A 71-year-old African man has been living in isolation for 55 years to avoid any interaction with women. Callitxe Nzamwita, of Rwanda, was just 16 when he locked himself inside a house fortified with a 15-foot fence due to suspected gynophobia – a chronic and intense fear of women.
Nzamwita has gone to great lengths so he doesn’t run into women but with limited space, that means every part of his lifestyle has to be accommodated by a single room, a short documentary by Rwandan publisher Afrimax English revealed.
The extraordinary tale of isolation first came to light in August after human interest storytellers sought to understand how he manages his daily chores, including eating, sleeping and relieving himself – in his one-room hideout.
Nzamwita sleeps on a makeshift pillow made from blankets and dried-up leaves inside a raised wooden shelter that protects him from rolling over too close to the fire.
Right in front of his bed is a shallow pit in which he urinates and just a little further, a second bed that doubles as a kitchen for supplies, which he, in fact, gets from women.
“He doesn’t want us to come closer or talk to him when we try to help him,” one of Nzamwita’s female neighbours explained. “Instead, we toss things into his house, and then he comes and picks them up.”
The reticent recluse, who says he took such extreme measures because of poverty, may not let women anywhere near him but he does accept help from them, albeit from a distance.
A minimalist lifestyle ensures he only has to step out of his femme-free abode and confront his fear on rare occasions.
“I locked myself inside my house so that I could keep women at a distance,” Nzamwita said. “I don’t want women around me because they make me really scared.”v
