At best, this creature is a molester of prepubescent and pubescent girls and, at worst, a savage, murderous, rapist. Pinky Pinky is almost unknown in “white” South African society which is often, but not always, dismissive of such claims. However, for young African girls this creature is much more real and believable. It’s a terrifying figure that features often in nightmares and occasionally in reports of sexual abuse. Both pre and post apartheid authorities have, at times, taken reported sightings of Pinky Pinky very seriously. Headmasters have closed schools to protect their pupils from this so called “myth”. Official police investigations have been carried out to ascertain if “there really might be something to this bloody Pinky Pinky business.”
Descriptions vary but those that are consistent describe a pink-skinned, feminine man, of early middle age who dresses in a mixture of both male and female clothes. If a person surprises this creature then they can see its face which is human but ugly, mottled and often bald. If it sees a person looking then its features blur so that all someone can see are two pink-coloured eyes. Its alleged victims say that it tries to corner a girl and then speaks to her in a musical woman’s voice and asks if the girl “will play” or “be friends” with Pinky Pinky”. Regardless of the girl’s answer, Pinky Pinky will then expose its genitals and try and have the victim engage in various forms of sexual activity. Again, reports differ but it appears that Pinky Pinky is often described as a very ugly woman that does have a very “male” penis that is sizeable but without pubic hair surrounding it. It seems that in most case Pinky Pinky is just happy to just “expose” itself in the manner of a “flasher” but in other cases the consequences are more serious.
Very little has been written about Pinky Pinky although a group of students from AFDA in Johannesburg did start to make a film about the creature in 2005 using a vacant building at the UNISA (University of South Africa) campus in Pietermaritzburg, South Africa. (To date we’ve been unable to find out if it was ever completed.) Source: Debashine Thangevelo, Tonight, September 26, 2005, Independent News and Media.
Today Pinky Pinky is generally believed to be an “urban legend” that emerged as a result of political unrest and social anxiety. The rape and abuse of women and pubescent girls is still unacceptably high in South Africa and it would be understandable for this fear to focus on a particular “monster” such as Pinky Pinky. To put this in context:
“A study by Interpol, the international police agency, has revealed that South Africa leads the world in rapes. A woman was raped in South Africa every 17 seconds. This did not include the number of child rape victims. It was estimated that (during their lifetime) one in every two women would be raped. Between 28 and 30 percent of adolescents reported that their first sexual encounter was forced.” Source: Rape statistics South Africa - 9 January 2008, www.rape.co.za.
However there is an even older and darker element to the creature Pink Pinky. Journals of 19th century settlers and explorers of Africa often record the tales of strange beasts and creatures still unknown to science. Many of these records are both accurate in detail and scientific in analysis. In Particular, the diary of Rev. John Littlemoss (1921) records the following:
“They are a most handsome and courageous people, the Namwanga. Strangely, many of these folk are Tall and fairer-skinned for natives that abide so far to the north where many that I meet are now the colour of ebony or tar. Theirs is a hue more akin to the Bantu tribes of Zuid Afrika (South Africa). Their bravery is most remarkable and today I saw a mere stripling drive away a leopard with nothing more than a stick and much shouting. Even so, when I sat with a tracker of the River Village and questioned him regarding the waterfalls to the north he trembled visibly and refused to take me there with much shaking of his hands. He explained, through my guide, that this was the place of the “pink outcasts”, the banished ones who live as beasts, mate with animals and steal away the village maidens in the night. Warriors to have sought out this mysterious tribe never return. I know in my heart that they are heathens that are as far from the teachings of our Good Lord as it is possible to be and yet I confess that the strength of his fear was greater than my Faith. My rod and my staff may comfort me but I miss the companionship of Van Wyk on this hapless excursion. In truth, these days, I have more faith in his Mauser than I do in my cross.” Source: No Dawn Today for Africa – The Memoirs of Rev. John Littlemoss, The Africana Periodicals 1914 - 1932.
|
|
|
|
|
Unknown Albino Boy. (Wiki Commons)
Albinos are not the Pinky Pinky
|
|
Kliptown in Soweto South Africa - Location of many Pinky pinky sightings during the early 1990's |
|
Pinky Pinky - The unwelcome visitor in the darkest night!
