A couple of days ago a young man (he said he was 17) emailed me asking for help with a “penis size problem”. He was moved (her words of him) when he read that I was born and raised among the Karamojong.
He said that the size of his penis has affected his entire life to the point that he was depressed and even contemplating suicide. He searched the internet for help and found some sites dedicated to penis enlargement and they even sell some equipment that adds inches to the penis. He didn’t have the money to buy one of those kits, but he decided to try one of the techniques promoted on many penis enlargement websites.
For months now, he has been strapping weights to the tip of his penis. She first started with light weights and now weighed about 20 pounds. Much of his free time has been spent on this “exercise”, but he was increasingly frustrated that there was no visible increase in the size of his penis. Could he explain, he wrote, exactly how the karamojong do “penis stretching”?
I was angry. The last thing I need is a “horny teenager” disrespecting and insulting me and the work I do. I started to write him an email, but halfway through I stopped. What if he’s just a confused young man who feels so insecure about the size of his penis and comes to me for help? What if I was the last person he would communicate with, after everything he said about him being depressed and suicidal?
I deleted that email and instead wrote to him asking him to text me what he was referring to, particularly where he mentions “Karamojong’s penis size.” My guess was that these must be porn sites, and I’m not going there. I never have, I never will.
These are some of the texts that I feel:
“The Karamojong African tribe of northeastern Uganda are known to employ similar techniques to stretch the penis. From an early age, they hang an increasing number of circular stone discs from the tips of their penises, and over the course of several years they can achieve penis lengths comparable to those of Indian sadhus. To better manage their rather monumental and impractical appendages, the Karamojong then tie their penises with knots.”
Starting at puberty, men of the Karamojong tribe of northeastern Uganda begin the long and arduous process of ritual penis stretching. A boy will hang a circular stone disk from the tip of his penis, adding more disks as he grows older. get used to the weight (and pain!). By the time a boy reaches adolescence, he can carry up to 20 pounds on his penis, which at that point can be 18 inches or more in length. To avoid sitting on the elongated appendage, The men often tie their penises in knots and store them.
Under normal circumstances, this would have made me laugh in prime time. There is a lot of rubbish out there in the name of “ancient African rituals” and since there is no one to bust these myths, many unsuspecting people take them as fact. More than 90% of Africans are too poor to afford a computer/internet and many of those with computers/internet access mostly find these types of “African myths” amusing, even entertaining. I get these “humor” email forwards all the time.
Do Karamojong men have the longest penis? I do not know. But what I do know (and have seen with my eyes) is that Karamojong men generally have penises that reach almost mid-thigh and when they sit on the hand stool they carry with them, their penises touch the ground/earth ( often draw lines on the ground in response to movements in communication body language). Note that the average height of Karamojong men is approximately 5’11-6’1 depending on which part of the Karamoja region a man hails from.
Karamojong men wear no clothing except for a large piece of cloth (ananga) that they wrap around their shoulders. Those who can afford it wear tank tops as t-shirts. Karamojong men/boys also braid their hair or wear headdresses (men and initiated warriors only). They pierce their ears, wear jewelry (specifically copper and iron), and have tattoos of scars (showing how many lions one has killed with a spear or how many enemies they have killed in battle/cattle raids). They also carry a small hand stool and cane, a spear or an AK 47 assault rifle and a toothpick which they use to brush their teeth and do it all the time (like some people chew gum endlessly). That’s it. Without pants. No boxers or underwear. Nothing below the waist, except for the sandals with cowhide straps. So it has been for thousands of years and so it still is for approximately 80% of Karamojong men. NUDE BUT NOT ASHAMED.
This is what I grew up looking at: everything that is out there in sight. Nothing tied in knots and hidden. This was what was normal for me and I didn’t see it as “sexual” at all. It was just another part of the human body. Ironically, I instinctively find myself looking away or closing my eyes whenever it looks like someone is about to take their clothes off in public. I find it grossly indecent for someone to be naked in public. But when I return to Karamoja, for some reason (I can’t fully understand it myself), I don’t find a naked body in indecent public. Unless someone else tells me, I don’t even notice. “Naked but not ashamed” is another topic for another article.
I have taken quite a few British, Canadian, Belgian and French men and women to Karamoja (mostly related to international development work) and almost all of them have made reference to Karamojong’s penis size. Even Ugandans from other “tribes” talk about the size of the Karamojong penis, so I guess there must be something unique about them.
However, I am pretty sure the Karamojong men are not even aware that they have “weapons of mass destruction”. I’d probably do a mouth cleaning ritual if I said anything about “penis size.” They just don’t care about that sort of thing. Like their brothers, the Masai of Kenya/Tanzania, the Turkana of Kenya, the Suruma of Ethiopia, etc., Karamojong men are proud warriors who live strictly by the social and moral codes determined by the tribe/clan; these social and moral codes do not include obsessing over penis size.
I grew up with these guys and some of them are my closest friends, I’ve never seen anyone hang anything on their penis. Never! IT IS NOT TRUE that Karamojong boys hang circular stone disks on the tips of their penises. ABSOLUTELY NOT TRUE.
If Karamojong’s penis size is long enough to catch the attention of those selling penis enlargement equipment and techniques, it has to do with their genes and not with circular dangling stone disks on the tips of their penises. If you don’t believe me, take a trip to Karamoja and see if you see any boys with stones or discs hanging from the tips of their penises. I’m even happy to tag along, as long as you pay for my airfare.
Here is my plea. If there is any young man out there strapping weights to his penis because Karamojong boys do it to achieve monumental and elongated penises, PLEASE STOP THEM!
Instead, see a sex therapist who can help you deal with penis size issues. I’m not a sex therapist, I CAN’T HELP YOU. However, I can tell you that many women do not give a damn about the size of your penis. Just give them some good loving sex, that’s all. But I tried to tell that to the young man who emailed me and he didn’t believe me when I told him that “penis size” is a “problem” for men, not women. He still wanted a longer and bigger penis. I told him what I just said here, he talks to a sex therapist. PLEASE!
It’s not even funny!
