Like all such stories, reports of the women gangs sounded like urban legends, but reports of such rapes have increased and got the police interested in investigating the cases. But the police are yet to arrest any woman involved in raping men.
Questions have been raised as to whether these stories are true, as some say the claims could be the result of fertile imaginations of philandering men who create them to avoid being caught for their misdemeanours.
Sceptics claim it is impossible for a woman to rape a man and that no arrests have been made pointed to that these cases were not true. But the fact that police claim they are hunting the suspected female rapists gives credence to that these stories may have some truth.
Recently, a senior Harare police officer sounded a warning to the female rapists, a clear indication that cops were increasingly worried and frustrated at their lack of success at nailing these gangs.
“We appeal to members of the public to pass any information to the police regarding three women who have gone on a spree of kidnapping and indecently assaulting young men around town,” Harare police boss, Angeline Guvamombe said in a statement.
However, according to folklore, this could be a legend as stories have been told since time immemorial of the myth of the succubus. This is a female demon that appears in dreams and takes the form of a woman in order to seduce men through sexual intercourse. It is reported that repeated intercourse with a succubus may result in a deterioration of health or even death.
But more recently, in fiction writing, a succubus does not appear as a dream, but rather as a highly attractive seductress.Psychologists claim that accounts of people encountering these female seductresses and rapists could in fact be symptoms of sleep paralysis or deprivation.
While this may sound like a logical explanation, it will certainly not stop the Zimbabwean rumour mill from grinding more stories of women raping men.The popular narrative alleges that the women usually target lone male hitchhikers and offer them lifts. They usually operate either as a gang of three or as a foursome.
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The unsuspecting men are then drugged and raped, but speculation is rife why the women do that. Others claim that semen is collected and sold in Dubai, while others maintain this is for ritual purposes.
But in recent times the cases have become more bizarre, with the women becoming more daring.
One such case was that of a man who was allegedly terrorised with a live snake, with the women claiming they would set the snake on him if he dared resist their advances. In other cases men are allegedly raped at gunpoint.
Another man claims he was raped in a smoke filled hut after being given a lift by three women near Gweru.
While another claimed that some women got him inebriated, before dumping him in the bush after raping him.
The plan seems to be well-conceived and the women let their victims wear condoms before abusing them.
A study conducted by a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe claims that the women are usually well-heeled and commit the rapes for ritual purposes.
“In these cases the sperms are collected through coercing street boys to have sex with the women. However, in some cases, the culprits collect the sperms from their male partners or at times from men that they force themselves on,” reads the study, conducted by Watch Ruparaganda.
The women allegedly force themselves on street children, whom they pay for sleeping with them. “Businesspeople come at night to pick some of the street children. They take them to some hotels in the Avenues having given them beer and some new clothes,” the report continues.