Fear in the Kraal
|
“At last we have seen them. Oh my darling Dorothy we have finally seen them. To think that we nearly delayed today’s excursion because of my barely noticeable red fever. These are no naked gorillas but pale-skinned men with savage intelligence. I ask you, what ape builds huts and enslaves others? Are they a lost expedition or perhaps even an unknown race? Tomorrow will reveal all! My nurse, Daisy Myinga assures me that I will be well again within a few days. Yours forever and ever. Frank” (Last letter from Frank McMillan to Dorothy McMillan, dated 13 February 1939, Yambuku, Belgian Congo.
In her private memoirs, Dorothy McMillian records that the next letter that she received was in December 1939 and from the Office of the District Commissioner who reported that “with deepest regret” the searches for her husband were now being suspended as the “Office” had been instructed to close and all personnel were relocating by train to Nyirobi (Nairobi) in British East Africa (Kenya).
After discussing the Pinky Pinky with a number of black South Africans we suspect that the legend and belief originated from three sources that have become entwined. The first source of the story lies in albinism - a genetic disorder that manifests itself as a lack of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes. These “pink people” were, and still often are, seen by African culture as abnormal and slightly magical. Sadly, many of these unfortunate people have been subjected to terrible atrocities due to their condition. As recently as December 2008 the British Newspaper, The Sun, ran a story entitled: Welcome to Albino Island” and proceeded to explain that a refuge for African Albinos had been established on Ukerewe Island in Tanzania. The article begins:
“WITH their milky white skin, wispy hair and haunting, pale eyes, they are called “the living ghosts” by locals. And the vulnerable albinos of Tanzania in East Africa have more than insults to fear. They are being hunted down and hacked to death to satisfy a growing demand for their body parts and blood to use in black magic. It is the stuff of nightmares. In the Mwanga district, near Mount Kilimanjaro, a baby girl was dressed in black by her mother and left alone in the family hut. A group of men cut off the pale girl’s legs, slit her throat, poured the blood into a pot and drank it. Source: http://www.thesun.co.uk/sol/homepage/woman/real_life/article2017493.ece
Some evidence suggests that in many places throughout Africa albinos were driven from their families and made to establish nomadic existences on the edges of society. These people were forced to survive by whatever means possible and in the process may (we repeat may) have become the forefathers of the Pinky Pinky creature. Living Ghosts!
The second source starts with the arrival of “white” explorers and settlers in Africa the legend and fear appears to have convulsed into a new form. There is no doubt that the powerful newcomers often (but not always) abused their position of power and ran their farms in the manner of feudal chieftains. It was not unusual for a young African maid to find the middle-aged owner of the farm (or his sons) creep into her room and demand his rights – sometimes violently. As recently as 1970 this practice was known as “having a bit of black”. Another expression in the “Kroeg” (bars) of Southern Africa at this time was: “Once you’ve had Black you’ll never go back.” It meant that once you’d experienced sex with an African woman then that was all that you would want in the future.
The third source refers to hermaphrodism. This is a genetic condition that results in a person having both male and female genitalia. These people are far more common than mainstream information channels suggest. The genetic diversity of the people of Africa is vast when compared to the relatively narrow genetic ancestry of those from the West. (See the Post Ice Age Bottleneck for more information) Unfortunately, hermaphrodism was often seen as just as abhorrent as Albinism. These are the true African Transsexuals and it is a subject that is still considered taboo in many African cultures.
Pinky Pinky may or may not be a real creature but there is no doubt that young African women have a great deal to fear from assault, abuse, rape and other forms of personal violence. So do albinos and it is tragic that two such vulnerable groups should be entwined in such a strange paranormal manifestation.
|
