Enact Cannibalism Law
GERMANY is grappling with a shocking case of cannibalism. A self-confessed cannibal has been jailed for eight and a half years following weeks of rivetting testimony and debate of a moral question arising out of an unprecedented legal problem.
GERMANY is grappling with a shocking case of cannibalism. A self-confessed cannibal has been jailed for eight and a half years following weeks of rivetting testimony and debate of a moral question arising out of an unprecedented legal problem.
Armin Miewes confessed how he had a lifelong fantasy of eating his school friends. As an adult, he placed an advert on the Internet for a well-built male prepared to be slaughtered and then eaten. A volunteer turned up, agreed to have his penis cut off, cooked, and the two ate it. The volunteer was then stabbed and eventually eaten. The cannibal got off with a light sentence partly because his defence pleaded that it was not murder, since his victim volunteered, but mainly due to cannibalism not being recognised under German law.
We could find ourselves in a similar quandary in Uganda, because we, too, do not have any law specifically addressing cannibalism. Sections 120 and 121 of the Penal Code, Chapter 120 refer to trespass in graveyards and the hindering of burial/ dissection of dead bodies as being misdemeanours, or offences for which a three-year prison sentence is punishment enough. Yet we know that cannibals exist in Ugandan society. Many are known as ‘basezi’, or night dancers, who have traditionally been dealt with by customary law like banishment, lynching and social stigmatising. But customary law may not be competent enough to handle some cases; indeed some elements of customary law, like lynching, contradict the laws of the state. We should amend the Penal Code expeditiously to address cannibalism before we find ourselves hopelessly bogged down in legal uncertainties for a crime that prevails in our society.
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Armin Miewes confessed how he had a lifelong fantasy of eating his school friends. As an adult, he placed an advert on the Internet for a well-built male prepared to be slaughtered and then eaten. A volunteer turned up, agreed to have his penis cut off, cooked, and the two ate it. The volunteer was then stabbed and eventually eaten. The cannibal got off with a light sentence partly because his defence pleaded that it was not murder, since his victim volunteered, but mainly due to cannibalism not being recognised under German law.
We could find ourselves in a similar quandary in Uganda, because we, too, do not have any law specifically addressing cannibalism. Sections 120 and 121 of the Penal Code, Chapter 120 refer to trespass in graveyards and the hindering of burial/ dissection of dead bodies as being misdemeanours, or offences for which a three-year prison sentence is punishment enough. Yet we know that cannibals exist in Ugandan society. Many are known as ‘basezi’, or night dancers, who have traditionally been dealt with by customary law like banishment, lynching and social stigmatising. But customary law may not be competent enough to handle some cases; indeed some elements of customary law, like lynching, contradict the laws of the state. We should amend the Penal Code expeditiously to address cannibalism before we find ourselves hopelessly bogged down in legal uncertainties for a crime that prevails in our society.
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