Shrinking Penises Cause Behind Arrests Of Sorcerers In The Congo

Buy an ad on DigitalJournal.com

Penis theft is not uncommon in West Africa where traditional beliefs are widespread. In this part of the world blood and body parts that come from ritual killings are still happening.

Last week in Kinshasa, Democratic Republic of Congo the rumours started up about penis theft. The city's 8 million inhabitants quickly flooded radio call-in shows about the crown jewel losses and advised listeners to be aware of passengers in communal taxis wearing gold rings.

14 victims have been detained by the police claiming that sorcerers just touched their man parts causing them to shrink away or simply vanish. Residents said this was an attempt to extort cash for 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.

Those arrested may be thanking the police later. The arrests come in a hopes to stop bloodshed. In Ghana a decade ago 12 suspected penis snatchers were beaten to death. The 27 men accused in that crime have all 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.

Still there are those that believe that these penis snatching sorcerers have the black magic in them to do the job. Residents of the area blame a separatist sect from Bas-Congo who want revenge for a recent government crackdown.

"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.