CHARLES MATHER

ACCUSATIONS OF GENITAL THEFT: A CASE FROM NORTHERN GHANA

ABSTRACT. Occurrences of panic attacks associated with belief in genital retraction have been described in the anthropological and psychological literature in terms of culture bound reactive syndromes. Similar phenomena occur widely in West Africa, where they are reported as cases of penis snatching. Explanations for these phenomena range from the biomedical emphasis on pathology to the social psychological emphasis on altered perceptual sets. This paper provides a narrative of an accusation of genital theft in a rural West African settlement. Drawing from ethnographic information, it will be argued that the case is best explained in light of social relations, definitions for in-groups and out-groups, and local knowledge concerning witchcraft and divination. Local explanations for the case conform to both biomedical and social psychological models. KEY WORDS: culture-bound syndrome, genital retraction syndrome, koro, Kusasi, West Africa

This paper describes an accusation of genital theft that occurred at Zorse, a Kusasi settlement in northern Ghana. Genital theft bears similarities to koro and korolike episodes reported in the medical and anthropological literature. Accordingly, the paper reviews the basic features of genital theft, koro, and genital retraction syndromes, and also highlight differences between two theoretical models (the biomedical and social psychological) for interpreting and explaining these phenomena. Regardless of theoretical orientation, scholars agree that understanding genital theft requires taking stock of local meanings and cultural contexts. The paper will describe the case as a reflection of local knowledge systems dealing with diviners, shrines, madness, and the spiritual forces that affect human individuals and groups. In consort with Jackson (1998), it will be argued that accusations of genital theft are tied to essential ideas about in-group and out-group relationships. Accusations reach their worst results (e.g., murder) when the accused is a definite outsider, or external threat. GENITAL THEFT, KORO, AND GENITAL RETRACTION SYNDROMES

In April of 2001, over a span of 2 weeks in southwestern Nigeria, angry mobs lynched 12 people, whom they accused of committing genital theft (Dan-Ali 2001). The worst case involved a group of visiting Christian evangelists proselytizing in the city of Ilesa. As the group made its way through town, a man called out that his Culture, Medicine and Psychiatry 29: 33–52, 2005.
C 2005 Springer Science+Business Media, Inc. DOI: 10.1007/s11013-005-4622-9

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penis had disappeared and accused the evangelists of committing the crime. An angry mob gathered, attacked and burned to death eight of the evangelists. Police rescued six other people from mob attacks and began to stage 24-hour patrols to prevent further mass assaults. The Ilesa situation was neither unique nor precedent-setting. Since the 1990s, mob lynching of accused penis snatchers has occurred in Cameroon (Jackson 1998: 49), Ghana (CNN January 18, 1997), Ivory Coast (Geller 1997), and Nigeria (Ilechukwu 1992). More recently, there are reports of accusations of penis snatching from Gambia (Kamara 2002; Legally-Cole 2002). News reports summarize a popular viewpoint depicting genital theft as a crime committed by individuals and groups who have magical powers or medicines that make genitals disappear. The magic is activated when a sorcerer touches, greets, or shakes the victim’s hand. Sorcerers steal genitals and then offer their distraught victims medicines to reverse the effects of their magic. My interpreter and two of his friends described genital theft as a confidence game: one criminal steals the genitals, another provides the medicines to cure the condition and the victim is unaware that the two criminals are working together. Parallels exist between West African genital theft and koro, a phenomenon from Southeast Asia. A Malay term, koro has come to refer to episodes occurring in Southeast Asia (even though alternate terms exist for these phenomena in other languages and countries), and to patient cases in the medical literature. Individuals suffering from koro experience anxiety attacks and have the pronounced fear that their genitals are retracting into their abdomen, and they believe that as a consequence they will die (see Bartholomew 2000: 91–125; Chowdhury 1996; Edwards 1984, for thorough reviews). Like the symptoms suffered by victims of genital theft in West Africa, in Southeastern Asia koro and its variants can spread through a territory and population, assuming epidemic form. Examples include an outbreak in Singapore in the late 1960s (Gwee 1968), and a major epidemic in China’s Guandong province in the mid 1980s (Cheng 1996; Tseng et al. 1992). Unlike penis snatching, koro episodes do not involve mob lynching, though koro beliefs can be associated with, among other things, beliefs in magic and malicious evildoers (Wen 1998). Reports of koro-like episodes appear in Chinese texts as early as 2200 years ago (Bartholomew 2000: 93). Western medical literature notes occurrences of koro as early as the 1890s (Edwards 1984: 1–3), and after seventy-odd years of cursory reports on and tentative explanations for the phenomena, Yap incorporated koro into psychiatric nosology in the 1960s (Yap 1977). In Yap’s terminology, koro is a “culture-bound reactive syndrome.” Culture-bound reactive syndromes are akin to psychogenic psychoses; they have psychological causes though sufferers may not be disturbed enough to be diagnosed as psychotic. The syndromes are “culturebound in that certain systems of implicit values, social structure, and obviously

