Paying for chicken-killing ceremonies is not the usual way US multinationals do business - but in the case of a $550 million hydroelectric dam in Uganda, there was little choice. It also got involved in a bitter feud between two groups claiming to represent the spirits of Bujagali Falls on the River Nile, writes Declan Walsh
There's not much that US multinational AES Corp didn't do to win Ugandans over to its $550 million hydroelectric dam near the legendary source of the Nile. It built new houses and spruced up old schools. It offered generous compensation packages and dug fresh wells.
It paid for chicken-killing ceremonies.
AES, the world's largest independent electricity supply company, believes in pleasing both the living and the dead. As part of its "cultural mitigation" programme, considerable effort has been made to appease the powerful spirits some residents believe live in and along the Nile. Blood has been spilt, and much banana beer drunk.
"This is a way of life for a minority, and we believe in facilitating them," said John Baptist Kaggwa, an expert in traditional beliefs hired by the Fortune 100 company to manage the programme.
For the latest ceremony, 40 diviners - a mix of witchdoctors, rainmakers and healers - gathered above the Bujagali Falls, the most spectacular of the white-water rapids that will be destroyed when the dam goes up.
Dressed in bark-cloth and cowrie shells, the old men set a charcoal fire on a hill above the falls. They dragged two live animals - a goat and a cockerel - onto the fire and pinned them down on the burning coals.
Then, in three groups of five, they took it in turns to dance on the squealing, dying animals while leading prayers to the sprits of Bujagali.
"I asked them not to do it, but they insisted that was the tradition," said Kaggwa, who attended and paid for the rite.
In addition, one sheep, two cattle, four goats and countless chickens were sacrificed during the course of the day. Their blood was sprinkled on sacred trees and further prayers were said before dark, when the group sat down to a feast of meat washed down with home-brewed banana beer.
The 250-megawatt, $550 million Bujagali Power Project is east Africa's largest private investment ever. It has had its critics, particularly among environmentalists and tourism operators, but AES has also been praised for its culturally sensitive approach to a project that should bring benefits to poor country. Last month, the World Bank issued final approval, and construction will start soon.
However, it hasn't all been plain sailing. AES has become entangled in a spiritual controversy which has taught the US company that the world of river spirits can be just as turbulent as the roiling waters of the Nile.
A heated and sometimes violent row has erupted between two groups, both of which claim to represent the spirits of Bujagali Falls. On one side is the Ntembe clan, the "caretakers" of the spirits that led the most recent ceremony. On the other is its bitter rival, Nabamba Budhagali, a witchdoctor with shoulder-length dreadlocks and a tobacco yellow beard.
The 39th "medium" of the falls, he claims to have to the power to cure impotence, bless the newborn and to cure - or curse - cripples. And, as the "Living Budhagali" (his official title), he claims the Ntembe are spiritual fraudsters angling for US compensation money.
Last autumn, AES paid him 12 million shillings (€7,618/£6,000) to hold the first appeasement ceremony. But it failed, he said, and the fault lies with the Americans. "We invited the wazungu \ to come and speak but they refused. They said it was evil," he explained at his home near the falls. "And that was why the spirits refused the construction to go ahead," Aisa, one of his four wives, added. "The money they gave was not enough to finish the whole function." Around 30 million shillings (€19,046/£15,000) would be an acceptable figure, the Budhagali suggested later.
AES officials are exasperated. The company first started to woo the spiritual figure in 1998 when it sent a letter to "humbly request an introduction meeting between the Living Bujagali and Shandwick UK Public Relations Consultants", a company it had hired to improve its image locally.
Since then, it has negotiated a deal and signed a Memorandum of Understanding with the Budhagali. But still no appeasement.
"He gave us the requirements for the ceremony and we provided them. In our view, the spirits have been appeased," said Kaggwa.
Not only the spirits have resisted the mega-project, which will drown five sets of rapids along a six-kilometre stretch at the fabled source of the Nile. The hardest hit will be the handful of rafting companies. "I understand that Uganda needs power, but this fills me with terrible sadness. The stretch that is being lost is the jewel in the crown," said Kate McLeay of Adrift Rafting.
The Uganda Tourism Association argued that AES could have opted for a less destructive tunnel version of the project, at a cost of $40 million extra. And the International Rivers Network, a California-based lobby, argued that the Ugandan government undersold itself through a 30-year contract with AES, and that affected villagers received inadequate compensation.
But the project's supporters won the day. They said the company has had an exemplary approach to local sensitivities, and point to the benefits of more power in a country where factories lose up to one third of production due to blackouts. After seven years of preparation, the first sod will finally be turned next month.
First, however the company may want to overturn that supernatural hex.
The Living Budhagali claims great spiritual powers. Sitting on the large brown sofa in his front yard where he meets visitors, he produces a photo of a tall white man leaning over a small tree. "This mzungu is called Mick. He works in the campsite. He cut down a sacred tree so I told him to bring a sheep, a cow and a goat, and to plant another one. That is what the spirits ordered," he said.
Nevertheless, he has turned to more earthly means to settle his dispute with the Ntembe clan. Last month, his lawyers wrote a letter to the Ntembe warning them to "back off". A few weeks later, a recently constructed Ntembe shrine by the river was mysteriously destroyed during the night.
"I'm the one who demolished it," he admitted to me, with a smile. "Those ones are confusing the situation. They want to get some compensation." AES has referred the dispute to the His Royal Highness the Kyabazinga, the traditional ruler of the Busoga kingdom, who has in turn passed the thorny task of mediation to his Minister of Culture, Florence Akalya.
"As a woman and a retired teacher I know how I will approach this man," she told me by mobile phone. "We will sit with the elders of the Masazas [councils] of Busoga. Then we will try to sort this out."