By The Arusha News Reporter.
Love, they say, is the ultimate gift of shared intimacy, characterised by complex emotional displays of affection, tenderness and pleasure. But living with a jolted lover — especially one who shows no signs of anger before a betrayal — can be deadly.
In a recent incident in Arumeru District, Arusha region, a woman allegedly cut off her husband’s manhood for reasons that remain unclear. It takes an extreme degree of anger, pushing through the ceiling of an already toxic relationship, to do what Anna Melami (30) is allegedly accused of doing to her husband, Baraka Melami (40). It was also not immediately clear how long the relatively young couple had been married.
Speaking from his hospital bed, Baraka told the media that he had gone to bed on November 19, 2025 and was later joined quietly and calmly by his wife, Anna. Believing she merely wished to fulfil their conjugal rights, he allowed her to settle beside him. But what followed next was something that even horror films have never depicted.
After positioning herself next to him, Anna, according to Mr Baraka, suddenly pulled out a sharp knife she had allegedly hidden and, without any apparent struggle, severed his manhood. He was left bleeding, in extreme pain and screaming for help — but his cries were drowned out by the loud music from their radio, which Anna had allegedly pre-set to maximum volume. She is said to have tossed the severed organ into a nearby rubbish bin.
Mr Baraka is currently admitted to Selian Ngaramtoni Hospital, where he was rushed by good samaritans.
Medical experts say the brutality of the attack is beyond comprehension. Dr Felix Massenge of Moyo Hospital described penile amputation as “a devastating trauma comparable to castration”, warning that complications such as lifelong urinary incontinence may follow. “Once that nerve is cut, it remains like the stump of an amputated leg,” he explained.
Globally, Thai wives have historically been notorious for cases of penile amputation. Humiliated wives would wait for their husbands to fall asleep — or would drug them — before violently cutting off their manhood and, in some cases, feeding it to ducks.
Apparently, Thai men have lived with this threat hanging over their marriages like the “Sword of Damocles,” and many have turned the fear into a humorous local saying: “I’d better get home, or the ducks will have something to eat.” The problem escalated in the 1970s and 1980s, prompting research by American medical doctors.
Interestingly, the doctors concluded: “None of our patients filed a criminal complaint against their attackers.” Perhaps a crime fuelled by the passion of one’s better half is never considered a felony in the first place.