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shared beliefs produce unusual forms of psychopathology that are confined to special areas. Social and cultural factors bring about special forms of mental illness, although these are only atypical variations of generally distributed psychogenic disorders” (Yap 1977: 342). Koro is an atypical variation of reactive psychosis, consisting of a depersonalization state (localized to the genitals) tied to severe anxiety (including panic attacks) resulting from unrealistic fears (that genitals can disappear and that the disappearance of genitals leads to death). Drawing from Hallowell’s (1941) work among the Salteux, Yap suggested that koro exemplifies the role that socially supported beliefs play in the manifestation of intense fear reactions. Hallowell distinguished between objective anxiety and neurotic anxiety. The former refers to anxiety resulting from observable threats or danger while the latter refers to abnormal reactions to unobservable causes. Eschewing the categorical thinking of Freudian psychiatry, Hallowell chose to view objective and neurotic anxiety as the extreme poles of a continuum. In Hallowell’s view, the Salteux anxiety reaction cannot be solely equated with either neurotic anxiety or with objective anxiety because it shares features of both types of reaction. Likewise, Yap (1977: 345) argues for the necessity of distinguishing between imposed and pathological fears (e.g., fears of a distinct threat, whether “real” or “imaginary”) from abnormal primary fear reactions (fear reactions to threats that are unknown). The former sort of reaction characterizes culture-bound reactive syndromes, including koro, while the latter characterizes “real” neurotic psychoses. Contemporary psychiatry and medicine have largely maintained the framework proposed by Yap, using koro as a diagnostic category for reactive psychoses involving anxiety attacks and fear of mortal genital retraction (e.g., Bernstein and Gaw 1990; Caballero et al. 2000; Chowdhury and Bera 1994; Dantendorfer et al. 1996; Dow and Silver 1973; Edwards 1985; Estcourt and Goh 1998; Ifabumuyi and Rwegellera 1985; Kim et al. 2000; Lapierre 1972; Phelan and Daly 1996; RoscaRebaudengo et al. 1996). In the early 1980s, Edwards noted that even though the symptoms were widely distributed, different cultures had distinct etiologies for the syndromes. Thus koro is different from suoyang, a Chinese term for the syndrome, because in Malaysia the physical symptoms are interpreted as a response to a sudden shock, cold, or physical blow. In China, the physical symptoms are interpreted as a response to an imbalance of sexual energies and behaviors, hot and cold, and wet and dry humors. This etiological difference poses a serious problem. Imposing the label of koro, as a culture-bound reactive syndrome, on what are culturally (emically) different phenomena ignores sociocultural context and cultural differences. Ignoring cultural differences in etiology is tantamount to ignoring the theoretical basis for the category of culture-bound reactive syndrome in the first place. Namely, that anxiety reaction is a product of biological and cultural factors, and that to understand a particular episode one has to take into consideration both

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its physical and ideational contexts. Using koro as a universal category obscures the cultural differences that underlie the disparate manifestations of the syndrome. As a means of circumventing these problems, Edwards (1984) advocated using the terms “genital retraction syndrome” to refer to koro, suoyang, and other episodes that shared their symptoms. Apart from offering genital retraction syndromes as an alternative diagnostic label, Edwards took pains to distinguish between the personal and collective dimension of genital retraction syndromes. While at the personal level the syndrome involves anxiety reaction and fear of mortal genital involution, at the collective level the syndrome takes the form of epidemics, mass panic, and we can add, in the case of penis snatching, mob action. In the framework traced thus far, both the personal and collective episodes are amenable to diagnosis as pathology, as typical or atypical variations of reactive psychoses. The role of sociocultural factors resides in providing a set of socially supported beliefs, values, and ideas that act as a trigger for intense pathological fear reactions in individuals. According to Bartholomew (2000), explanations for collective episodes of koro offered by the psychiatric model are biased by eurocentric values and notions of normality, rationality, reality, and reason. Designation of collective episodes as a form of reactive syndrome involves imposing Western definitions of deviance and abnormality on cultures with different worldviews. This effectively ignores the sociocultural contexts in which the episodes occur, save for acceptance that local beliefs can be triggers to the universal biological reaction. In effect, the psychiatric model classifies cultural differences as a form of pathology and ignores the sociocultural contexts of the episodes, including indigenous systems of etiology, diagnosis, and treatment. A further problem with classifying koro and koro-like phenomena as pathology is that the phenomena are transient. Individuals do not suffer the condition permanently; symptoms generally persist no more than a few hours. As an alternative to the medical model, Bartholomew (1994, 2000) advocates interpreting collective koro and koro-like episodes in social-psychological terms, without appeal to pathology. Individual koro is a psychological disturbance while collective episodes of koro are a form of collective social delusion. A collective social delusion consists of “the collective sharing of a temporary false belief” (Bartholomew 2000: 95). Episodes can be explained in terms of a feedback between expectant belief systems and expressive behavior. This involves delusionary conviction and perception, whereby an observer is predisposed to “interpret information patterns in a particular manner that is significantly influenced by his or her mental state and broad sociocultural reference system at the time” (Bartholomew 2000: 105). Belief in genital disappearance exists in the culture; an individual begins to experience the symptoms commonly understood to be associated with genital disappearance. Physical sensation feeds back on expectation, a serious anxiety reaction or panic

