Losing my manhood has made me useless

Patrick Muzaani was castrated in a malicious assault that changed his life in 1991. Tom Gwebayanga talked to the man who is still grappling with the challenges of feeling ‘useless.

On the fateful day in 1991, Patrick Muzaani, woke up to his daily chores of making bricks in Kimbaya village, Bugaya sub-county in Buyende district. He also felled trees for making charcoal, before heading to Gumpi Market later in
the evening to drink alcohol. His love for alcohol was well-known in the village.

“We were drinking waragi when a friend, William Kapio, came looking for me. He owed me sh75,000. I sold him bricks and he defaulted, so I had threatened to take tough measures against him for non-payment. It is this money that brought
me problems,” he says.

Muzaani, now in his 70s, says to his surprise, Kapio gave him sh3,000 and entreated him to drink it, saying it was not part of the debt. He promised to pay the debt soon. “I ordered for more waragi. I did not even suspect anything
when two other people ordered four more glasses for me. I drank it like there was no tomorrow, until I collapsed.

On realising that I had passed out, they dragged me to a nearby thicket, where they chopped off my penis and scrotum and fled with them. Kapio hired assailants to kill me, but I survived,” he says.

Castrated man

Muzaani regained his consciousness at about 5:00am and realised he was drenched in blood. Good Samaritans, who  discovered him, called his wife, Tofirisita Nabirye, who mobilised a vehicle that rushed him to Kamuli Mission
Hospital.

“I was feeling acute pain in my private parts. When I checked, I was shocked to discover that my penis was gone,” he says. Muzaani was admitted in hospital and doctors struggled to stop the bleeding and treat the wound. Three months later, he was discharged with just a scar and a small hole through which he urinates.

His wife is said to have abandoned him after two weeks in hospital. Relatives and well-wishers cleared his medical bills.

The incident took the village by storm. It was the talk everywhere and gave rise to a popular song, Baamusazeeku amabaati n’emyango, meaning his iron sheets and rafters were cut off. Two months after Muzaani was discharged, his wife returned home for a while. “She left because I was no longer a man. She later bought land where she settled with our six children,” he says.

Tourist attraction

After being abandoned by his wife, Muzaani also left their home and rented a small room in Kimbaya. He started moving from place to place displaying his disability for a fee, hence becoming a tourist attraction of sorts.

He started from Kamuli Bus Park, where he charged between sh100 and sh500 from whoever came to look at him.

“Within a week, I had made thousands of shillings, then I headed to Kimbaya and reaped more cash,” Muzaani says.
Six months later, he became a Seventh Day Adventist and denounced alcohol. However, he resumed his drinking habits in
2006 after backsliding.

Visiting Muzaani

Saturday Vision found Muzaani at a drinking joint in Bugongo trading centre in Nawandala sub-county, Iganga district. Muzaani currently lives at his son’s home, Samuel Soniwa Muzaani, the secretary of Bugongo Farmers SACCO.

An elderly man now, Muzaani humorously talks about the day his assailants attacked him. Residents, including children, join in the fun by calling him omulaawo (castrated man).

“I drink with my friends until about 9:00pm, when I stagger back home. I do not have any marital obligations since I lost my sexual instruments,” Muzaani says while laughing. He then led this reporter to his son’s home.

“Living here has enabled me to give my wife room to satisfy her sexual desires. If I had not been attacked, I would have had 16 children,” he says.

Revenge

Muzaani says he is happy that he did not carry out revenge on Kapio, but God did so.

“They wanted to kill me, but as I speak now, they are all dead and I am still eating potatoes,” he boasted. He said Kapio hanged himself after getting disagreements with his two wives, while the other two assailants died of poison in separate incidents.

Seeking recognition

Muzaani is worried that he is not recognised among persons with disabilities. “Now that I will appear in Saturday Vision, I should be elected chairman of persons with disabilities of Bugongo village. I can even serve at the sub-county level,” he says.

However, behind all the humour, Muzaani has failed to manage the frustration of losing his manhood. The feeling of being “useless” has made him seek solace in alcohol. His son has tried to rehabilitate him, but Muzaani needs expert
counselling.

I’m at no loss, says wife

trueThe couple met in Bugongo in the mid 1970s. He paid the dowry of two cows, goats and pots of malwa (millet brew) before organising an introductory ceremony.

Nabirye recalls she was aged between 15 and 18 years when she met Muzaani, who was above 30. “We started happy, active and promising. We worked together and used the resources to develop our home,” she reckons.

“He did odd jobs like making bricks, charcoal burning and digging for others and was honest enough to bring his earnings to me. But that stopped after we got our fourth child. He turned into a nuisance by drinking himself silly, roving the whole village and neglected the family. He often slept outside and sometimes would vanish and surface after six months, only to make me pregnant and disappear again.

Nabirye says she had to work hard to fend for the family. She worked in her garden and later dug for residents to get fees for her children. “I regret why I married him. Unfortunately, by the time my eyes opened to leave, I had six children,” she says.

After suffering for long, Nabirye  relocated to Kimbaya, her home village, with her children. A year later, Muzaani followed, seeking to reconcile with her. She refused and married another man, who died three years later. She reunited with Muzaani who spent most of his time drinking.

Nabirye says Muzaani’s loss of his manhood did not affect her a lot because he was almost useless in the  home because of his drinking habits.

“By time the “things” were chopped off, I was fending for the family. He spent all the time drinking without supporting anyone in the home. He had become useless and it was through indignation that I dumped him in hospital,” she says.