Touni Minuit

“Touni Minuit” (English translation – naked at midnight) isn’t a story exclusive to Rodrigues Island. Mauritius also has stories of “Touni Minuit”. The stories from Rodrigues and Mauritius are a little bit different. The stories started in Mauritius, changed a bit, and then migrated to Rodrigues.

I’ll begin with the Mauritian “Touni Minuit”.The story begun after cyclone Hollanda struck Mauritius in February 1994 when the electricity was down and hadn’t been restored to many parts of the island. Rumours swept the island that a woman was menaced by a werewolf in Port Louis, the capital city of Mauritius. Yes, a werewolf! Within hours of the first report, sightings and encounters with the werewolf began to multiply. The werewolf was given the name of “Touni Minuit”. He was described as being shiny black or silver and took the form of a naked man and sometimes a dog. Mass hysteria swept the island and the story was reported in the news media. Armed vigilantes started to roam the streets in search of the so called werewolf. As the weeks passed and electricity was restored, sightings of “Touni Minuit” died down. Some people attribute the disappearance of “Touni Minuit” to the killing of black dogs in Pleine Verte by the vigilantes. Basically they assumed he was killed when in dog form.

The “Touni Minuit” story migrated to Rodrigues after the hysteria died down in Mauritius. The Rodriguan version wasn’t reported as being a werewolf. He was described as a naked man that was smeared all over with some sort of black oily substance. The story goes that people would wake up in the middle of the night and they would find “Touni Minuit” in their kitchen eating their food (I’m laughing while writing this as the find this story so hilarious). Some people tried to grab him but he slipped from their grasp due to his oily covering and magically disappeared. Like the Mauritian version, weeks passed and sightings of “Touni Minuit” died down.

Both versions of “Touni Minuit” were reported in Melbourne on the weekly ZZZ Mauritian radio program.