Quite a weird news item out of Zimbabwe, thanks to MSNBC. Seems a female track and field star, Samukaliso Sithole, was exposed as actually being a man.

Sithole was identified as a man to the complainant by an acquaintance, as he and a group of women were preparing to travel by train to a track meet in Bulawayo, the court heard Tuesday. Sithole tried to sprint away from the train station but was caught. Police then supervised a medical examination.

I love the fact that he tried to “sprint away” from the scene. I can just imagine police officers passing the baton to each other as they raced to catch him, jumping over hurdles, etc.

Sithole (no, not Shithole) faces charges of “crimen injuria, or psychological offense,” for pretending to be a woman and

offended the dignity and sexuality of a woman who befriended him, confided in him and felt comfortable being naked around him, all the while believing him to a woman, the newspaper said.

This is also a very weird paragraph:

Sithole told the court he was born congenitally deformed. A tribal healer, known in the West as a witchdoctor, gave him “female status” but the spell didn’t work properly because his family didn’t pay the healer’s full fee, Sithole said.

I especially take issue with the sentence that begins, “A tribal healer, known in the West as a witchdoctor.” I mean, what a ridiculous bit of writing. Why couldn’t they have just said “tribal healer” and left it at that, or even “shaman”. Witchdoctor is anything but a technical term, and if anything its got a legacy of racism and imperialism attached to it. That’s (almost but not quite) like saying, “Africans, or ‘niggers’ as they are known in the West.” Anyway, nevermind this whole thing about being granted “female status” by this witchdoctor. They totally glossed over the most intersting part of the whole thing. What kind of congenital deformity did this dude have, anyway? I’ll have to see if I can find any more detailed info on this.