Abidjan – Ivorian celebrity actor Jimmy Danger, who sparked outrage this week when he described raping his cousin on a television programme, has said his words were “taken out of context”.
He claims he was talking about a role he had turned down.
In a trailer for the programme aired on Friday, Danger said: “When we were young, we had a cousin who slept in the living room with us. I did a ‘little black cat’. Everyone did that!”
“Black cat” is Ivorian slang for rape.
Danger said his cousin had “cried out to raise the alarm” and he had then hit her.
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There was uproar on social media, and Danger’s remarks were condemned by groups supporting victims of rape.
But in a video posted on social media on Saturday evening, Danger said: “I was asked what role I refused to play. I was offered a scenario in which I had to do a “black cat” on one of my relatives.
“That was the scenario I described. It’s an element that has been taken out of context”.
He added: “I can’t apologise for rape, I could never do that. For ten years I have defended women in my plays”.
When the programme was broadcast in full on Saturday, the passage appeared within a sequence where Danger explains a role he refused.
“It’s been crudely edited – words from the first video have disappeared. We’d like to have the whole recording,” said Benedicte Joan, head of the rape victim support charity “Stop Black Cat”.
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“Editing or not, the fact the channel used a sequence that apologises for rape to promote the programme is unhealthy. It means they have no respect for rape victims in this country,” said Marie-Paule Okri of the Ivorian League for Women’s Rights.
In August 2021, a similar incident caused massive uproar in the West African country.
TV presenter Yves de M’Bella was given a 12-month suspended jail term for “condoning rape” after asking a guest on his show — a convicted rapist – to act out sexual assaults using a dummy.
De M’Bella was also ordered to pay a fine and his guest was jailed for two years.
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Source: AFP
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