S6 E14: The God in the Water - A TRUE CRYPTID STORY from West Africa
In this episode of That Would Be Rad, we travel deep into West Africa for a chilling cryptid story, a strange eyewitness account, and one of the most unsettling monster legends we’ve ever covered:
The God in the Water.
In Burkina Faso, there is a place called Dafara.
A hidden chasm in the earth.
A rocky ravine.
A murky pool.
And according to the people who lived near it, something was waiting beneath the water.
Not a statue.
Not a myth carved into stone.
Not a symbol.
A living thing.
A creature.
A god that had to be fed.
In the summer of 1986, Pastor Robin Swope visited Dafara while serving as a missionary in West Africa. What he found there sounded like something from a nightmare: the smell of blood and rotting flesh, animal sacrifices at the edge of a dark pond, villagers who feared the water, and a terrifying warning passed down through generations:
Do not go in.
The god will eat you alive.
Join Woody and Tyler as they descend into the mystery of Dafara, the West African legend of a creature beneath the pond, and the eyewitness account that claims something large, black, smooth, and unknown rose from the water to feed on raw flesh.
Was it a giant African catfish?
A misidentified animal made terrifying by folklore?
A hidden population of oversized fish trapped in an isolated ravine?
Or was there something much stranger lurking beneath the surface?
Together, we explore the story of Pastor Robin Swope, the so-called “Paranormal Pastor,” the sacrifices made at Dafara, the villagers who believed the creature could grant fertility or bring a curse, the legend of the explorer who supposedly dove into the pond and never came back, and the dark question at the center of it all:
What was really living in the water?
This episode is for anyone who loves cryptids, African folklore, unexplained creatures, paranormal stories, monster legends, mysterious places, strange eyewitness encounters, cryptozoology, folk horror, missionary mysteries, and stories that feel too bizarre to be real.
Because some legends are not born in castles or graveyards.
Some are born in remote places.
Places where the air smells like blood.
Places where the locals refuse to swim.
Places where something rises from the dark when the offerings hit the water.
This is not just a story about a monster.
It is a story about fear.
About belief.
About sacrifice.
About the thin line between folklore and eyewitness testimony.
And about what happens when generations of people agree on one rule:
Do not enter the water.
So follow us down into the rocks, stand at the edge of the pond, and listen closely...
Because something is moving beneath the surface.
Be Rad.
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SHOW INFO:
🎧 Written & Produced by: Woody Brown & Tyler Bence
🎧 Recorded at: Midnight Radio Studios
🎧 Sound Design, Editing, & Music by: Woody Brown
🎧 Mixing & Mastering by: Tyler Bence
🎧 Art Design by: Tyler Bence
🎧 Outro Song: “Ghost Story” by The Modern Society
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