Tanzania charges cult leader with human trafficking

By Kizito Makoye

MWANZA, Tanzania (AA) - A self-styled female pastor in Tanzania’s northern city of Mwanza, Diana Bundala, 39, who claims to be reincarnation of God, was arrested and charged with aggravated human trafficking after she was found to have locked 150 people, including children, in unlawful captivity.

Bundala, popularly known as ‘King Zumaridi’, along with 92 of her gullible followers, who were hiding in an opulent mansion on the shores of Lake Victoria, were arrested last week.

A video clip released by the police shows armed police officers jostling to contain dozens of smartly dressed young men, known as soldiers of Cherubim and Seraphim, who created a human shield as they desperately tried to protect her.

Bundala, who prefers to be called a king rather than a queen, allegedly kept people of various ages and nationalities in captivity.

Ramadhani Ng’anzi, Mwanza’s regional police commander, said the female pastor was holding the people for ransom at her house located at Buguku Street, Nyamagana district.

“The house in which those people were being kept is neither a church nor a congregation hall,” he told Anadolu Agency.

Ng’azi said Bundala is also accused of conducting illegal worship and brainwashing apart from locking believers, including 92 women, 57 men and 24 children, and enslaving them in domestic servitude.

- Human trafficking charges

The outspoken cult leader and 92 of her followers appeared before a local court in Mwanza last Tuesday and were charged with human trafficking, physical assault and obstructing police officers from performing their duties.

Reading the charges before the court, the state prosecutors accused Bundala of trafficking people, including children.

In a separate case, Bundala and eight of her accomplices are accused of assaulting police officers and obstructing them from doing their job.

The hearing was adjourned until March 17.

- Gullible followers

The pastor has attracted a large following of people who believe she is endowed with supernatural powers.

But the prosecutors say she is accused of corrupting the minds of young children and forcing them to leave school.

“This woman deceived her followers (by saying) that she was all powerful God, capable of raising the dead from graves and had the power to solve all problems,” Ng’azi said.

King Zumaridi, who enjoys a cult style with her followers, has gained popularity in Tanzania where she has attracted hundreds of people from all walks of life.

In 2019, the controversial pastor was ordered by the authorities to suspend her services on the grounds that she was violating social traditions and distorting religious doctrines.

However, she decided to move her services to her home at the Iseni neighborhood and attracted many followers who flocked daily for prayers and healing.

Local residents in Mwanza said they had often seen Zumaridi’s believers lying down on their bellies and she would walk on their backs until she reached the altar.

In an interview with Anadolu Agency, Christina Kiyungi, who worships at Bundala’s church, said she believes she is a king, a savior of the world and the greatest comforter.

“She has been of great help to me personally. With her prayers all my problems have dissipated, why shouldn’t I adore her as a king?” she said.

However, local residents in Mwanza said Bundala, who claims to have power to cure ailments, had conditioned her believers to perform bizarre rituals such as laughing, crying and smiling whenever she does so.

On a Sunday morning, women in dazzling blue outfits hold hands with wide-eyed children.

Men in their gleaming tuxedo suits stream into the mansion in the dusty neighborhood to listen to the woman they call king.

“I am the king of kings with great powers to help humankind,” roars Bundala amid cheers and applause from her worshipers.

- Prosperity gospel

Bundala, who preaches prosperity gospel, believes that wealth is a sign of spiritual blessing and has been drawing huge crowds.

Amid the thunderous tune of Congolese Lingala music, King Zumaridi asks her ecstatic followers to move forward and receive her anointing.

The wobbling flock crush in a frenzied jostling to kiss her feet and be healed in a bizarre ritual.

Like elsewhere in Africa, Tanzania has attracted a huge number of religious sects and evangelical churches run by millionaire pastors who preach prosperity gospel.

Most of these churches are run by self-proclaimed prophets who claim to have the power to perform miracles.

Local clergymen, however, shun prosperity gospel whose tenet is that God wants Christians to be wealthy on Earth and in heaven.

“These false doctrines are rapidly eroding long-held moral values that placed greater emphasis on transforming communities to make them economically and socially viable than turning worshippers into overnight millionaires,” said Leons Maziku, professor of religious studies at St. Augustine University of Tanzania.

Maziku said prosperity gospel has endorsed the virtues of materialism in the age of widespread inequality.