Human Meat
“Please send this to all your contacts, it’s very important. Chinese people have started producing corned beef with their dead bodies and sending them to Africa. Please stay away from the corned beef irrespective of brand, most especially in Africa and from Afro-Asian grocery shops.” Facebook/Barbara Akosua Aboagye

Because of past and current reports that human flesh is being sold and eaten in China, the country‘s ambassador had to deny the speculations that it exports dead bodies sold as corned beef in African supermarkets.

Chinese Ambassadot to Zambia Yang Youming denied a recent Facebook post that meat from dead bodies are marinated, canned and shipped to Zambia. “This is completely a malicious slandering and vilification, which is absolutely unacceptable to us,” The Washington Post quotes the envoy.

Barbara Akosua Aboagye, a resident of Accra, Ghana, posted on May 3 two photos captioned: “Please send this to all your contacts, it’s very important. Chinese people have started producing corned beef with their dead bodies and sending them to Africa. Please stay away from the corned beef irrespective of brand, most especially in Africa and from Afro-Asian grocery shops.”

The photos remain in Aboagye’s page, but Facebook hid it and placed instead the following warning: “This photo was hidden because it shows mature content, such as graphic violence.” By clicking an icon, the pictures could still be viewed. Since the Ghanian woman posted the photos, it had become viral and shared more than 26,000 times.

Human Meat 2
The photos remain in Aboagye’s page, but Facebook hid it and placed instead the following warning: “This photo was hidden because it shows mature content, such as graphic violence.” Facebook/Barbara Akosua Aboagye

Aboagye, CEO and founder of La Delores Kollections, which sells online footwear and bags, is not a typical teen who loves to forward dubious memes, although she may have erred on this post.

Chinese state media accused Zambian tabloids of spreading the rumours. The speculations stem from Chinese meat factory workers who say the practice started when China began to run out of burial grounds. The real non-human meat made in Chinese factories are allegedly exported to more powerful nations.

However, Snopes, a website that debunks internet hoaxes, explains that the images Aboagye posted were a 2012 marketing gimmick for the video game Resident Evil 6. Capcom, the creator of the video game, set up at the Smithfield Market in London an art installation that seems like human meat was being used, but it is actually pork shaped to resemble human corpse.