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attack occurs, and anxiety gives rise to genital involution. Knowledge of the individual case becomes known and others start to have anxiety reactions to the threat of contracting the condition. The symptoms reinforce the folk beliefs and the epidemic occurs. Thus, cases of magical genitalia loss in Nigeria described by Ilechukwu (1992) are explainable in light of sociocultural traditions that stress the inherent ritual potency and power of external genitalia. Regardless of theoretical orientation, whether psychiatric or social psychological, scholars agree that understanding culture-bound syndromes requires assessing local meanings and cultural contexts. In the case of genital theft, assessments of meaning and cultural contexts are hampered by lack of firsthand accounts, and lack of detailed ethnographic descriptions from which to interpret reported episodes. Interpretations based on institutionalized beliefs of the inherent supernatural potency of external genitalia provide a cursory and general indication of the role of local meaning and contexts in episodes of penis snatching. They do not, however, provide substantive information on the role of social structure and implicit values in the episodes, nor on how belief in genital involution is connected to social structure and implicit values. A more comprehensive attempt to explain penis snatching in terms of local meanings and contexts belongs to Jackson (1998), who argues that in West Africa “penis snatching” is linked to conceptions of strangers and external threats. Mob action provides a relief valve for economically and socially stressed populations. Victims of mob action are strangers who come from outside the community. The threat of genital theft is symbolic of life in modern urban settings where external political, economic, and social influences disrupt or alter the fabric of West African society. In the Ilesa case, those accused were Christian evangelists, a group of outsiders with a public agenda of converting or changing people’s behaviors and thoughts. In rural settings, genital theft embodies the inherent discord that exists in relations between kin groups, and the threat posed to kin groups by outsiders. At a more personal level, loss of genitals amounts to loss of independence and control, and of the ability to procreate and reproduce. It threatens personal and collective identity because it robs individuals of the capacity to have offspring, and to form a family. In sum, genital theft is symbolic of the external threats to personal and collective independence and identity in West African society. This paper is concerned with an incident in Zorse, a densely populated rural settlement in Northern Ghana. As chance would have it, an accusation of genital theft occurred while I was conducting ethnoarchaeological research in Zorse, and I witnessed the case firsthand. The episode in Zorse bears many of the characteristics of penis snatching and koro. At the center of the episode is an individual suffering acute fear, with the impression that his genitals have disappeared or been stolen. The attack occurs after a meeting with a stranger, and the stranger becomes the primary suspect in the loss of the genitals. Anxiety and beliefs in

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sorcery and magic compel some members of the larger community to form into a mob with pretensions of beating the man accused of the crime. Unlike the penis snatching cases described above and despite the efforts of the mob, the accused was safeguarded and the case was resolved in the court of the paramount chief. In order to account for the episode in Zorse, it is necessary to take stock of common ideas concerning witchcraft, diviners, and supernatural power. Settlement residents accepted the accusation of genital theft precisely because they believe in witchcraft and the existence of malicious evildoers. These beliefs are rooted in the basic social structure of Kusasi society, in how the Kusasi divide themselves into in-groups and out-groups based on patrilineal descent and uterine relations. ETHNOGRAPHIC BACKGROUND

The Kusasi are native to the Upper East Region (UER), an administrative area that covers 8842 km2 and borders Burkina Faso, the Northern and Upper West Regions, and Togo. Home to more than 700,000 people, the UER is populated by several different cultural groups or tribes, including the Kusasi (Rattray 1932), Tallensi (Fortes 1945, 1949), LoDagaa (Goody 1962), and Bulsa (Kroger 1982). The bulk of these politically acephalous, horticultural groups speak related languages belonging to the Gur family of the Niger–Congo phylum (Naden 1988), and share the same form of social organization, characterized by patrilineal decent, polygyny, and patrilocal patterns of residence. Historically, the Kusasi occupied territory between the Red Volta River and the Togo–Ghana border, extending northwards into Burkina Faso and southwards to the Gambaga escarpment. Presently, this territory falls neatly within the shared external boundaries of Bawku East District and Bawku West District, an area equal to 3000 km2 . Uneasy relations between urban populations and rural populations have characterized the history of Bawku East and West Districts. The main urban populations are home to Mamprussi lineages that until recently provided the paramount chiefs for the territory. These lineages trace their descent to the line of the Nayiri, the paramount chief of the Mamprussi (Hilton 1962; Syme 1932).1 Conflicts between rural Kusasi and urban Mamprussi occur and have likely occurred for more then two centuries. The most recent outbreak of hostilities between Mamprussi and Kusasi contingents, occurring in December of 2001, led to mob violence and murder (BBC News 2001). In Kusasi territory, there are precedents for mob action as a response to perceived threats from outside groups. The information on which this paper is based comes from observations and experiences of life in the settlement of Zorse, located in the hills just northwest of Bawku, the capital of Bawku East District (Fig. 1).

