Ghosts of Kanungu

''Ghosts of Kanungu: Fertility, Secrecy and Exchange in the Great Lakes of East Africa'' is a book by Richard Vokes about the cult the Movement for the Restoration of the Ten Commandments of God (MRTC), notorious for the deaths of hundreds of its members in what was alternatively described as mass suicide or mass murder in 2000. The book was co-published by the Ugandan publisher Fountain Publishers and James Currey in 2009. An ethnography of the group, the book analyzes the MRTC in the context of the wider religious background of Uganda, and attempts to show what led to the deaths.

It places the MRTC within the context of Ugandan religion and history at the time, with a particular focus on the influence of Nyabingi, a set of local religious practices utilized to redress misfortune, which Vokes argues was later replaced by and conflated with the Virgin Mary. He also focuses on how its growth was influenced by the struggles of AIDs and its background of Catholic religious influence. It argues against the commonly accepted theory about the MRTC, that there was mass murder by the groups leaders; instead, he argues that it had actually been mass suicide, and that the dead believed to have been mass murder victims were actually malaria victims from years prior.

''Ghosts of Kanungu'' received a highly positive reception. Reviewers praised it for its writing quality and style; several reviews compared it to a detective story. The conclusions of the book were mostly praised, with reviewers calling them plausible and well evidenced, though some commentators disagreed with the classification Vokes made of the organization or its aspects. Some minor criticisms were levied at the book's clarity and open-ended nature. Provided by Wikipedia