The broadcast of an excerpt from a program in which a famous Ivorian actor tells how he raped his cousin sparked a wave of outrage in the country on Friday.
“When we were little, a cousin slept in our living room. I made a little black cat. Everyone did that! ‘ laughs comedian and humorist Jimmy Danger on the set of Ivoire TV, in a short clip presenting the show, which will air on Saturday.
A “black cat” is the term used in Ivorian slang to define rape.
“She was screaming to warn people,” the actor continues, before making a supportive gesture to acknowledge hitting him.
The sequence quickly triggered outraged reactions on social networks.
“These statements are unacceptable and criminal, and the worst thing is that they were chosen as a promotional excerpt from the program before it was broadcast!” Bénédicte Joan, president of the NGO Stop au chat noir, said in a press release, outraged rape victims.
The collective of activists, which brings together around forty associations fighting against violence against women in Côte d’Ivoire, has also asked the High Authority for Audiovisual Communication (HACA) to block the broadcast of this program, scheduled for Saturday midday.
Jimmy Danger, whose real name is Laurent Ibo, 56, has starred in several successful Ivorian films and in the series Ma famille and Faut pas facher, which are very popular in French-speaking Africa.
Last September, a similar case in Côte d’Ivoire caused an uproar.
In his show on the New Ivorian Channel (NCI, private), the presenter Yves de M’Bella allegedly invited a former rapist, whom he had asked to use a model to explain how he abused his victims, to report rapes in front of a mocking audience.
Yves de M’Bella was immediately sentenced to a 12-month suspended sentence for “apology for rape” and “lewdness”, while his guest was sentenced to two years in prison.