Willies: October 2003 Archives

Gambia: A mob has beaten to death a man they accused of using sorcery to steal a man's penis.

Reports of penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, with purported victims claiming that alleged sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear in order to extort cash in the promise of a cure.

The police spokesman said many men in Serekunda were now afraid to shake hands, and he urged people not to believe reports of "vanishing" genitals. Belief in sorcery is widespread in West Africa.

Penis snatcher beaten to death - Yahoo! News, 31st October 2003.

Sudan: MEMRI's latest Special Dispatch (usual caveats apply) concerns a penis-snatching panic in Khartoum in September. Various press articles discussed a foreigner, usually West African, draining men's virility via a handshake.

Two of the victims agreed to tell their story to the London-based Arabic daily Al-Quds Al-Arabi. One of them, fabric merchant S. K. A., said that a man from a West African tribe came into his shop to buy fabric, but an argument quickly developed between the two. Then the West African shook the store owner's hand powerfully until the owner felt his penis melt into his body. The store owner became hysterical, and was taken to the hospital.

While the majority of accounts involved handshaking, another victim, who refused to give his name, said that while he was at the market, a man approached him, gave him a comb, and asked him to comb his hair. When he did so, within seconds, he said, he felt a strange sensation and discovered that he had lost his penis. It was also claimed that once 'Satan's Friend' drains a man's virility, he demands that his victim pay him over four million Sudanese pounds (about $3,000) to get it back.

The police and press, on the whole, appear to have been rather sceptical of the whole thing but one journalist concluded That man, who, as it is claimed, is from West Africa, is an imperialist Zionist agent that was sent to prevent our people from procreating and multiplying…. Panic in Khartoum: Foreigners Shake Hands, Make Penises Disappear - MEMRI, 22nd October 2003.

Gambia: A 28-year-old man has been beaten to death after allegations that he used magic to steal another man's penis. Such allegations are common--seven Gambian men were murdered as a result in 1997.

Reports of penis snatching are not uncommon in West Africa, with purported victims claiming that alleged sorcerers simply touched them to make their genitals shrink or disappear in order to extort cash in the promise of a cure.

The police spokesman said many men in Serekunda were now afraid to shake hands, and he urged people not to believe reports of vanishing genitals. Belief in sorcery is widespread in West Africa.

Suspected penis snatcher beaten to death - Yahoo! News, 10th October 2003.

South Africa: The wife of a Dutch Reformed preacher is convinced that the tower leading to her church's entrance is a male sexual organ which is making love to the goddess of the sky.

She wrote a letter to the congregation talking about her vision in which the tower, a structure about 8m high, was unmistakably the sign of the Freemasons and also resembled the image of the sun god of Babel.

According to the church's caretaker, Lukas Marais, the elders of the congregation will now have to decide whether to destroy the tower. It would cost R100 000 [£8676/€12400] to do the work.

Other members of the church were of the opinion that there were more important matters at hand, like poverty and hunger. Preacher's wife causes a stir with vision about phallic symbol - The Mercury, 6th October, 2003 (via Gullibility isn't in the dictionary).

United States: Some Roman Catholics are upset at a statue of a Catholic clergyman, because the traditional mitre on his head looks a bit like a penis. The sculptor was brought up Catholic, and the statue depicts what he imagined was on the other side of the confessional when he was a small boy:

The artist says, I was brought up Catholic. I remember being 7 and going into the dark confessional booth for the first time. I knelt down, and my face was only inches from the thin screen that separated me and the one who had the power to condemn me for my evil ways. I was scared to death, for on the other side of that screen was the person you see before you.

Which is apparently Catholic-bashing at its worst. Clergy statue stirs up campus - The Lawrence Journal-World, 2nd October 2003.