Meet General Kaganga; the warrior who fought Idi Amin

Richard Moleofe | Friday April 1, 2016 15:39

By all means, Idi Amin was a troublesome character during his time as president of Uganda. By the time he was overthrown, he had done enough serious damage to his own country as well as tarnishing the image of Africa as a whole.

This past Good Friday, I had an opportunity to meet General Kaganga from Tanzania. Indeed the Friday was so good to me because it was the first time I was able to meet someone who had been personally involved with fighting Idi Amin.

At the time of the war, Kaganga was a Sergeant in the Air Wing of the Tanzanian army. Most of his work was centred on providing logistical support for the troops in the frontlines. He had a brush with death when the Ugandan Special Forces infiltrated their base and killed a good number of the Tanzanian soldiers. He only survived the raid because he played dead among the many corpses that littered the ground on that fateful night.

Kaganga’s mission in Botswana was to preach at an Easter conference of the Assemblies of God Church at Tlokweng. It is amazing how soldiers retain a lot of things they were taught in their training days as young men. Kaganga drew parallels of what the Gospel teaches with life in the military. The similarities are stunning and I marvelled at the way he applied his military knowledge to the gospel.

He is now a general in the army of the Lord and is far too zealous about his calling. I chose to refer to him as a general because of his rank in the church. Being the Bishop of the island of Zanzibar, he occupies a far too important position than that of the Air Wing Sergeant in 1978.

His conduct is presidential and his demeanour supercedes that of many diplomats. His knowledge of the gospel and military tactics is far amazing and that certainly tells me he is a man who visits the library very regularly.

During one of his sermons at the Assemblies of God conference, he clearly outlined the relationship between intercessory prayers and the calling for support or reinforcements to the frontlines. Seated next to me was a newly promoted Botswana Defence Force lieutenant colonel of Military Intelligence who clearly admired the Bishop’s level of comprehension at military subjects.

This draws the discussion to why soldiers are generally religious people. Every registered church in Botswana has some representation among our soldiers at the barracks. Soldiers in this country and many parts of the world have come to realise that they need God in the undertaking of their noble career.

And does this interfere with their calling to protect the sovereignty of their country? When Major General Pius Mokgware was head of Ground Forces Command, he once raised an issue with the level at which soldiers have become religious and in the process neglecting to fulfil their duty to protect their country. In some way soldiers had become undeclared conscientious objectors of some sort.

Mokgware raised this concern after one of the soldiers had not taken orders to shoot at a motor vehicle thief who was crossing into South Africa through an ungazetted point. His defence was that his church does not allow him to kill.

In fact religion, and particularly Christianity, helps soldiers to soldier on through those difficult times in their careers. The Judeo-Christian faiths have a long tradition of integrating religion and warfare. It started with Moses when he commanded the children of Israel across the Red Sea. Pharaoh’s army came in full pursuit with multitudes of chariots which represented today’s armour or tanks.

The first intelligence officers recorded in the bible are Joshua and Caleb. They were both sent across the River Jordan into today’s West Bank of the Palestinian territory. Their mission was to gather intelligence information on the land that the children of Israel were about to possess.

Faith and warfare has always had an interesting twist. The same Joshua had to abandon laid down military procedures when he wanted to take over the city of Jericho. Through God’s intervention, Joshua was able breach the fortified city through the use of trumpets.  

David, from whom we can trace the lineage of Jesus Christ, was a warrior. Often brutal with his enemies to a point where God forbid him from building the Jerusalem temple, rather, God reserved the job for his son named Solomon.

Christianity and the military continue to have a close relationship even in our day. BDF has an organisation named Military Christian Fellowship (MCF). This is where Christian soldiers from across churches meet often to pray and read the Word of God.

This fellowship is much bigger in Europe, the Americas and South Korea. It was created to meet the faith needs of soldiers while on duty. Korea is one country that takes soldiers’ faith very seriously. In 1996, a little over 3,000 recruits were baptised at their training barracks after declaring their faith in Jesus Christ.

 Major General Sir Lawrence New, who was president of the fellowship for many years, was in charge of all intelligence work during the Falkland Islands war.

Because of the prevailing distance between Europe and South America, intelligence passed on to both infantry and the air force and other service arms became the deciding factor in winning the war. During his tenure in office, he visited Botswana in 1997 and met with Lieutenant General Khama who was commander at BDF and a self-declared Protestant believer