Penis Snatchers: Are They Universal?

Reuters a day or so ago reported an interesting situation in the Congo. It appears that a cabal of sorcerers were stealing or shrinking men’s penises using witchcraft. Police have arrested thirteen suspects and their hapless victims.

Now, to the average man, regardless of his colour, this is an affront, a tragedy of infinite proportions. Men who’d been shrunk or lost their joystick became angry and this led to attempted lynchings and actual beatings of the medicine men. Reuters reported, "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." 

The effect on the inhabitant in Kinshasa was immediate. Radio talk shows were inundated with calls advising listeners not to let anyone wearing gold jewelery to touch their genitals especially on a bus or in a taxi otherwise big trouble (or is it little?) could be expected.

But for those of you who are sceptical the following report was given according to Reuters: "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.

What has emerged is that, for money, those who’ve been ‘snatched’ or ‘shrunk’ can, for money, be cured! That’s a relief for some, I’m sure. Now I know that to sophisticated Westerners, this kind of event will be treated with a knowing smile. It is obviously a con, one that relies upon belief and superstition and ignorance. Interestingly, the Australian Aboriginals once had a ‘pointing the bone’ ritual where the person who’d had ‘the bone’ pointed at them by a medicine man would die. And they did! Belief is a powerful thing.

But before you dismiss the Africans as being ignorant and primitive and uneducated consider the following: In affluent, educated Western-type societies, many  billions of people still believe in religious fantasies propounded by rich religious institutions. They believe that there is life after death though there is no evidence to support such a belief. They believe in some ‘God’ figure who lives in the sky. They talk to themselves believing that their ‘God’ is listening to them, that He will protect them. They believe that if they sin they’ll go to hell. Can you believe it?

The moral of the story? Penis snatchers operate in all societies. It’s just that in some countries they are far more sophisticated, far better dressed.