Thursday, May 8, 2014

MURDERED FOR THEIR HAIR, BONES AND GENITALS: THE HORRIFYING PLIGHT OF ALBINOS IN TANZANIA


A woman cradling her baby, a young girl playing with her mother on the grass and a group of friends smiling for the camera.

Innocent scenes they may be, but these Tanzanians are in grave danger from all walks of life from fishermen and miners to witch doctors and murderers simply because they are albino.

Regarded as the 'tribe of ghosts' or 'the invisibles', albinos have suffered appalling treatment at the hands of their own people who butcher them for their body parts in the disturbingly mistaken belief they will bring them better health and good fortune.

In danger: A young albino girl plays with her mother in the Tanzanian city of Dar es Salaam. She is under threat from murderers who target albinos for their body parts
Targeted: Such is the threat against albino children, the Tanzanian government has been opening shelters to offer them some chance of building a life for themselves
Outcasts: Albinos in Tanzania (including these two children, above) are known by those who hunt them as the 'tribe of ghosts' or 'the invisibles'
Sorry state of affairs: Sometimes parents are forced to give up their beloved offspring because they fear the prejudices of the people in their own community
Such is the threat against their lives, the Tanzanian government has been opening shelters for hundreds of albino children to offer them some chance of building a life for themselves.

Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who appointed the country's first albino MP in 2008, has also commissioned task forces to investigate the killings.
In some cases, fathers have tried to murder their own children in the hope of selling them for thousands of dollars - a fortune to the average family in Tanzania.

Fishermen believe their hair will help them catch more fish, miners think their bones will bring them diamonds and witch doctors use their genitals for treatments to supposedly boost sexual potency.
Genetic quirk: Tanzanian President Jakaya Kikwete, who appointed the country's first albino MP in 2008, has commissioned task forces to investigate albino killings
Warped beliefs: Fathers have tried to murder their own children in the hope of selling them for thousands of dollars - a fortune to the average family in Tanzania

Gauging the size of Tanzania's albino population is difficult and estimates vary wildly.

The government has undertaken a national survey of albinos but has not released its findings. 

Albino advocacy groups put the number somewhere above 100,000, out of a total population of roughly 48 million people.
Disturbing practices: Fishermen believe albino hair will help them catch more fish, while miners think their bones will bring them diamonds
Vulnerable: Albino advocacy groups estimate there are around 100,000 in Tanzania, out of a total population of roughly 48 million
Albinism is a genetic condition characterised by a deficiency of melanin pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes which protects from the sun's ultraviolet rays.

In many African nations - but most commonly in Tanzania - albinos are butchered in the street.

Their remains are used in the macabre human potions used by traditional healers to treat the sick.

Believing it will bring them good luck and big catches, fishermen on the shores of Lake Victoria weave albino hair into nets.

Bones are ground down and buried in the earth by miners, who believe they will be transformed into diamonds.

The genitals are also sometimes made into treatments to boost sexual potency. 


Shelters have been opening up in recent years to offer them a glimmer of hope for the future.

Sometimes the parents are afraid of their children, sometimes they are forced to give up their beloved offspring because they fear the prejudices of the people in their own community.

Last year, a report on the Kabanaga Protectorate Centre in the town of Kabanaga featured 17-year-old Angel, who was visited by her mother for the first time in four years.

When she was born her father called her 'a gift from God'.

But his joy was not that of a new father - he wanted to butcher the girl and sell her body parts for thousands of dollars.

Angel's mother managed to deter the father for years, but when Angel was 13 he led a group to attack her.

Angel got away, but her mother's own parents were killed in the attack as they fought to protect their granddaughter.

But Jacquelyn says she will never escape the prejudice that follows her wherever she goes.

Ignorance about the condition is rife - there is even a belief that their mothers slept with white men for it to be passed down.

Last year, attackers collecting body parts of albinos for witchcraft hacked off the hand of a seven-year-old boy, officials said.

The boy, called Mwigulu Magessa, was ambushed by the men as he walked home with his friends in Tanzania.

He survived but many such victims of ignorance are not so lucky.

Just days earlier, an albino mother of four had her arm chopped off by machete-wielding men and a month before that an albino child died in Tanzania's Tabora region after attackers hacked off his arm.
Prejudice: Ignorance about the condition is rife - there is even a belief that their mothers slept with white men for it to be passed down

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