Reports Leo Odera Omolo
JALIA Nantongo is a resident of Bugoge village in Kayunga district. The 70-year-old has seen as many Easters but recalls only one event that occurred on the most recent one. On the night before Easter Sunday, her family’s cemetery was raided by unknown people, who exhumed the remains of six of her relatives and stole the skulls.
The ailing Nantongo discovered, at about 1:00pm the following day, that the graves had been desecrated when a relative, Kanifa Nakafeero, reported the matter to her. Nakafeero was passing by the graveyard when she noticed the holes dug around six of the graves. Puzzled about what could have happened, the women called in neighbours to examine the graves. “We were shocked to discover that the skulls from the six graves which had been dug were missing. I had never seen that in my life,” Nantongo said.
Just a few meters away, five other graves had been dug in the same style and on the same day and the skulls taken. To Nantongo, who lives on her own a few metres from the graveyard, the experience was shocking and terrifying. The village converged at the two homes, withdrawing the focus from the Easter celebrations to grieve. Officers from Kayunga Police Station confirmed that the skulls were missing.
Before the Easter incidents, several others had been reported in Kayunga, Kitimbwa, Busana and Nazingo sub-counties since 2008. But the most gruesome, according to the residents, was in Busana in 2008, when 26 graves on different villages were dug and the skulls stolen. The Busana incident was unique because the rest of the skeletons were left on top of the graves after the skulls were plucked off. Police and local leaders who visited the graveyards condemned the act as relatives collected the remains and reburied them. According to the law, a person who exhumes bodies is charged with trespassing and is liable to one year’s imprisonment.
Kayunga Police estimate that since 2008, over 50 skulls have been stolen. There is also fear that more graves may be lying empty after their remains where removed.
The worrying practice was initially thought to be taking place only in Kayunga, but two cases were reported in Mukono in Kyampisi sub-county.
The Mukono incidents were at the same graveyard with the first case registered in 2008 and the second reported on Tuesday night. Florence Munyango discovered that her relative, Sarah Kazibwe’s body had been exhumed early on Tuesday morning as she was heading to the garden to dig.
“I saw a hole and clothes near the grave and I became suspicious. I ran back and informed the others about it,” she said, adding, “Then we called the resident district commissioner, Maj. David Matovu.”
Matovu and other security officials promised to investigate the matter. The incidents have left security officials and residents both in Mukono and Kayunga puzzled. “They dig a small hole at the front of the grave, pull out the skulls and leave the other body parts inside. We wonder what type of technology they are using,” Kayunga Police chief Julius Ahimbisibwe said.
Since some people cover up the holes after taking the skulls, it may be hard for the relatives to know whether or not their people’s graves were tampered with. The Police have not arrested anyone since the first case was reported in 2008. Ahimbisibwe said the residents were not cooperative which had made it hard for the Police to net the suspects. “Even those whose relatives were exhumed don’t follow up the matter and when we call them, they are not willing to come to us.”
At Nagalama Police Station in Mukono, which is in charge of Kabembe where the incident occurred on Tuesday, the matter had not reached the desk of the officer in-charge of the station by Thursday afternoon. The officer, Deo Kibuka, said: “Nobody reported the matter to us, we are just learning about it from you. I think they thought it was something minor.”
Residents in the affected areas suspect that traditional healers are behind the phenomenon. They believe that the healers exhume the remains to boost their charms. There is also a common belief that the healers who exhume the bodies have borrowed a foreign culture, especially from Nigerian movies.
The chairman of the traditional healers in Mukono district, Livingstone Kiggo Ssalongo, also believes that some traditional healers are involved. But he says those involved are impersonators who have penetrated their profession to tarnish it. “A true traditional healer respects the dead and cannot exhume their remains.”
Kiggo accused the government of failing to enact strict laws to control foreigners coming into the country which he said has given foreign practises to penetrate the country. Kiggo ruled out the possibility that night dancers were involved, arguing that they would not exhume remains of people who were buried a long time ago, because they are interested in the flesh. He said they had planned to carry out an operation to arrest fake healers. Mukono district cultural officer Jim Kato believes the habit is rampant in Kayunga and cropping up in Mukono because there are so many people of different cultures in those areas. Land conflicts were also cited among the likely causes of the habit. At Kabembe, the owners of the affected graveyard suspect that the conflict they have over the piece of land where the graveyard is located resulted into the act. The Police in Kayunga suspect that the people involved in the practice come from outside Uganda and connive with the locals to exhume the bodies.
Ahimbisibwe said if the locals had been spearheading the crime, they would have netted at least one by now.
The practice is so common in West Africa, that in 2008, the Police in Gabon carried out a crackdown on grave diggers. In these parts, skulls are sold for several hundred dollars each. In the USA and Europe there are shops that sell skulls for educational purposes and they go for between $300 and $800 a piece.
In January 2008, Saturday Vision reported that hundreds of skulls had been stolen from mass graves in Luwero district, where war victims had been buried. The motive of the skull thefts was not clear, but the locals believed witchdoctors used them to cast spells on enemies of their clients
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