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Figure 1. Kusasi territory.

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From July 1996 to April 1997, I conducted ethnoarchaeological fieldwork in Zorse and two neighboring settlements (Yarigungu and Bok-Sapelliga) with my wife, Rebecca Brundin-Mather, and Cletus Anobiga, a Zorse man whom we hired to be our interpreter. Our research consisted of a survey and inventory of shrines and other ritual paraphernalia (Mather 1999, 2000, 2003). The research was not directly oriented toward the subject of genital theft, and yet the information we gathered does have explanatory value for the case we witnessed. AN OCCURRENCE OF GENITAL THEFT

On February 17, in the hot afternoon, Rebecca, Cletus, and I prepared to play our daily game of Ludo (a game similar to Parcheesi) and enjoy a cool beverage at the Natenga Community Center. As Cletus ran to get dice, Rebecca and I ordered drinks and set up the board. After a few minutes, Cletus returned with the dice and tossed them on the board. “I just want to go see something happening over there,” he said, pointing in the direction of Awine Abugri’s2 compound. “A man’s penis has shrunk and they’re holding the man responsible.” “What?” we exclaimed. He strode away and we darted after him. In short order we arrived at a compound and met a half dozen people milling around in the front yard. Two angry-looking fellows firmly held a third man by his arms. Cletus asked questions and after a few seconds of discussion he directed the two men to take their captive to the chief’s compound. More people ran toward the group that had gathered and a growing procession of people made their way, single-file, along the footpath that led to the chief’s compound. Taking a rougher and shorter path, we arrived at the chief’s compound before this entourage and met a rapidly growing crowd. People quickly took up seats in the shaded sitting area at the front of the chief’s compound, while many more stood around the perimeter. The accused, Atanga, knelt in front of the chief. Awine Abugri, the brother of Atanga’s mother, related the events that had transpired. Atanga came to Awine’s house to represent Awine’s sister’s husband’s family in the performance of an important ritual. After the ritual, Awine fed his nephew, gave him water, and sent him off on his way back to his home village. Shortly thereafter, Awine heard a neighbour cry out “yuur kai! (My penis is gone!)” Cletus leaned over to us and explained that a short distance from Awine’s house Atanga stopped at a neighbor’s and requested water from the compound head. Following the custom of hospitality, the compound head brought water for the stranger to his house. When the water pot was returned to him the compound head felt his penis suck into his body and disappear. The chief asked Atanga to open his small duffel bag. Atanga emptied the contents onto the ground and a loud murmur went out from the audience. The

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contents included cowries, smooth stones, coins, and other artifacts for divination. In addition, Atanga pulled out a flask filled with a dark red liquid that he said was medicine. The audience grew restless as the evidence was revealed. Many people openly called for Atanga’s death and most were seemingly unopposed to beating him senseless. Next, the complainant, Azure, presented his side of the case that Cletus interpreted for us. “Before I gave him water, my penis was fine. After the water, my penis shrank into my body.” The audience laughed, yet calls for harming Atanga grew louder and more frequent. The chief declared that Azure also had physical evidence to present but unlike the contents of the duffel bag, this evidence was better revealed in relative privacy. A group of men, including Cletus and Atanga, ushered Azure into the chief’s compound. They exited after a few minutes and proclaimed that the penis was intact and present (yuur be). There was, however, some critical appraisals of the size of the organ (“It’s somehow too small”) and the shape (“It’s twisted round somehow”). Despite the fact that Azure’s penis was intact, the chief claimed it was not yet possible to resolve the case. He stated that each person knows the state of his or her own body and that victims’ claims of genital theft should be accepted at face value. It could well have been that the penis shrank but was restored after the crime was made known and Atanga fell into trouble. Presumably, Atanga could have stopped his magic from working when he realized he was in danger. The chief suggested a stopgap solution to the case: Atanga would spend the night in his mother’s brother’s house while Azure would sleep with his wife and see if his penis still worked. The chief’s judgement did little to diffuse the tension and anger that had been building in the gathering crowd. If Atanga was not guilty then why did he stop and ask for water so soon after eating and drinking at Awine’s compound? By this time there were easily more than a hundred people present, and more continued pouring into the crowd. Members of Azure’s family, unhappy with the Zorse chief’s decision, set out for Bawku to ask the Bawkunaba, the paramount chief of the Kusasi, to intervene and provide justice. The Zorse chief, worried at the potential harm the crowd posed for Atanga, directed Cletus and Asamo (one of the chief’s sons) to accompany Atanga and Awine Abugri back to Awine’s compound. As the group started off, the crowd undulated and boiled over. Young men and older boys broke large branches off nearby trees. A number of younger people moved along with Atanga to more closely observe what was happening. Women and children called out “woo woo,” and waved their arms as the accused was led away.3 Rebecca and I watched on from the chief’s compound. A short distance from Awine’s compound, the entourage was nearly overcome by the young men and older boys. The dust stirred around them. Cletus and Asamo

