Penis Theft Panic Hits Capital
Kinshasha
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.
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.
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These “Witches” …
Do they happen to look like Helen Thomas copping a feel off these guys?
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:27 pmHey thats my new excuse. “dont look at me like that honey, i told you a sorcerer shrunk my penis!”
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:53 pma great many africans, even though following a monotheistic faith or being atheists still believe in witchcraft. certainly though, the bible and the quran do mention various occultic practices to be avoided, it doesnt preclude one from believing that such practices could take place , in fact, if you deny their existence then God is a liar. Witchcraft can and does take place, the main problem is ascertaining with certainty who is doing such things. Too many in africa resort to mob rule when deciding who is a witch. There is no exact science to this, and we are left with great injustices being heaped upon falsely accused victims. Many times, physically handicapped people are accused of being witches or any other outcast. the worst thing that can happen is you are tortured and/or killed, the least thing is that you are shunned and that has happened to a few of my handicapped friends.
April 22nd, 2008 at 8:54 pmArticle - “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”
mike3481
10:40 PDT, starting to LOL
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Article - “Reports of so-called penis snatching…”
mike3481
YIKES 
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Article - “claimed that sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear”
mike3481
DOUBLE YIKES 
O.K. but was his High School, locker-room nick-name “Tiny”? 
April 22nd, 2008 at 9:51 pm_____________________________________________
Article - “It’s real. Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny.”
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mike3481
Article - “It’s real. Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny.”
Hey, he just took a shower and the bathroom floor was cold, it’s shrivelege!
April 23rd, 2008 at 4:40 amWell, they don’t call them “penal” institutions for nothing!
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:47 amAnd this is 21st Century Africa? Good thing it isn’t 7th Century Africa huh?? Or is it????
April 23rd, 2008 at 6:57 amSomeone forgot to wind the societal clock…
Unless you are a Muzzie, in which case yours is running backwards. Libs are adapting in order to be “diverse”.
The rest of us can tell day from night, dogshit from vanilla ice cream, etc.
April 23rd, 2008 at 7:24 amHow gross, touching and cutting off another man’s ding-a-long. Real progress in Afirca. Good thing the colonialists have left. Things seem to be on the way to: no where.
April 23rd, 2008 at 8:20 amI need a freaking beer.
Have the black supremacists seen this?
April 23rd, 2008 at 9:00 am