Reports of 'penis snatching' with a mere handshake
Published: 2013 March 20 17:35:56 (7242 Views)
An American anthropologist was surprised to encounter reports of penis-snatching in a Central African village.
The 'crime' is normally confined to more populated areas like Lagos, Nigeria, or Douala, in Cameroon.
It is apparently a manifestation of the anxieties that arise when a village becomes a city and rural people find themselves living among crowds of unfamiliar people.
In March 2010 a U.S. anthropologist, Louisa Lombard said that two villagers in the small town of Tiringoulou in the Central African Republic, claimed to have been the victims of genital theft.
Lombard, a postdoctoral fellow in geography at the University of California, Berkeley, said villagers in said a traveller, upon arriving on a Sudanese merchant truck, removed two men's penises with a handshake.
The academic was told the stranger had targeted a tea seller in the market and a second man, she wrote in a report on alternet.org.
'After handing over his money, he [the stranger] clasped the vendor’s hand.
'The tea seller felt an electric tingling course through his body and immediately sensed that his penis had shrunk to a size smaller than that of a baby’s.
'His yells quickly drew a crowd.
'Somehow in the fray a second man fell victim as well,' she wrote.
Several eyewitnesses assured her the 'appendages did indeed shrink dramatically'.
Ms Lombard described victims 'on both sides' of the phenomenon, which she wrote was linked to a 'general resurgence of witchcraft' in Africa.
One of the so-called 'victims' seemed to be suffering as he lay listless in the shade at his home.
The academic was later told that the alleged penis-snatcher had been executed by gunshot by members of the armed rebel group that governs Tiringoulou.
The rebels' version of events was that the thief had 'mysteriously vanished from his holding cell', she wrote.
Ms Lombard said she was told the stolen organs were sold to occult healers.
Having asked the town doctor what could be done to help the victims, she was told: 'Western medicine is no match for this magic. It is a mysterious thing.'
- Daily Mail
The 'crime' is normally confined to more populated areas like Lagos, Nigeria, or Douala, in Cameroon.
It is apparently a manifestation of the anxieties that arise when a village becomes a city and rural people find themselves living among crowds of unfamiliar people.
In March 2010 a U.S. anthropologist, Louisa Lombard said that two villagers in the small town of Tiringoulou in the Central African Republic, claimed to have been the victims of genital theft.
Lombard, a postdoctoral fellow in geography at the University of California, Berkeley, said villagers in said a traveller, upon arriving on a Sudanese merchant truck, removed two men's penises with a handshake.
The academic was told the stranger had targeted a tea seller in the market and a second man, she wrote in a report on alternet.org.
'After handing over his money, he [the stranger] clasped the vendor’s hand.
'The tea seller felt an electric tingling course through his body and immediately sensed that his penis had shrunk to a size smaller than that of a baby’s.
'His yells quickly drew a crowd.
'Somehow in the fray a second man fell victim as well,' she wrote.
Several eyewitnesses assured her the 'appendages did indeed shrink dramatically'.
Ms Lombard described victims 'on both sides' of the phenomenon, which she wrote was linked to a 'general resurgence of witchcraft' in Africa.
One of the so-called 'victims' seemed to be suffering as he lay listless in the shade at his home.
The academic was later told that the alleged penis-snatcher had been executed by gunshot by members of the armed rebel group that governs Tiringoulou.
The rebels' version of events was that the thief had 'mysteriously vanished from his holding cell', she wrote.
Ms Lombard said she was told the stolen organs were sold to occult healers.
Having asked the town doctor what could be done to help the victims, she was told: 'Western medicine is no match for this magic. It is a mysterious thing.'
- Daily Mail
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