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lashed out with their walking canes, trying to force back the encroaching crowd. The whole mass broke into a run and we joined the fray. Closing on the mob, we saw that some of the people pursuing Atanga were lobbing grapefruit-sized stones in his direction; these hit others, who fell from the chase with bloodied heads and shoulders. Under this hail of stones, Cletus’s team quickened its pace and rushed inside Awine’s compound. Rebecca and I made it there a few seconds later. Younger men and older boys took positions surrounding the compound and began throwing stones over the walls. Cletus and Asamo rushed Atanga into Awine’s room, at the center of the compound. Inside, Atanga sat with Awine, Cletus, and a man named Babilla Abagri.4 I joined the four men while Rebecca stayed outside, in the courtyard of the compound, and tried to stop the stone throwing. She yelled over the compound wall to the young men responsible; they jeered at her and continued throwing. Inside Awine’s room, Atanga was confused and frightened and appeared to have very little notion about what was happening around him. Babilla Abagri spoke with Atanga and said that the contents of the duffel bag suggested he was a diviner, or training to be a diviner. Awine confirmed the suspicion and added that Atanga was slightly mad and that it had been determined through prior consultations that the madness was due to the fact that there were kinkiriis following him. Kinkiriis are powerful spirits that can be used for divination and to create medicines to treat physical and spiritual conditions. The spirits are ancestors who are so ancient the living no longer remember them. They live in the “bush” and choose the individuals they wish to be their diviners, letting their wishes be known by causing madness, illness, or misfortune for the individuals they choose. The chosen individuals can bring an end to their suffering by accepting the kinkiriis, which can involve capturing and enshrining the spirits, or transferring the shrine that houses the spirits to the individuals’ homes. According to Awine, Atanga had yet to capture the spirits to end his madness. Babilla was adamant that the kinkiriis were responsible for Atanga’s present problem (he never said whether the penis did or did not disappear) and that he must catch the spirits as soon as possible for his situation would only get worse without performing the rites. Despite the extremity of Atanga’s present situation Babilla assured him “don’t worry, I have seen cases far worse than this.” To diagnose the problem more fully, Babilla asked Atanga to remove the cowries from his bag so that they could toss them and read about the situation. The consultation of the cowries reaffirmed Babilla’s suspicions, and Babilla provided suggestions about people that Atanga could go to for help in capturing the kinkiriis. While Babilla read the cowries, the crowd outside the compound started to thin. There was still, however, a group of youths congregated nearby. Among the group were Azure’s sons, who threatened to wait for Atanga to come out, apprehend and beat him, or to simply burn down the compound to get him.

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Atanga sat alone in Awine’s room. The door was closed but occasionally people entered the compound and looked in the room to see if they knew him. These intrusions troubled Awine. Younger men who persisted in pressing for confessions from Atanga and who threatened to burn the compound if he was not released especially upset him. Eventually Awine attempted to prevent a group of younger men from entering his compound. “Kem!” (go away), he yelled at them. They ignored his orders and tried to enter the main courtyard. Rebecca and I were sitting with our backs against the wall that separated the animal yard from the main courtyard. As the young men approached Awine yelled again and we leapt to our feet and joined in. Startled by our appearance they stopped, but after gaining their composure they laughed and continued over the wall. A shoving match ensued, we forced the men back, they retreated out of the compound, and the three of us went back into the main courtyard. After about an hour and a half, the situation had quieted and the crowd appeared to have dispersed. After speaking with Cletus, Rebecca and I decided that the situation was resolved for the time being and Atanga was under no immediate threat. Prior engagements in town forced us to leave the village, though we made arrangements to return very early in the morning. Our leaving was, however, premature. The case was not resolved and Atanga was not out of danger. According to Cletus, following our departure a group of young men scaled the walls, entered Awine’s room, wrestled Atanga outside and beat him. Cletus and a number of others came to Atanga’s rescue and he was rushed back to the chief’s compound, where an even larger crowd awaited him than the time before. Although there were numerous cries for his blood, he was not seriously harmed. Word came from town that the Bawkunaba wanted to meet Atanga, shake his hand, and see if the rumours of genital disappearance were true. The Zorse chief appointed a group of men to lead Atanga into town. As they travelled, people lined the path in front of them, taunting and threatening Atanga. The meeting between the Bawku chief and Atanga produced no further theft or magical results. The Bawkunaba ordered Azure and Atanga to return to his compound early the next morning so that he could hear and pass judgment upon the case. When we returned to Zorse the next morning we learned of what happened the night before and immediately set off to the Bawkunaba’s compound in order to be there when the court case began. Near the chief’s palace we stopped and went to the house where Atanga had spent the night. After greeting everyone—including Atanga’s older brother, who had made the journey to Bawku during the night—we made our way to the chief’s palace. The chief was sitting in the shaded sitting area in the front yard of his compound, surrounded by his attendants. We sat on the perimeter of the court with Cletus translating as the hearing proceeded. Azure had yet to arrive. While waiting for Azure, the chief asked Atanga’s senior brother and

