Grave hunger

What happened in Kenya, where, after a voluntary refusal of food, almost a hundred participants in a religious cult died

For more than two weeks, the Kenyan authorities are investigating mass suicide in the Kilifi administrative district. The dead were participants in the religious movement, lived in the forest and voluntarily condemned themselves to starvation. The leader of the movement is now arrested.

Russian anthropologist Alexander Panchenko believes that this story is not as simple as it seems at first glance: we know only the version of the Kenyan police. At the same time, society, in principle, is inclined to be afraid and dehumanize the members of sects, and the authorities in the authoritarian states - to pursue them.

At least 89 people who were buried in common graves died in the Shakahol forest with an area of ​​about 324 hectares. All of them in the past were members of the religious organization Good News International Church. Its leader was Pastor Paul Mackenzie, who was arrested on April 15.

Paul Mackenzi in the 1990s became known as the Kenyan TV presenter-a religious figure using television for Christian sermons. In 2003, he founded his Church Goods International Church in the port city of Malindi. In 2019, Mackenzie closed the church and moved with several hundred participants to the farm to the Shakahol forest. He motivated this decision with a revelation: the pastor repeatedly told how Jesus Christ was in the visions. Mackenzie ordered followers to quit his work and leave schools, stop eating “worldly food” and not contact clinics in diseases.

Every Saturday, the inhabitants of the Shakakhola gathered for eight -hour "life lessons" from the pastor. According to the Kenyan police, their ultimate goal was an absolute post, having overcome which, they could "meet with Jesus."

Mackenzie allegedly stated that the post would be “considered” only if he would be joint and take place on the farm. It was impossible to get to Paradise if people talked with someone from the outside world, and also if they did not destroy all their documents, including passports and birth certificates.

On April 13, 2023, the Keniy Police received a statement that in mid -March in Shakahole, parents freezed two children with the hunger. Arriving at the farm, police found 16 exhausted people, four of them died on the way to the hospital. According to the Kenyan branch of the Red Cross, in the administrative district more than 200 people are missing. The regional manager of the organization Hassan Musa said CNN: “Saved [from Shakakholy] look very weak and injured. The morgue in Malindi works at the limit of capabilities. ”

Kenysk Police reports that 29 survivors have already been found. Not all of them want to go to the hospital, because they are afraid that because of this they will not go to heaven.

Hussein Khalid, the head of the African NPO to protect human rights Haki Africa, who works in a shakahole, tells the Air Force that he met a woman of about 20 years old with trampling eyes, which "looked very fragile." However, she did not accept help: “When we tried to give her a sip of water with glucose, she categorically refused. She closed her mouth and showed that she did not need anything. " Another man, according to Khalid, "stated that he was in his right mind, knows what he was doing, and we were preventing him from getting into heaven."

Biometric "seals of the beast"

The Italian sociologist on religion Massimo Introplines writes that the ideology of good News International Church is based on the teachings of the American preacher-five of William Branham. Some of his followers, who belonged to Mackenzie, believed that the end of the world was nearing. In front of him, Roman Catholics will establish the kingdom of Antichrist on Earth: people will put the "seals of the beast", without which it will not be possible to buy or sell anything. In the 1970-1980s, preachers suggested that such a marking would be laser, and it would be installed by a special supercomputer.

In 2019, in Kenya, the authorities decided to introduce a single digital biometric identification of an individual called Khuchu Namba. Mackenzie saw a mark of the Antichrist in him and began to speak out against this in his sermons. Massimo Introvinius writes that such a negative attitude to technologies associated with biometrics and computer chips is widespread among the Christian Christmas players.

Russian anthropologist Alexander Panchenko says that similar protests arose among Orthodox Russians: first against TIN in the early 2000s, and then against biometric passports in the 2010s.

By the way, in 2019, the Kenya authorities pursued and detained Mackenzie for propaganda against Khuhu Namba. After his release, the pastor decided to move with followers to the Shakahol forest.

Villain or victim

According to Panchenko, there are too many blind spots in this story. “So far, there is no independent evidence that would confirm that the participants of the Good News International Church died precisely from hunger,” the scientist emphasizes. - It is not known what Kenyan police are guided by, - I doubt that she can be trusted, like Russian. The only fact is that numerous graves were found. There is not even evidence that Mackenzie preached a hunger strike. This is just one of the versions, and not the most likely. It is possible that charges against him are an attempt by the Kenyan authorities to avenge him for propaganda against a single biometric system. ”

The researcher notes that

In the history of religious movements, there were no examples of mass suicides through a hunger strike.

Moreover, the motive of general suicide may be associated with the feeling of approaching the end of the world. For example, some Old Believers in the XVII-XVIII centuries arranged because of this self-immolation.

“The world has completely deteriorated,” Panchenko explains the way of thinking of those who go to collective suicide. - Around the servant of the Antichrist. People are afraid that due to interaction with them, they will defile and get into hell. ” Most often, according to Panchenko, the trigger of collective suicide for members of the religious movement becomes precisely the pressure of the authorities. The scientist gives as an example one of the most famous mass suicides - the events of 1978 in the Johnstown commune in Gayan. Then 918 participants in the association “Temple of Peoples” died, poisoned by cyanide. This event was preceded by the media's close attention to the movement and the visit of the US Congressman Leo Ryan. He tried to take out several members of the “Temple of Peoples” and was killed by the guards of the movement on the runway.

Panchenko calls the only collective suicide from exclusively religious motives, the suicide of the participants in the “Heavenly Gate” movement, who lived in California in anticipation of the arrival of aliens who were supposed to take them from the Earth. Having accepted Hale -Boppa flying in the spring of 1997, 38 followers of the “Heavenly Gate” were accepted by barbiturates. On the dead there was black clothes with the inscription “Group of landing of heavenly gates”, and plastic bags were put on their heads.

Modern sects

According to Panchenko, sects, as the mass consciousness represents them, does not exist. In a purely scientific sense, this term denotes a group that breaks from a larger religious movement for any reason. Most often, society hangs a label, calling a sect, for example, “destructive” or “totalitarian”.

The anthropologist gives an example the Russian religious movement “Church of the Last Testament” or “Vissarionists”, whose leaders have been in jail from September 2020 on suspicion of psychological violence against people. Panchenko says: “The Vissarionians are stubbornly trying to impose the signs of a totalitarian sect and a dangerous destructive cult. The topic of suicide is also present. But there is no evidence. Unfortunately, the media in such matters also play a dual role. They become one of the drivers of panic moods that bring serious problems to people who have innocent people. ”

According to the anthropologist,

Trying to neutralize such religious movements of the police is quite useless.

Instead, you need to try to find a qualified expert who can conduct field research, chat with participants and reduce tension. It is important to remember that the mythology of totalitarian sects is accompanied by sharp dehumanization. Their leaders are considered villains and perverts, and followers are zombies. They cease to be perceived as people, although in fact they do not differ from others.

The researcher emphasizes: “It is impossible to find sociological or religious signs that would testify that the group is a danger to its members. A breakdown can happen anywhere. This problem is not faith, but leadership in different communities. A specific example is the latest history of Russia. President Putin received uncontrolled power and resources, and then something clicked in his head. Perhaps he was simply personally offended by Ukraine and Zelensky. And the war began, whose sacrifices among the civilians are hundreds of times higher than the number of those killed in Kenya. ”