Uganda Safaris News: Mountain Gorilla Trekking Tours, Wildlife Safari, Primates Tour

By Nakiboneka Halimah
Uganda Safari and Travel News reporter
Kampala Uganda

Amoropii hot spring is found in northern Uganda and it is believed to do miracles for it’s visitors. This is another hot spring found in Uganda which is believed to have divine powers, has miracles and it is worshipped by people just like Sempaya hot springs found in  Semuliki National Park. Amoropii hot spring got it’s name from an Alur word meaning hot water. Amoro means hot and pii stands for water.

It is believed that barren women bathe in the hot spring as well those in need of a fairer and tender skin.  Before visiting these hot springs, one must first get blessings from the Prime Minister Nyipir Onen.  “Once, two white men ignored me. They set off for Amoropii on their own. They didn’t get there. A snake bit one of them,” Nyipir boasts.

The prime minister said that one day, a cow fell into the heart of Amoropii. In a couple of minutes, the whole of it had been cooked and was ready for eating the village had a party.

Amoropii likes meat too, it is said that every six months, they slaughter a big sheep as a sacrifice to the gods of Amoropii. The meat is left in the open and the following day, it’s gone. It is believed that the gods of Amoropii take it.

Amoropii has many wonders. Any woman who wants to bleach her skin goes there and comes back with a light skin. Not only does her skin become lighter but it also becomes tender. Like a newly born baby’s skin said the prime minister.

The prime minister charges sh50, 000 to escort anybody to Amoropii. It is cheaper to pay him bearing in mind the story of the white men.

Nyipir is the prime minister of Ker Kwonga chiefdom in Panyimur Sub-county in Nebbi District on the shores of Lake Albert. The soft-spoken Nyipir lives about a kilometer away from Amoropii in his grass-thatched homestead. His home is the last place visitors bound for Amoropii park their vehicles. On hearing the cars being parked in his compound, he comes out and greets the strangers after which he asks them where they are going.

Nyipir is an elderly man. He wears gumboots and moves about with a walking stick. The stick is more of a ceremonial symbol than something he uses for support.

Nyipir is a very soft spoken man and is eager to teach visitors as much as they need to know about his major inheritance of Amoropii. However Nyipir does not speak English. Therefore, there is always a guide who comes in handy as an interpreter.

Amoropii hot spring is located about three kilometers from Panyimur fishing village on the western shores of Lake Albert. Near the hot spring, is a grass-thatched shelter, where the area traditional chiefs converge when they are due to make sacrifices to the gods.

The hot spring consists of a stream whose water gets heated when it flows through a certain pool on its way into the bushes. A distance away in the middle of a swamp is a crater-like pool with very hot water. It measures about two metres in diameter.

The locals call it “the tank”. Located in an overgrown swamp, it is very hard to reach; you could drown trying. You can only see it after climbing up a nearby hill.

But according to Nyipir, it was in this ‘tank’ that a cow fell and the village feasted.

The only accessible hot spring is the pool in the stream. Nyipir says that a woman who has ever given birth becomes barren when she bathes in the hot spring without consulting him and those who are barren can conceive if they go to the hot spring after through me.

He says you can get misfortunes if you decide to visit the hot springs without first talking to him. Apart from the white men (foreign tourists), Nyipir has more chilling stories.

He said that a certain man went to the hot spring alone and met a ghost. He ran back and his wife got three miscarriages.
Eventually he came to him. They appeased the gods by burning his underwear and sacrificing a sheep. Now he has two children. Nyipir continues to tell his horror story that two pupils went to the spring one day around lunchtime and saw a ghost in form of a man bathing when they went home the following day, their skins started peeling off. I had to be called to cure them.

Nyipir says he brought them back to the hot springs and asked them where they had seen the ghost. After pinpointing the spot he left a goat there after talking to the gods. When he went to the spring the following day, the gods had taken away goat. Nyipir says that the gods only listen to him but they do not talk back.

According to him, the hot spring cures many ailments, including impotence. He says the water can cure impotence among men only if it was caused by the gods of Amoropii.“If the powers of the gods from the hot spring are responsible for causing the impotence, I can cure the victim. If the cause is different, I cannot do much,” he claims.
“You can always find the women in the hot springs. It works. Even their skins become tender,” he concludes.

Scientists describe a hot spring as a spring produced by the emergence of geothermally-heated groundwater from the earth’s crust. There are hot springs on every continent and even under the oceans and seas. Geothermal heat is the hot temperature from the earth’s interior. The temperature of rocks within the earth increases with depth. If water percolates deeply enough into the crust, it will be heated as it comes into contact with hot rocks.

The water from hot springs in non-volcanic areas is heated by geothermal heat. In volcanic zones, the water may be heated by coming into contact with magma (molten rock).The high temperature gradient near magma may cause water to be heated enough that it boils or becomes superheated. If the water becomes so hot that it builds steam pressure and erupts in a jet above the surface of the earth, it is called a geyser.

The term geyser is derived from some hot springs in Iceland which gush from the ground as a jet of hot water.
However, if the water only reaches the surface in the form of steam, it is called a fumarole. If the water is mixed with mud and clay, it is called a mud pot. Hot springs in volcanic areas are often at or near the boiling point of water.Warm springs are sometimes the result of hot and cold springs mixing but may also occur outside of volcanic areas. The pool in the stream at Amoropii is a warm water spring. It’s near-hot.

Communities living near hot springs in Uganda usually have both spiritual and superstitious attachments to hot springs. Hot springs are believed to cure various ailments and they are frequented by many people with different ailments.
Because heated water can hold more dissolved solids, warm and especially hot springs also often have a very high mineral content, containing everything from simple calcium to lithium, and even radium.

Because of both the folklore and the claimed medical value some of these springs have, these are often popular tourist destinations and locations for rehabilitation clinics for those with disabilities.
Though bathing in hot springs is popular with people suffering from various ailments, hot springs can create ideal conditions to spread infections.

For example, among others, Naegleria fowleri, an amoeba, lives in warm waters and soils worldwide and can be a cause of meningitis. Scientists have also collected viruses from very extreme environments, of hot springs with temperatures of up to 87 degrees Celsius.

Unlike in other developed countries, in Uganda, hot springs barely bring in any economical benefits to the communities because of the taboos and superstitions associated with them.
On the other hand, it is taboo to take water away from the hot springs in Uganda, lest you drop dead or run mad. Consequently, hot springs are venues for cultural and superstitious rituals in Uganda. Some hot springs have also been taken over by oracles.