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Awine Abugri to present their case. Shortly thereafter Azure arrived and presented his case. Although he had come with a number of supporters, Azure’s case was not well accepted. A lack of evidence and the potential for ridicule prompted him to ask for dismissal. This was not acceptable to Atanga’s brother, who complained that his family was insulted and that blame for the situation fell firmly on Azure’s head (I believe that he was making an argument about who would be responsible for paying the fee for having the chief hear the case). Azure refused to take responsibility for the case. The Bawkunaba ordered the men to leave and return the following Sunday morning. At the chief’s request, we drove Atanga to his home village. The following Sunday we made our way to the Bawkunaba’s compound an hour before the case was to be heard at 8:00 A.M. To our surprise, the chief was privately meeting with Azure, Atanga, and their respective representatives. When the case reconvened Azure apologized for his actions and took responsibility for causing the situation. Atanga’s representatives accepted the apology and the chief demanded Azure pay 20,000 cedis to Atanga to cover the financial expenses that Atanga’s family members incurred to come and sit for the case. Atanga’s representatives declined the payment and said they were content with Azure’s apology and claim of responsibility for bringing a false case to the Bawkunaba. Azure did not get away without receiving a serious tongue-lashing from Atanga’s senior brother, who emphasized Azure’s foolishness and stupidity, chastising him for side-stepping the authority of the Zorsenaba and taking the case to the Bawkunaba. He noted that his brother was known and related to the people of Zorse. Atanga was not a Kambonga (Ashanti, a tribe from south central Ghana) or Ewe (a tribe from the eastern coast of Ghana), he was Kusasi. The brother noted Azure’s age (ca. 60–65 years) and stressed that as a man of maturity, he was expected to be reasonable and sensible rather than rash and reckless: “Some men travel and return wise; others return foolish.” We subsequently learned (through idle gossip with a group of people at the Natenga community center) that Azure’s foolishness was explainable in light of the fact that he, like Atanga, was being called by kinkiriis and had failed to perform the requisite rituals to enshrine and/or transfer the spirits. The spirits were increasingly driving him mad to force him and his relatives to perform the desired rituals. DISCUSSION

The local meaning and contexts of genital theft involve knowledge and practice pertaining to the supernatural causes of misfortune. Genital theft belongs to the same general category of misfortune as disease, madness, and personal/familial tragedy, effects of supernatural causes that emanate from outside the social group to which the victim belongs. A brief review of Kusasi social organization will

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help illustrate the connections between in-groups, out-groups and supernatural forces. The basic social and spatial unit in Kusasi society is the yir (compound). Compound residents consist of agnatically related males, their wives and children, a residential group referred to as yirdiim (house people). Depending upon the number of wives in the compound, a residential group may be further divided into subgroups. Each subgroup consists of a wife and her children, occupies a separate zak (courtyard) within the compound, and is called a zakdiim (courtyard people). The patterns of relationships that structure the compound also structure the larger society. Indeed, the Kusasi use the terms yir and dabog (abandoned compound, or compound whose founder is deceased) to refer to descent groups of a higher order of segmentation. Individuals from the same clan, for example, describe their relationship to one another with the phrase “we belong to the same house,” while individuals from the same maximal lineage within a clan may refer to their relationship with the phrase “we share a room in the same house.” The social relations within compounds move along two planes, the plane of domestic relations and the plane of lineage relations. Domestic relations are based on uterine descent, and stress the intimate connections that exist between siblings of the same mother. Lineage relations are based on patrilineal descent, and stress the common blood shared by all the members of the compound. Relations along the latter plane define the yirdiim as an in-group. Relations along the former plane define the zakdiim as an in-group, and the members of other zakdiim within the residential group as part of a larger out-group. Thus individuals can classify a relative from the same yirdiim but a different zakdiim as both an insider and an outsider. Points of social and spatial fission at the scale of the compound are the points for the future segmentation of the descent group. Segmentation is thus a by-product of marriage or the introduction of new and different blood into the larger patrilineal descent group. New blood divides the residential group into subgroups, and it can have a more pronounced impact on social relations within the compound. This is because maternal blood is the vehicle for the transmission of so? (witchcraft) from one generation to the next. A witch can only inherit his or her power from his or her mother, though both of his or her parents can be so. Witchcraft is a cause of misfortune (illness, bad luck, death) within a compound. Generally, witches attack compound residents from outside their zakdiim, with the witch leaving his or her body at night and feeding off the “souls” of his or her victims. When a witch directs his or her energies beyond the confines of the compound, his or her victim belongs to a different in-group, a different yirdiim or larger lineage segment (e.g., maximal lineage, clan, and tribe). The Kusasi are exogamous at the level of the clan, and thus husbands and wives belong to different in-groups. Witchcraft is a supernatural force that enters or

