That is the bitter and sad story of Shakahola.
August 24, 2024 11:15 AM Subscribe
“Jesus himself did it,” he said. “Nobody killed anybody. I did nothing." Alexis Okeowo investigates the story of Paul Mackenzie, a Kenyan religious leader charged with the deaths of more then 400 people. (SLNY)
(cw: mass murder, bodily suffering, cruelty to children, sexual violence)
This is absolutely one of the most depressing things I have ever read about (there have been a few pieces in the NYT as well). It's a case where you really need to heed the content warnings. I don't think humanity has invented a punishment sufficient for someone who starves their children in order for them to meet Jesus faster. It's one thing to imagine a charismatic leader talking you into doing harm to yourself...but this is just gut-wrenchingly awful.
posted by mittens at 1:13 PM on August 24 [6 favorites]
posted by mittens at 1:13 PM on August 24 [6 favorites]
I majored in Religious Studies in college. Back then I found religion to be very interesting. Given the history since then I’ve found religious thinking to be one of the scourges of humankind.
posted by njohnson23 at 1:35 PM on August 24 [11 favorites]
posted by njohnson23 at 1:35 PM on August 24 [11 favorites]
the new Jim Jones?
robbyrobs, there's actually a link in that direction in the article:
Mackenzie had begun telling his followers to fast for the sake of their souls. He may have been inspired by the teachings of William Branham, an American evangelical preacher who became known in the forties and fifties for his doomsday theology. (Kenyan investigators found copies of Branham’s sermons in Shakahola.) Branham gave tirades against the health and education systems, and encouraged fasting as a way of achieving “atomic power,” a form of spiritual strength. He later mentored Jim Jones, the cult leader who orchestrated the 1978 murder-suicide of more than nine hundred followers in Jonestown, Guyana...
posted by doctornemo at 1:50 PM on August 24 [2 favorites]
robbyrobs, there's actually a link in that direction in the article:
Mackenzie had begun telling his followers to fast for the sake of their souls. He may have been inspired by the teachings of William Branham, an American evangelical preacher who became known in the forties and fifties for his doomsday theology. (Kenyan investigators found copies of Branham’s sermons in Shakahola.) Branham gave tirades against the health and education systems, and encouraged fasting as a way of achieving “atomic power,” a form of spiritual strength. He later mentored Jim Jones, the cult leader who orchestrated the 1978 murder-suicide of more than nine hundred followers in Jonestown, Guyana...
posted by doctornemo at 1:50 PM on August 24 [2 favorites]
the new Jim Jones?
The world has had plenty of new Jim Jones.
posted by Panjandrum at 2:06 PM on August 24 [2 favorites]
The world has had plenty of new Jim Jones.
posted by Panjandrum at 2:06 PM on August 24 [2 favorites]
This is a terrible story.
posted by Frowner at 2:47 PM on August 24 [3 favorites]
posted by Frowner at 2:47 PM on August 24 [3 favorites]
I see now why angels can be depicted with broadswords.
posted by clavdivs at 6:17 PM on August 24 [2 favorites]
posted by clavdivs at 6:17 PM on August 24 [2 favorites]
At least they managed to catch and (hopefully successfully) prosecute Mackenzie. The bastards responsible for the 2000 the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God mass murder(s) of hundreds of their followers are still at large. (Though it's likely that at least one of said bastards ended up taking out at least one of the other said bastards to cover one's tracks and/or not share whatever loot they managed to escape with).
posted by gtrwolf at 9:58 PM on August 24 [3 favorites]
posted by gtrwolf at 9:58 PM on August 24 [3 favorites]
The world has had plenty of new Jim Jones.
Jims Jones, I believe.
posted by snofoam at 12:33 AM on August 25 [6 favorites]
Jims Jones, I believe.
posted by snofoam at 12:33 AM on August 25 [6 favorites]
Organised religion - believing in fairies getting people killed since time immemorial.
posted by GallonOfAlan at 12:49 AM on August 25 [1 favorite]
posted by GallonOfAlan at 12:49 AM on August 25 [1 favorite]
Eh, speaking as a person with no particular love for organized religion, I’m not sure religion is the problem here rather than the vehicle for something else. If the 21st C has taught us anything, it’s that everything has seeds of disordered thinking that can go rancid and cause awful things. To blame religion solely means losing sight of the way the same things show up in politics, finance, technology and so on. Apocalyptic thinking is name after religious imagery but not limited to religion.
Mackenzie seems kind of unique in that there didn’t appear to be an obvious high-stress event that triggered the murders. It’s hard enough to imagine a murder campaign in an extreme situation, but this appalling campaign doesn’t seem to have a trigger.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:33 AM on August 25 [7 favorites]
Mackenzie seems kind of unique in that there didn’t appear to be an obvious high-stress event that triggered the murders. It’s hard enough to imagine a murder campaign in an extreme situation, but this appalling campaign doesn’t seem to have a trigger.
posted by GenjiandProust at 4:33 AM on August 25 [7 favorites]
Religion is definitely the problem here. It is not always problematic, but with the stories of Ananias and Sapphira and the Loaves and the Fishes, there is a belief structure that gives validation to the idea that you should cast your bread upon the water/give to God first and wait for him to provide wealth.
