Lynchings in Congo as theft panic hits capital

[7/4]

Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital

By Joe BavierTue Apr 22, 1:24 PM ET

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.

[Jazzmoose]

Time for Cheney to make a goodwill visit to the Congo...let's see how good these sorcerers really are!

[The Magnificent Goldberg]

This has been going on for decades across the river in Brazzaville, Congo.

MG

[paul secor]

If Paul Simon records his next album in the Congo, maybe Clem won't be able to call him the world's biggest prick anymore.

Edited April 23, 2008 by paul secor

[Son-of-a-Weizen]

If the famous author of 'It Takes A Village' ever decides to update her timeless classic, this would make a nice addition. Chapter 18: It Takes a Village to Protect You From Getting Your Wanker Stolen by the Witchdoctor.

[DTMX]

Sounds like grounds for a class action suit.

[Jazzmoose]

If Paul Simon records his next album in the Congo, maybe Clem won't be able to call him the world's biggest prick anymore.

[BruceH]

On the other hand, there are times that I could swear someone is running around America stealing brains, or shrinking them.