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Akinwande Soji-Ojo
A Rwandan man, Calixte Nzamwita, has claimed that he has actively hidden from public view for 55 years to avoid engaging in conversations or having any close contact with women.
In a mini-documentary by Rwandan Publisher, Afrimax Media, 71-year-old Nzamwita decided to confine himself in his one-room house since he was a teenager. The man has been in his solitary confinement since he was 16 years old.
Nzamwita said that women are scary, and admitted to have gone for 55 years without having any physical contact with any woman.
“I locked myself inside my house so that I could keep women at a distance. I don’t want women around me because they make me really scared,” Nzamwita told Afrimax.
Nzamwita has been residing in his well-fenced one-room house for the past 55 years, using it as his kitchen, bedroom and toilet. To ensure that no woman could breach his home, the man erected a 15-foot fence and “steps out once in a while.”
A young girl who lives near the man’s residence said: “I have known him to stay inside the house since I was a kid.It seems impossible to see him going out because he is really scared of women.”
Whenever a woman approaches his vicinity, he hastens back into his abode, promptly locking himself inside.
Ironically, despite his deep-seated fear, it’s the local women, particularly his neighbours, who extend a helping hand to ensure his survival. According to one of his female neighbours, he has seldom left his premises since childhood. They narrated how they provided him with essential food and grocery items, albeit from a distance as he prefers minimal contact.
“He doesn’t want us to come closer or talk to him when we try to help him. Instead, we toss things into his house, and then he comes and picks them up.
“But he still takes what we offer from a distance, not letting any of us come close to him,” Nzamwita’s neighbour said.
Many believe that Nzamwita is suffering from undiagnosed Gynophobia, which is an irrational fear of women.
Not formally recognised in the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM-5), Gynophobia is typically classified as a “specific phobia” within clinical contexts.
The symptoms of Gynophobia manifest as an irrational, all-consuming fear of women, often inducing intense anxiety merely at the thought of them. Physical reactions may include panic attacks, chest tightness, profuse sweating, rapid heart palpitations, and difficulty breathing.