If there weren’t a group of people ready to sell all they have and give it to the Lord, these guys would probably resort to more typical forms of human trafficking. It’s like a scam where the marks have been told stories about how noble it is to buy cryptocurrency since the time they were toddlers.
People are also more willing to accept hell in the present when they are expecting eternal bliss, and have the example of Abraham being willing to sacrifice Isaac as a reasoning for why you should not even withhold your children.
Even in the US, there are people who give money that should go to their families, and who prioritize “God” over their children. It may not be as violent, but it can still be tragic and life-changing. I know some of my family members have given a lot, and I think there has been some community good done with the money/volunteering, but my cousins will struggle more as a result.
posted by puffinaria at 8:01 AM on August 25 [3 favorites]
If there weren’t a group of people ready to sell all they have and give it to the Lord, these guys would probably resort to more typical forms of human trafficking. It’s like a scam where the marks have been told stories about how noble it is to buy cryptocurrency since the time they were toddlers.
People are also more willing to accept hell in the present when they are expecting eternal bliss, and have the example of Abraham being willing to sacrifice Isaac as a reasoning for why you should not even withhold your children.
Even in the US, there are people who give money that should go to their families, and who prioritize “God” over their children. It may not be as violent, but it can still be tragic and life-changing. I know some of my family members have given a lot, and I think there has been some community good done with the money/volunteering, but my cousins will struggle more as a result.
posted by puffinaria at 8:01 AM on August 25 [3 favorites]
Religion is a problem here, but the effects of colonialism/neocolonialism are major factors*.
Why are people so poor and sick here? Why are they turning to "miracles" not as one aspect of healing but as their sole option? If someone is having chest pain, why can't they go see a cardiologist? If a little girl is throwing up all the time and her health is failing, why can't they go see a specialist? These aren't people who are saying, "I have been to a regular doctor and he can't help" or "in addition to a regular doctor's advice, I also seek out religious healing because the spirit is important".
And for that matter, all those fucked up Christian cults were imported and often enforced by violence, and their tenets were developed in order to extend racist control, not to forward some kind of liberation theology. And where is civil society in this? It's not some kind of Kenyan social tradition to have random rich dudes in the forest machete-ing people who get in their way, that's the failure of civil (or traditional, or whatever you want to call "norms where we live in relative peace with our neighbors because that is what is socially expected") society and the existence of a kind of corrupted, partial industrial modernity where there isn't enough traditional society to keep things on track OR enough state. That is straight up the legacy of colonialism, and probably ongoing colonialism, because I bet there's a bunch of resource extraction and corrupt money stuff in the background.
I mean, I grew up in a relatively Christian area, but it was stodgy middle class centrist Christianity - little outbreaks of nonsense here and there but mostly it was pretty respectability-oriented, some charity, some church-buiilding, the pastor came to see you if you were in the hospital, etc. People, like, had access to medical care, and while there was gossip and so on, it was more like a social club than a megachurch or a cult. Merely having a religion doesn't do very much socially when it's not embedded in a society with other problems/inequalities.
*There's sort of a whig history argument that I actually believe is mostly true, to wit that both colonizers and colonized are vulnerable to cults and cultish violence because colonialism creates bad, unstable, immiserating societies even if you're on the materially rich side.
posted by Frowner at 8:44 AM on August 25 [10 favorites]
Why are people so poor and sick here? Why are they turning to "miracles" not as one aspect of healing but as their sole option? If someone is having chest pain, why can't they go see a cardiologist? If a little girl is throwing up all the time and her health is failing, why can't they go see a specialist? These aren't people who are saying, "I have been to a regular doctor and he can't help" or "in addition to a regular doctor's advice, I also seek out religious healing because the spirit is important".
And for that matter, all those fucked up Christian cults were imported and often enforced by violence, and their tenets were developed in order to extend racist control, not to forward some kind of liberation theology. And where is civil society in this? It's not some kind of Kenyan social tradition to have random rich dudes in the forest machete-ing people who get in their way, that's the failure of civil (or traditional, or whatever you want to call "norms where we live in relative peace with our neighbors because that is what is socially expected") society and the existence of a kind of corrupted, partial industrial modernity where there isn't enough traditional society to keep things on track OR enough state. That is straight up the legacy of colonialism, and probably ongoing colonialism, because I bet there's a bunch of resource extraction and corrupt money stuff in the background.
I mean, I grew up in a relatively Christian area, but it was stodgy middle class centrist Christianity - little outbreaks of nonsense here and there but mostly it was pretty respectability-oriented, some charity, some church-buiilding, the pastor came to see you if you were in the hospital, etc. People, like, had access to medical care, and while there was gossip and so on, it was more like a social club than a megachurch or a cult. Merely having a religion doesn't do very much socially when it's not embedded in a society with other problems/inequalities.
*There's sort of a whig history argument that I actually believe is mostly true, to wit that both colonizers and colonized are vulnerable to cults and cultish violence because colonialism creates bad, unstable, immiserating societies even if you're on the materially rich side.
posted by Frowner at 8:44 AM on August 25 [10 favorites]
yeah, I feel like its a religion + colonialism soup of toxicity here. incredibly sad and heartbreaking for the survivors, the victims, their families.
posted by supermedusa at 9:05 AM on August 25 [1 favorite]
posted by supermedusa at 9:05 AM on August 25 [1 favorite]
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