6 - Chronicles

Summary

The key purpose of the previous two chapters has been to show the various ways in which the MRTC attempted to reinforce a symbolic connection between Holy Mary of their projection and the figure of the old Nyabingi. In this way, they represented the Virgin as a divine figure capable of helping people with the same range of misfortunes – especially barrenness (engumba), ‘problems’ with polygamy, and afflictions by emandwa – as had previously been dealt with by the old goddess. Moreover, they further tried to embed this image in practice, by grounding it in the same kinds of local property relations and exchange networks, as had previously been so characteristic of Nyabingi practice. All of which seems to have made the Movement particularly compelling, especially for women, and especially for women in various positions within a (shifting) ‘social structure’ in the context of an emerging AIDS epidemic in the early to mid-1990s. As a result of this, the Movement grew rapidly throughout this period, recruiting especially from among second- and third-generation members of the Kiga Diaspora. Thus, the general thrust of my argument is that, in these ways, the MRTC represented a reconstruction, or a ‘reversioning’, of the kinds of empirical networks which had formerly attached to Nyabingi practice. Or, to put it in other words, for purposes of understanding the early part of the MRTC story, in particular, it is crucial to recognize the ways in which the sect grew out of, and was firmly located within, a specific – historically and geographically located – set of logics and practices.