Man barricaded himself in his house for 55 years out of fear of women

Unusual case
The man didn’t want to meet women under any circumstances – and barricaded himself in his house for 55 years

At 16, Callixte Nzamwita knew he didn’t want anything to do with women. He didn’t want to see them, didn’t want to talk to them, didn’t want to meet them anywhere. So he stayed in his house – for 55 years.

You don’t hear something like that every day: A man barricaded himself in his small house for 55 years. His reason: He doesn’t want to meet women under any circumstances and is actually afraid of representatives of the opposite sex. The now 71-year-old man from Rwanda developed a fear of women at the age of 16, he reported to the “Afrimax” broadcaster. Since then he has withdrawn and hardly ever left his small house for decades.

“My name is Callixte Nzamwita and the reason I locked myself here in the house and put a fence around my house is because I want to make sure “I don’t want women to come near me,” the man says to the camera. He sleeps, cooks and does all of his personal hygiene in the small home. He can’t go to work because of his phobia.

Man hid out of fear of women

And so he owes the fact that he has been able to survive in such isolation for 55 years to, of all people, women. Because it is the women in his neighborhood who, despite everything, look after the shy 71-year-old and throw him food over the fence every day. But Nzamwita cannot speak to his supporters, thank them or even invite them in. “When we try to help him, he doesn’t want us to come closer or talk to him,” says a neighbor.

The Rwandan justifies his fear of women by saying he is so poor. He doesn’t explain in more detail whether he means that his social status makes him uncomfortable in front of the ladies or that he fears falling in love and becoming even poorer through marriage. Psychologically speaking, his explanation is more of an excuse anyway – such extreme cases of Gynophobiafear of women, is usually based on a mental illness such as social phobia, or arises from traumatic experiences in childhood, according to experts.

Sources: “Afrimax”, “Berlin Courier”