did not want to, and by the time the excitement was over, a number of people were dead. Last week Alice’s followers were at it again, this time sparking a major rebellion that has left 40 villages afire and more than 300 men, women and children shot, speared, hacked or burned to death.

Magic Word. Alice, now a plump 40, founded her cult among Northern Rhodesian tribesmen eleven years ago, after having—so she claimed—died and risen from the dead. As the story goes, the rapid spread of her fame dates from the day she ordered her followers to strip naked during a violent rainstorm. She said she would cleanse them of sin, but those beyond redemption would be struck dead by a bolt of lightning. According to the legend, no sooner had she spoken than lightning struck a nearby tree, killing two. As the story of the “miracle” spread, Alice’s following snowballed; at one time it had as many as 75,000 adherents, though its membership has dwindled since.

She wins her converts with a doctrinal haggis of African witchcraft and Christian teachings she learned from Church of Scotland missionaries. Alice condemns adultery, polygamy, drinking, smoking, singing dirty songs, dancing for fun. The rallying cry of her followers is “Jericho,” a word that she guarantees will protect them from death by turning bullets into water.

The magic word was not much help in last week’s fighting, touched off when a teen-age Lumpa was thrashed by his uncle, a Kaunda man, for playing hooky from school. In the early battles, angry Lumpas reportedly speared 50 of Kaunda’s followers, then herded 150 women and children into their grass huts and burned them alive. A day later, the rampaging Lumpas, springing from the tall elephant grass, ambushed a police detachment and killed its British officer.

Water Bullets. But then, from the capital of Lusaka, 450 miles to the southwest, came 2,000 soldiers and police to restore order. The troops surrounded the Lumpas’ headquarters of Sione, named for the Biblical Zion, demanding immediate surrender. Instead, the fanatical Lumpas charged, brandishing spears, axes and ancient rifles. “Jericho!” they yelled, doubtless expecting a damp spray in return. Not water but lead was the soldiers’ reply, and soon 65 Lumpas lay dead, 50 wounded.

As for Alice, she and her husband Petrus Mulenga had prudently slipped into hiding, calling for a “holy war” to the bitter end. Alice’s followers could take heart from her latest promise: anybody who dies from those water bullets is guaranteed a “passport to heaven,” opening the gates of paradise where a Black God reigns supreme.