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becomes part of the in-group (the agnatic blood line) by way of marriage and having children. Marriage and having children are also associated with more beneficial supernatural forces or spirits that provide guidance and protection to members of the descent group. Three types of spirits are important in this regard: the bugr, bakalogo, and kinkiriis. Enshrinement of the forces occurs as part of marital prestations, and, like payment of bridewealth, may take place over a long period of time (See Awedoba 1989a, 1989b, 1990). The husband’s family exchanges bridewealth while the bride’s family gives the bride and aids the husband’s group in enshrining the aforementioned forces. The forces ultimately originate from within the wife’s natal descent group, and they move to the husband’s descent group to provide spiritual guidance and guardianship for the wife’s children— those individuals who possess the blood of the wife’s natal descent group. Supernatural knowledge and power are intimately linked with personal and collective identity. Supernatural power comes from outside the normative social order. The kinkiriis come from outside the domain of the house or compound; they are cognatic ancestors who live in the bush. Likewise, the other shrines passed as part of marital prestations come from the mother’s father’s house, from outside the network of agnatic relations that make up the patrilineal descent group. Finally, counter to the predominant pattern of inheritance, witchcraft is inherited through maternal blood, blood from outside the compound and lineage. Enshrinement of spirits provides a formalized mechanism for incorporating external forces into the social order, and thereby harnessing supernatural power for the benefit of the in-group. This information provides insight into the circumstances surrounding the accusation of genital theft in Zorse. The Zorse case conformed to the pattern for genital theft described in the popular press. A stranger comes into contact with a village resident, and the resident experiences his penis disappear. For those who believed that genital theft is a consequence of witchcraft, the fact that Atanga was an outsider, and that his bag included a vial of ‘medicine’ and divining paraphernalia, was proof that he was a witch or sorcerer. This belief was reflected in the arm-waving and shouting of the crowd as Cletus and Asamo led Atanga away from the Chief’s compound. Labeled as a witch and an outsider, Atanga became a focus of mob revenge, and a symbol of the serious threat posed by outsider forces, including the supernatural. Given these factors, it is perhaps most surprising that Atanga was not lynched by the mob. Safeguarding of Atanga was motivated by social relations. Atanga was an outsider because he did not reside in Zorse. He was, however, also an insider because his mother came from Zorse, and so he possessed Zorse blood. As his brother noted in the court of the Bawkunaba, Atanga was a Kusasi man, not a Kambonga, Ewe-man, or a foreigner. Azure’s accusation was invalid because it was directed at a man who came from the same tribe and hence shared the same

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agnatic blood. This implies that an accusation of genital theft toward foreigners, strangers, or outsiders can be interpreted as valid and rational behavior. The court arguments and decisions did not preclude or deny the existence of genital theft, only that in this case the accusation was invalid or false. The fact that Atanga had Zorse blood in his veins meant that there were relatives to provide support for him and to represent him in the Zorsenaba’s court. The primary relative in this regard was Atanga’s mother’s brother, Awine Abugri, a man of considerable genealogical seniority, and a close friend to the chief. Social relations protected Atanga, but this protection did not dissuade individuals from believing that supernatural forces or powers were responsible for the episode. In fact, the relationship between Awine Abugri and Atanga provides a means of explaining the episode while maintaining belief in supernatural forces as causes of genital retraction. Atanga was “mad” and “useless” because he was being called by kinkiriis. The ultimate source of these spirits was his mother’s father’s house, now headed by the mother’s brother, Awine Abugri. In order to end his affliction Atanga had to enshrine the kinkiriis, or acquire the shrine that housed the spirits. Acquisition of the kinkiriis could only occur after the acquisition of the bugr and bakalogo. Atanga relied heavily on Awine to help transfer the spirits, and in fact he was in Zorse to work with Awine on part of the ritual preparation and process for transferring the spirits, a relatively expensive process involving a series of ritual observances, animal sacrifices, and gift exchanges. The genital disappearance can be included into the general category of problems caused by spirits that are calling to come. Kinkiriis can make genitals disappear, make people believe their genitals are disappearing, and make people behave in hysterical and violent ways. Following Babilla Abagri, we can explain the episode in terms of the problems that spirits will cause for the people they have chosen to call, rather then seeing the episode as a case of witchcraft. In this instance, the kinkiriis affecting Atanga and the kinkiriis affecting Azure cause the episode as a means of motivating the two men to enshrine and serve them. The local explanation that kinkiriis caused the episode partly conforms to the psychiatric medical model for koro episodes. Symptoms suffered by individuals being called by the spirits are akin to the symptoms suffered by victims of psychoses and depersonalization episodes in the medical literature (e.g., hallucinations, delusions, general anxiety). In the local explanatory framework, Atanga and Azure were suffering from permanent, pathological conditions, not merely experiencing transient anxiety or psychological disturbance as described by Bartholomew. In a sense, the local diagnoses of madness correspond with medical diagnoses of disease; the individual dimension is attributed to pathological processes. However, in the local model pathological processes include supernatural causes.

