A widely shared photo of a half-woman, half-snake creature on top of a man in a grassy field warns men about flirting on Facebook.
The caption, in Kiswahili, reads: “Hii ni fundisho tosha kwa wanaume mnaopenda kutongoza tongoza kila wanamke hapa Facebook: huyo jamaa kilicho mtokea baada ya kutongoza ni hicho hapo mkionacho kwenye picha, badilikeni siyo kila mwanamke ni wakumtongoza tu mtakuja kukutana na mashetani shauri yenu..! Sambaza ujumbe kwa kubofya share.”
This loosely translates as: “This should serve as a lesson to all those men who randomly flirt with every woman they find on Facebook. What you can see in the photo is what befell that man after flirting. Please change your ways. Beware, not all women are to be flirted with. Be warned, you will bump into ghosts. Please share this message.”
The post has been shared more than 23,000 times.
A reverse image search, however, reveals that the photo is one of many taken during the shooting of the Tanzanian film Joka Mtu, in the city of Mwanza. “Joka Mtu” means “human-like serpent” in Kiswahili.
A blog post shows Tanzanian horror movie producer Jully Tax overseeing the shooting of the film. The trailer can be watched here.
One of the photos on the blog shows an actor, identified only as Shilla, in makeup and costume, ready to play the snake.
The caption to another photo says, in Kiswahili: “Katika location, Charles Willyson aliye chini ya nyoka mtu akiwa katika scene yake ya kutisha ya kupandwa na nyoka mtu.” This means: “In this location, Charles Willyson is playing the part where he is being mounted by a human-like snake.”
Willyson uploaded this and other photos from the film shoot on his Twitter account.
Tax, the producer, also shared on Facebook the movie’s poster and a photo of himself on set.
No man was harmed during the making of this film. – Dancan Bwire
The caption, in Kiswahili, reads: “Hii ni fundisho tosha kwa wanaume mnaopenda kutongoza tongoza kila wanamke hapa Facebook: huyo jamaa kilicho mtokea baada ya kutongoza ni hicho hapo mkionacho kwenye picha, badilikeni siyo kila mwanamke ni wakumtongoza tu mtakuja kukutana na mashetani shauri yenu..! Sambaza ujumbe kwa kubofya share.”
This loosely translates as: “This should serve as a lesson to all those men who randomly flirt with every woman they find on Facebook. What you can see in the photo is what befell that man after flirting. Please change your ways. Beware, not all women are to be flirted with. Be warned, you will bump into ghosts. Please share this message.”
The post has been shared more than 23,000 times.
Still from Tanzanian horror movie
A reverse image search, however, reveals that the photo is one of many taken during the shooting of the Tanzanian film Joka Mtu, in the city of Mwanza. “Joka Mtu” means “human-like serpent” in Kiswahili.
A blog post shows Tanzanian horror movie producer Jully Tax overseeing the shooting of the film. The trailer can be watched here.
One of the photos on the blog shows an actor, identified only as Shilla, in makeup and costume, ready to play the snake.
The caption to another photo says, in Kiswahili: “Katika location, Charles Willyson aliye chini ya nyoka mtu akiwa katika scene yake ya kutisha ya kupandwa na nyoka mtu.” This means: “In this location, Charles Willyson is playing the part where he is being mounted by a human-like snake.”
Willyson uploaded this and other photos from the film shoot on his Twitter account.
Tax, the producer, also shared on Facebook the movie’s poster and a photo of himself on set.
No man was harmed during the making of this film. – Dancan Bwire
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Further Reading
[email protected]: The challenges of working across Africa
Misinformation knows no borders and Africa Check often responds to similar false claims from country to country.
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