Weird things happen, many times in the mass delusory context of religious devotion. Karl Marx must have thought of this when he cynically dismissed religion as the “opium of the people.” Or how do we explain the choice of some people to commit suicide by starvation at alleged prompting of a religious leader?
Nearly 90 bodies had been recovered as at early this week from mass graves in a forest in eastern Kenya. The bodies were suspected to be those of followers of a church-based cult whose members believed they would go to heaven if they starved to death. Exhumations were ongoing in the forest area, which Kenyan authorities had declared a crime scene, and the toll was expected to rise.
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Followers of the self-professed Good News International Church had been living in secluded settlements in an 800-acre area within the Shakahola forest, near Malindi in Kilifi county. The cult leader, named Pastor Paul Mackenzie, allegedly taught that they would go to heaven if they starved to death, and the members believed and obliged him. And as they died, they were interred in shallow graves all over the forest. Mackenzie, was arrested on 14th April following a tip-off about the existence of shallow graves containing the bodies of his followers. Upon visiting the scene, Kenyan police discovered some 50 bodies in mass graves as well as eight found alive and emaciated, but who later died. Reports said other survivors were rescued but they refused to eat, while some others were suspected hiding away from authorities in the forest. Kenyan Interior Minister Kithure Kindiki referred to the occurrence as the “Shakahola Forest Massacre.” Following his arrest and impending trial, Mackenzie himself refused to eat and drink.
Why any leader would get the kicks from followers dying en masse boggles the mind. But that the followers complied with Mackenzie’s weird teaching again illustrates the extent to which gullible minds could be preyed upon. And this holds true everywhere. A historical parallel of the Shakahola deaths was the Jonestown Massacre of 1978 in which more than 900 followers of Jim Jones died in a mass suicide-murder under his direction – famously dubbed the Guyana Tragedy. But we have instances aplenty in Nigeria as well. Remember a purported ‘rapture flight’ in April 2022 for which Pastor Noah Abraham camped his members in a remote compound in Omuo-Ekiti and charged them N310,000 as fare. Remember also the gulag in an area of Ondo township where Pastor David Anifowose secluded followers for more than six months in anticipation of rapture. Neither of those self-professed clerics have been put through trial till date. We shouldn’t wait for a Mackenzie to show up in Nigeria before we sanitise the ‘opium’ field of religion.