The Day I Suffered From Scrotal Elephantiasis Known As "Amu Ibi"

By Anayo M. Nwosu

My personal doctor wouldn't understand why I was rattled and why I would not accept his diagnosis as to why my scrotal sac and the real Mr. Nwosu got inflamed overnight.

My doctor attributed the inflammation to a reaction to sulphur containing Sulfadoxine/pyrimethamine as contained in Metakalfin or Fansidar used to treat malaria. He said that I had a Type 4 Hypersensitive Reaction but, I couldn't believe it. Not now. Not with what I knew.

I was also hesitatant to let my doctor into my apprehension.

Yes, I had taken Fansidar a night before having felt a pang of fever and headache. I was sure I had malaria.

But, that was after I had a feast of fried ram with Segun, my friend.

When I noticed the inflammation in my "Ogbe Ndida" or pubic area in the morning after my visit to Segun's, it dawned on me that I must have eaten the penis of the ram as served by Segun's wife. There was a time I chewed a soft tissue I couldn't place which part of ram it was.

Segun was a muslim and it was their Sallah Day.

It is a common belief in Igbo land that any man who eats the meat derived from the penis, scrotum or the scrotal sac of a ram will surely suffer from scrotal elephantiasis or "amu ibi" sooner or later.

That's to say, in Igbo: "nwoke obula riri amu ebunu ji ibi ugwo".

And I was dead sure that I had eaten the "amu ebunu" or the penis of a ram at Segun's house and that "ida ibi" or to "develop the elephantiasis of the scrotum"was to follow.

I couldn't sleep all through the night.

I was busy thinking of how I would look like with an enlarged scrotum, dragging same on the streets  of Lagos.

How would I even drive my car?

How would I now do to my wife what really mean do to theirs? That was even the most painful part.

I kept wondering what was in the penis of a ram that would make my Igbo ancestors believe that a man who eats it is indebted to scrotal elephantiasis or "ibi".

Surprisingly, women are allowed to eat this part of ram with no consequential effects on their bodies or health.

I was still with my doctor when Segun, whose phone had been off, called to explain after reading my alarming text message, that the ram meat both of us ate a day before was not inclusive of ram's brokus or penile parts. He understood Igbo culture.

And my heartbeats normalized.

It was good to learn that I was not indebtedness to "ibi" or scrotal elephantiasis because I didn't eat amu ebunu or penile parts of a ram after all.

The inflamed parts of my body healed even before I knew it. I was filled with ecstatic happiness just as the other beneficiaries of my penile well being or a functional phallus especially my wife and my kidney.

My doctor told me that "ibi" also known in the medical cycles as scrotal lymphedema is often caused by parasitic roundworms or nematodes spread by mosquitoes.

Could it also be that our forebearers believed that nematodes or roundworms inhabit the penis area of a ram?

The Igbos use this adage to stress that whosoever commits an abominable offence shall receive a humiliating punishment visible to all. The punishment, they believe, shall come either soon or later.

Avoidance is better than "ibi".