Late last year, men in parts of Congo’s Tshopo province began whispering about something strange that was happening in nearby villages.
asserted
that → begin → villages
At first, the stories sounded too absurd to travel far.
asserted
stories → sound → ?
A man in a market claimed his genitals had suddenly shrunk after brushing against a stranger.
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genitals → claim → stranger
Someone else said it happened inside a taxi.
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it → say → taxi
In another village, people spoke about a man who returned from town convinced that the part of his body had disappeared altogether.
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part → speak → body
And then the videos started appearing, people gathered around phones watching clips of alleged victims speaking inside crowded churches while pastors stood beside them claiming they had been cured through prayer.
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they → start → prayer
Some videos spread through Facebook pages and TikTok accounts.
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videos → spread → pages
Others moved from phone to phone through Bluetooth shares and WhatsApp groups, spreading across villages faster than official information ever could.
uncertain
information → move → villages
In many places, the rumours arrived before the authorities did.
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authorities → arrive → places
By the time officials in Tshopo publicly denied the existence of any mysterious illness, fear had already settled across parts of northeastern Democratic Republic of Congo, where rumours, churches, and social media had combined to create something more powerful than a simple falsehood.
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rumours → deny → falsehood
Men spoke cautiously around strangers.
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Men → speak → strangers
Communities became suspicious of outsiders.
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Communities → become → outsiders
Stories changed slightly depending on who was telling them, but the central fear remained the same.
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fear → change → them
Something was stealing men’s bodies.
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Something → steal → bodies
In the month of October, the health workers travelling through the Isangi area of Tshopo province arrived in villages already consumed by weeks of panic.
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workers → travel → panic
They carried tablet computers, questionnaires, and reflective jackets as part of vaccination-related field surveys, but in some communities those unfamiliar objects and routines were interpreted very differently by residents who had spent weeks hearing that outsiders were spreading a disease that caused men’s genitalia to shrink or disappear.
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genitalia → carry → disease
According to Reuters, at least four health workers were later killed after crowds accused them of spreading the supposed illness.
uncertain
crowds → accord → illness
His wife later told Reuters that the family had spoken to him earlier that day because it was his birthday.
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it → tell → him
The children were waiting for him to come home that evening so that they could celebrate together.
uncertain
they → wait → ?
Instead, news arrived that the health team he was part of had been attacked by mobs even as they tried to explain that their surveys had nothing to do with the rumours spreading in the province.
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surveys → arrive → province
The World Health Organization(WHO)-backed Africa Infodemic Response Alliance, which monitors dangerous health misinformation across Africa, later linked at least 17 killings to the rumours, though some incidents could not be independently verified.
uncertain
incidents → monitor → rumours
Long before social media existed, versions of this panic had already travelled across parts of Africa.
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versions → exist → Africa
Researchers have documented similar episodes for decades in Ghana, Nigeria, Cameroon, Benin, and Congo itself, where rumours of “penis theft” or genital shrinking periodically triggered mob attacks against people accused of witchcraft or supernatural powers.
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rumours → document → witchcraft
In Ghana, during the 1990s, several people accused of “penis snatching” were beaten to death by mobs.
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people → accuse → mobs
In Kinshasa, in 2008, police detained more than a dozen suspected “sorcerers” after panic spread through the capital and led to attempted lynchings.
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panic → detain → lynchings
Anthropologists who study such incidents have often argued that the panic is not simply about superstition.
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panic → study → superstition
In many places, fears around genital theft became tied to larger anxieties about masculinity, illness, vulnerability, power, and social instability, particularly in societies where spiritual explanations for misfortune remain deeply embedded in everyday life.
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explanations → tie → life
But something about the Congo episode felt different.
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something → feel → episode
Earlier, panic spread through markets, crowded taxis, churches, and radio broadcasts.
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panic → spread → markets
This time, much of the fear moved online first, where videos featuring alleged victims and miracle cures circulated rapidly through algorithm-driven feeds before local officials fully understood what was unfolding on the ground.
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what → move → ground
Several churches in Kisangani hosted testimonies from supposed victims while Facebook pages and TikTok accounts reposted clips that gathered hundreds of thousands of views.
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that → host → views
Some videos remained online even after authorities publicly dismissed the claims as false.
uncertain
authorities → remain → claims
Health officials later said the violence exposed a deeper crisis facing public health systems in parts of Africa, where distrust toward authorities has been shaped by years of political instability, misinformation, and memories of earlier health emergencies, including Ebola and COVID-19 outbreaks, during which some communities viewed outside medical teams with suspicion.
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communities → say → suspicion
In villages where people had already spent weeks discussing the rumours among themselves, the arrival of unfamiliar health workers carrying devices and asking questions appeared, for some residents, to confirm the fears they already believed were true.
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they → spend → fears
Months later, the rumours have still not completely disappeared.
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rumours → disappear → ?
Officials continue running radio campaigns and public awareness programmes aimed at stopping the spread of misinformation.
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Officials → run → misinformation
Arrests have been made in some areas.
asserted
Arrests → make → areas
But many of the original videos are still circulating online, resurfacing again and again across different parts of Congo, long after authorities declared that the illness itself never existed.
asserted
illness → circulate → Congo
The Aporia
