Earlier this week, news reports out of the Congo carried stories that should make any enterprising marketers of male enhancement products sit up and take notice:

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Lynchings in Congo as penis theft panic hits capital
By Joe Bavier

KINSHASA (Reuters) - Police in Congo have arrested 13 suspected sorcerers accused of using black magic to steal or shrink men's penises after a wave of panic and attempted lynchings triggered by the alleged witchcraft.
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...um...what?!?

While Kinshasa's police chief Jean-Dieudonne Oleko was tempted to say that it was all just one big joke, others claimed that it was all to real:

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Just yesterday here, there was a man who was a victim. We saw. What was left was tiny," said 29-year-old Alain Kalala
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I imagine that the market for Extenz or Viagra would make a killing over there, especially if sold with the cooperation of local tribal leaders or "public service" sorcerers, if there is any such thing...

Out of the war crimes trial of Charles Taylor at The Hague in Amsterdam, this bloody gem:

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Grim tales of cannibalism highlighting the brutality of West Africa's civil wars emerged in testimony Thursday at the war crimes trial of former Liberian President Charles Taylor.

Joseph "Zigzag" Marzah [...snip...] said African peacekeepers and even United Nations personnel were killed and eaten on the battlefield by Taylor's militiamen.

[...snip...]

Prodded under cross-examination by defense lawyer Courtenay Griffith, Marzah gave a sometimes-graphic description of cannibalism that altered between the ritual taking of vengeance and the practical need for food.

[...snip...]

"Did Charles Taylor order you to eat people?" Griffith asked.

"Yes, to set an example for the people to be afraid," Marzah replied.

[...snip...]

Enemies, he was told, "are no longer human beings."
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Join the United Nations, see the world, get eaten on the battlefield.

The dehumanization of enemies results in atrocity -- every time. That, perchance, should serve as additional consideration when other such redefinitions of words and terms are tossed about to justify inhuman and inhumane behaviors.

...a few specific terms that pop to mind are "enemy combatants" -- a term used to justify denying Geneva Convention-defined rights to prisoners of war -- and "enhanced interrogation techniques" -- a term used to soften the perception of coercive forms of "interrogation" that have been, and still are, prosecutable as torture.

Like waterboarding, for example.¹

One of the legacies of colonial rule in Africa is the modern nation-state. Before the European colonists imposed their preconceptions on Africa, there were no “countries,” as we in the West know them. Instead, there were areas of influence and prerogative, borders being gray areas of negotiation and understanding often without specific geographic delineation. With fairly light population, there was room for everyone.