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Alternatively and simultaneously, the Zorse episode conforms to the social psychological model. The individual dimension of the episode is a result of psychological disturbance, while the collective dimension of the episode is a form of collective social delusion. Regardless of theoretical orientation, the episode in Zorse underscores the importance of social organization and the definition of in-groups and out-groups in accusations of genital theft. The likelihood that accusations of genital theft will be fatal depends upon the degree to which those accused of the crime are related to those making the accusations. Individuals who are only recognizable as outsiders stand the greatest danger of being harmed or killed, and in these cases witchcraft and malicious sorcery provide the best local explanations for the episodes. In the Zorse case, Atanga was recognizable as an insider, and hence he had kin support on which he could draw for protection from the mob. Further, his social proximity to the residents of the village precluded people from explaining the episode in terms of witchcraft and malicious sorcery. His social distance, as a member of a different agnatic descent group, still allowed people to explain the episode in terms of supernatural forces and powers. CONCLUSIONS

The Zorse case relates to external threats to personal and collective independence and identity in a variety of ways. When Rebecca and I returned to Zorse the morning after Atanga was first accused of the crime, friends informed us that sorcerers could steal a person’s genitals by shaking the person’s hand. Rebecca and I, as nassara (white people), were immune to these sorts of magical attacks. Only Africans could be affected in this way. The threat of genital theft originates in Africa (our friends claimed it came from Nigeria) and is only realized in African victims. The threat is both external—the crime is perpetrated by criminals from outside the community—and internal—the perpetrators are, like their victims, African. The case serves as a test of the strength of social ties in the larger community. It actualizes the potential networks of relations, both on the lineage and domestic planes that exist between individuals and groups. Bonds of coresidence and bonds of cognatic affiliation are simultaneously activated, recruiting individuals into oppositional yet complementary sides. Individuals are categorized and identified as belonging to a specific camp. Thus the case underscores that individuals are social personae—personal identity is a product of complementary and oppositional relationships between groups. More information about Azure’s status within the community would help in assessing the association between personal and collective identity as it relates to the case. The lack of these details is a limitation on the conclusions one can draw about the case.

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Like all of the cultural groups residing in Northern Ghana, the Kusasi are experiencing social transformation as a result of external factors including the growth of global markets, continued missionary efforts, and the political and economic policies of national, regional, and district governments. Governmental efforts at curtailing population growth, for example, have complemented missionary initiatives that emphasize the nuclear family as the ideal residential unit. Pressures to adopt a cash-based, market economy compel individuals to leave off farming, the chief occupation of the Kusasi, and enter new vocations in trading or wage employment. The threat posed to collective identity is a threat to personal identity because personal identity is socially contrived. It is not a matter of a loss of personal and collective identity, but rather a matter of losing control over defining personal and collective identity. Genitals are the means of procreation. Loss of genitals amounts to loss of the capacity to self-perpetuate. The victim of the crime experiences at the personal level what the Kusasi are experiencing at the level of the community and region. Resolution of a case of genital theft, whether in the courts or by mob justice, reasserts the community’s self-autonomy and ability to self-identify. NOTES

1. Control over the paramount chieftaincy has been a political issue since the time of independence. During the reign of President J.J. Rawlings, the paramountcy was shifted to a Kusasi lineage. The decision spawned strong resentment toward Rawlings and his political party the National Democratic Council (NDC) on the part of Mamprussi residents. Tensions between the Mamprussi and Kusasi are thus augmented by National politics with political parties exploiting local divisions and alliances to further their larger agendas. 2. The names of individuals mentioned in the text have been changed. 3. Naden (1996) notes a similar pattern of behavior that the Mamprussi perform when a captured witch is led away. 4. Diviners take the first name Babilla as a title of their calling. ACKNOWLEDGMENTS

This research would not have been possible without the encouragement, understanding, and participation of the residents of Zorse, the late Zorsenaba, the Tengindana, and my interpreter, Cletus Anobiga. The Ghana Museums and Monuments Board kindly extended a research permit for the fieldwork. Dr. Nicholas C. David provided funding support through the Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC Grant # 410-92-281). Field research was conducted as part of the Mandara Archaeological Project (Ghana Phase) directed by Nicholas C. David. Dr. Usher Fleising supported the write-up of this work.

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CHARLES MATHER Department of Anthropology University of Calgary, 2500 University Drive N.W. Calgary, Alberta, Canada T2N IN4 E-mail: [email protected]