Duped into cultism

On July 2, Solomon Jonathan Ssemakula,47, stunned the world when he grimed through his teeth to claim he was the Messiah, Jesus Christ.

He had been arrested and aligned at Nakaseke police station for leading a cult-like group of people that allegedly ate raw food and only prayed to Ssemakula’s twisted evangelism for deliverance and healing.
Many people laughed off the joke yet others ‘diagnosed’ the cult leader as a mad man who would benefit from psychiatric assistance.
His actions, police said, were a threat and he was, together with nine others, arrested and aligned before court and charged with convening and managing an unlawful society.

In his first days of arrest and trial, Ssemakula would grim through his teeth maintaining that indeed he was the Messiah and whoever was challenging him was just ignorant.

However, in August after he was acquitted of the crimes, Ssemakula in a show of broken resilience asked a handful of his followers at the Kiwoko Grade I Court in Nakaseke District to forgive him for misleading them into believing that he was ‘Jesus Christ’.

This, to those who knew him, was another of his antics that he had exhibited at his End Time Gospel church that taught followers not to go to hospital when they are sick and only seek deliverance from Ssemakula.

But for his followers, the calm but yet measured apology was a rude awakening as some said they had wasted time and even gone to prison for a man who they had resolutely believed to be the ‘Messiah’.

Ssemakula, in an assuring tone told his followers the true Messiah would come as the “Bible states to redeem his church from the great suffering such as the persecution and prison sentence that they (followers) had suffered”.

“I am not Jesus Christ,” he said, before lowering his head as if in shame as he sipped on a bottle of mineral water.

This was not what Godfrey Bandaga, one of his followers expected as he quickly gagged him for being a coward and wasting their time, money and resources.

Two of the other followers, Frederick Mwebe and Clement Kayimbye were equally angry as Ssemakula directed them to go back to their respective homes and families to embark on development projects.

“We gave all our resources after trusting the message from this man [Ssemakula],” Mwebe shouted as he whipped beads of sweat that had formed around his nose and forehead.

The duo, who like many other followers doesn’t know where Ssemakula went, had been convinced by the End Time Gospel in Tongo village, Kapeeka Sub-county in Nakaseke District to abandon their work to become missionaries.

“This is a great disappointment from this man,” Mwebe said in a feat of anger.

Defeated and weakened by a highly publicised, trial Ssemakula retorted he could not continue with the mission because he had been imprisoned and even threatened with a possibility of longer prison sentence if he insisted on preaching the End Time Gospel.

“I have decided to denounce my title [Jesus Christ] because I am not the Messiah. The prison life has not been easy for me and my people. I would rather give up the mission and do what government wants me to do than make people suffer,” he said then in an interview on the sidelines.
In court, Ssemakula had been acquitted on condition that he denounces his activities, a condition on which the State lost interest in the case.

Not much is known about Ssemakula but the Kappeka Sub-county chairperson, Moses Ssenfuma, told Sunday Monitor in an interview last recently Ssemakula has a track record of cultism having been part of a group of a cult that was disbanded in 2010.

“He was part of Enjiri Cult. I don’t know how he [Ssemakula] formed this another [End Time Gospel] cult,” he said.
The End Time Gospel cult, he said, could have been an underground movement that was started around 2012 after disbanding the Enjiri cult.

The Enjiri cult, which had been founded by the late Wilson Bushara, had members scattered in the sub-counties of Butuntumula and Kamira.
They used to preach against eating cooked food and taking children to UPE Schools.

They had also banned the use of mobile phones and computers which they linked to the Biblical verses in the book of Revelations with a figure ‘666’.

Ssemakula, his followers and local council officials said could have left Tongo village and returned to Kiboga District with three of his followers. He had been living in Kiboga before moving to Nakaseke District.

The rented building in which Ssemakula used to host his followers has since been reclaimed by its owner but at the moment it is unoccupied.

Frederick Mwebe, a resident of Kikamulo Sub-county in Nakaseke District was one of Ssemakula’s followers but he has since returned to his home to farm.

Asked what happened to the mission, he said, he had given up and he was not aware of where Ssemakula was.

Many like him, have since returned to their homes to engage in development projects as Ssemakula had told them.
But beyond Ssemakula, other people have claimed to either be Jesus or God. All these, amazingly have followers who blindly believe in their preaching.
This is what Pastor Franklin Mondo Mugisha of Empowerment Christian Centre International calls sheer lack of knowledge of the scriptures that teach the coming back of the Messiah.

“It is absolute occultism for one to claim to be Jesus. Interestingly, the people who claim to be Jesus have funny backgrounds. The Bible warns of these incidents and its little wonder they are happening at such a time,” he says.
Such people, according to Mondo have been routinely described as sons of man claiming to be sons of Jesus or God themselves.

Owobusobozi Bisaka: He was a regular teacher and Catholic catechist in Kibaale, western Uganda was born Desteo Bisaka until 1980 when he reported a revelation where powers to heal and save were vested in him.

He left the Catholic faith and founded his own church, Faith Unity in 1981 and changed his name to Owobusobozi meaning ‘he who is all able’. He then wrote a book which his followers use as their Bible.

Sons of man who have claimed to be God or Jesus Christ the Messiah

‘God’ Olumba Olumba Obu: He is a Nigerian man-god called the sole spiritual head of the universe. His believers address him as, ‘the ancient of days, the word of god, the giver of life and the ‘I am’.

His Ugandan followers pray to him in a church located in Bunga and led by “Archbishop” James Crawford Ellerbe whose mission is to plant the new church, kingdom of the Brotherhood of the Cross and Star.

The worshippers who are also vegetarian remove their shoes before entrance as it is marked a holy ground and wear white robes before praying to the church’s founder, Olumba, in one of the portraits on the wall.

Moon Sun Myung: He founded the Unification Church which had a large following in the US and South Korea in the 1970s and 1980s. The faith is famous for hosting mass weddings.

Matayoshi Jesus: He is a Japanese politician who is convinced that he is here to save the world.
He was famously known for inciting his political opponents to commit suicide by disemboweling themselves and on several occasions promised to send them to hell.

Inri Christo: The 68-year-old Brazilian started to claim to be Jesus in 1979, saying, ‘I am your father the God of David and Jacob’.
His pictures are a replica of the depictions of portraits of Jesus. He wears long white robes, a crown of thorns, the beard and poses like Jesus. He has also been arrested over 40 times in the over 40 years he has made the claim.

Sergei Torop: Popularly known as Jesus of Siberia, he claimed to be reincarnate son of God. He wears flowing robes and gives sermons on a hill.

Alan Miller: the 53-year-old former computer systems engineer from Kingaroy, a small rural town north-west of Brisbane in Australia claims he realised he is the Messiah after his first marriage ended in 1997 and he began to have reoccurring memories of his life in the first century.

It was reported that Miller is sure of his identity because he has memories of his life 2,000 years ago. He does not claim to be the reincarnation of Jesus but rather someone who has existed for thousands of years.

Edward Sserunyigo: He was arrested in Masaka claiming to be Jesus Christ of Nazareth and preaching doom. He also claimed that whoever followed him would go to heaven now being the end times.