Penis Theft

[Che -Guevara]

By Joe Bavier

Tue Apr 22, 1:24 PM ET

 

 

 

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.

 

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Reports of so-called penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, where belief in traditional religions and witchcraft remains widespread, and where ritual killings to obtain blood or body parts still occur.

 

Rumours of penis theft began circulating last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo's sprawling capital of some 8 million inhabitants. They quickly dominated radio call-in shows, with listeners advised to beware of fellow passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

 

Purported victims, 14 of whom were also detained by police, claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear, in what some residents said was an attempt to extort cash with the promise of a cure.

 

"You just have to be accused of that, and people come after you. We've had a number of attempted lynchings. ... You see them covered in marks after being beaten," Kinshasa's police chief, Jean-Dieudonne Oleko, told Reuters on Tuesday.

 

Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims in an effort to avoid the sort of bloodshed seen in Ghana a decade ago, when 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death by angry mobs. The 27 men have since been released.

 

"I'm tempted to say it's one huge joke," Oleko said.

 

"But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, 'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it'," he said.

 

Some Kinshasa residents accuse a separatist sect from nearby Bas-Congo province of being behind the witchcraft in revenge for a recent government crackdown on its members.

 

"It's real. Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny," said 29-year-old Alain Kalala, who sells phone credits near a Kinshasa police station.

 

(For full Reuters Africa coverage and to have your say on the top issues, visit: http://africa.reuters.com/ )

 

(Editing by Nick Tattersall and Mary Gabriel)

[-Lily-]

Ok, so this is meant to be funny? It's quiet sad really...

[Che -Guevara]

Police arrested the accused sorcerers and their victims

For country where thousands are raped, police were too quick to resolve the penis issue.

 

"But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, 'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it'," he said.

LoooooooooL

[Jacaylbaro]

looooooooooooooooooooool ,,

 

 

We had the same stories a few years back ,,,,, so it is going internationally ,,, looooooooool

[Paragon]

But when you try to tell the victims that their penises are still there, they tell you that it's become tiny or that they've become impotent. To that I tell them, 'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it'," he said.

Loool. Yup. The good old drill .

 

I can just imagine a situation check: 'Err, roger, it's there, over!' 'Oh no wait, it isn't!' 'No no, thank God, it's there!' 'Copy?' 'Roger, copy that'.

[peasant]

I have read about Ghana were entire village, people refused to hand shake each other for fear of loosing their winky. I say that is another form of terrorism far more serious than the bombs

[Jacaylbaro]

I heard there was a village in Somalia (far south i guess) where a magician did the samething to a man he had a problem with him a day before ,,,,, when the man realized this he came to negotiate and they finally reached an agreement. He then asked for his thingy but the magician opened for him a cupboard full of penises and asked him to pull out his thingy among tens of others ,,,

[Che -Guevara]

^Far south kulahaa..it was couple mirqaan guy in Hargeysa dheh at marshif.

[Dhubad.]

^^lool@ Far South, you make it sound some remote area(Bahalo galeen).

 

Mirqaan.com, I tell yeh!

[Nephissa]

ahah, just be careful JB, there are plenty of Southeners from the far far South aka sixiroole-yaal in this joint, .

[Jacaylbaro]

I think i've just lost mine ,,,,,, must be one of those SOL members from that far south ,,,

[Nephissa]

^

'How do you know if you haven't gone home and tried it'

[Jacaylbaro]

looooooooooool ,, i've gone home and tried it ,,, there is nothing ,,,

[Buuxo]

Clearly these guys are delusional and what they need is not confirmations of their false beliefs or arresting socerers.

[Che -Guevara]

Jb..gacantaada arooste miyaa(this is wadaad lingo). You need an actual person to get result