Case file · High strangeness
The West African genital-theft wave, 1997 to 2003
From January 1997, reports of 'penis snatching' spread through Ghana and then six West African countries; by 2003 at least 36 accused people had been killed by mobs.
1997 CE · 5.56, -0.20 · status: explained
The account
Vivian Dzokoto and Glenn Adams analysed 56 press reports from January 1997 to October 2003. Outbreaks hit Ghana, Nigeria, Benin, Côte d'Ivoire, Senegal and Cameroon, often in markets and on buses. The plotted point is Accra.
The sceptical view
Dzokoto and Adams read it as mass psychogenic illness shaped by local beliefs and economic insecurity; no genital loss was ever confirmed.