A month ago a radio station in the Free State interviewed a man who claimed he was being raped every night by a tokolosh.
Before I even go any further, an explanation of what a tokolosh is is probably required. The tokoloshe, or tikoloshe comes from Zulu mythology and refers to a dwarf-like water sprite or zombie. Many South Africans still believe in and fear the mischievous creature.
Anyway, back to the real story.
After the interview aired on the radio station, the Broadcasting Complaints Commission of South Africa received a grand total of...four complaints about the interview. These complaints dealt with various grievances. The first complained that Radio OFM was making fun of a mentally ill person by broadcasting the interview. Another complaint, made by "R Thirtle" complained because he believed the interviewer was making a joke of a "very real phenomenon".
Thirtle actually had a lot to say about this:
"It is a fact that the Spirit Incubus rapes people in the evenings.It is particularly common among the black people...who follow the traditional religion of ancestor worship. But more general among black women, who are raped by the tokolosh in the evenings. It is not a story, it is a fact, there are thousands of witnesses to verify it. It is a very traumatic experience to be raped in the dark by a heavy thing sitting on your legs, over which you have no control. And to know it's a demon that is doing it, is even worse."
Many people will say he's out of his mind for believing in such things and various theories have been put forward over the years to explain these cases of night time rapes - the most popular being that it's dark and people can't see their human attackers face or they're wearing a mask.
Complaints such as these had to be taken seriously though and so the BCC launched their investigation. On Tuesday, they released their ruling saying that the interview was completely within the bounds of freedom of expression and that the station had broadcast warnings that listeners may find the interview offensive beforehand.
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