Penis Theft Rumors Spur Violence

There’s no telling what people will do when they’re caught up in some idiotic superstition. Snatching penises, by or for acts of witchcraft, is certainly a very desperate act. Witches in Africa appear to be a strange crew, though. The problem is, the populace is superstitious enough they believe these witchcraft tales, and the penis theft victims are likely to strike back at nefarious witches in the most heinous ways. Who can blame them, though?

Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected witches and 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. Witches in Africa are still widely feared.

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.

http://crimevulture.blogspot.com/2008/04/penis-theft-lynchings.html