Many Eunuch Archive members may be aware that the Afar warriors of the Danakil desert in Ethiopia used to practice castration on members of other villages all the time. They were unable to marry until they had killed someone else and kept their testicles as souvenirs, which they wore as earrings. Indeed most men ended up being killed sooner or later. The first European to visit the area and get home alive was Wilfred Thesiger, the famous desert explorer. The area is remote and war torn and as far as I know the castrating Afar tribes may well have died out in the great drought which has devastated the area in the last thirty years.

However, what I would like to ask members is this. Do they know about the author Evelyn Waugh’s visit to Ethiopia, or Abyssinia as it was called then in the 1930’s? It was just before the Italian invasion and his visit took place when it was the only part of Africa which as not colonised by European empires. I think there was an international deputation visiting the country to decide what to do in the face of the Italian threat of invasion and I think Waugh was maybe reporting on them. Maybe in "Remote People : A Report from Ethiopia and British Africa, 1930-1931".

I recall he said that during the visit by the statesmen public castration, which hitherto seemed to have been the standard punishment for all crimes, was stopped for fear of creating a bad impression but was started again as soon as the League of Nations mission had gone home. I was searching on the net about it a few days ago and was amused to find my own article written for the Archive "Real castrator of Ethiopia ". However, I’d be interested to know if there are other sources of information on the subject., and was the castration of the testicles or nullification etc.