White people no longer stand out, literally, in sub-Saharan Africa, not even in the villages and urban slums where a NGO Land-cruiser, with its white crew, is now a familiar sight. For albino Africans it’s a different story.
The whites are visitors, who are there usually for a specific purpose and they won’t stay forever. An albino may not find it easy to move out. He or she was born there and from an early age is likely to have encountered discrimination and taunts: at school, at sports and leisure, and later when looking for work.
An albino child will very likely be rejected by his father. He will accuse the child’s mother of “infidelity” or tell her that he, the father, is normal; there must be something wrong with the mother. And so he will leave her because he doesn’t want “more children like that one”. But albinos were left to follow their own way, a grim one in a place where the sun is bright and hot, and shines every day of the year. Despite popular misconceptions, they are not mentally handicapped. They are intelligent and smart. They have to be; they are survivors.
That was until three years ago, when a “trade” in albino body parts started, especially in the south-west of Lake Victoria, where albinos are about 1 in 4,000 of the population, as opposed to the 1 in 20,000 of Europe and North America where they are also less noticeable from their complexion.
An albino’s life is hard. He has little or no pigmentation in his hair, skin and eyes. Instead of getting a stylish tan from being out in the sun, he will develop sores on the skin and, unless very careful and rich enough to use sun block regularly, he will contract skin cancer at some point in his life and will always have poor eye-sight.
Now his life is even harder. According to the International Red Cross/Crescent (ICRC), 10,000 have gone into hiding since the killings began in Tanzania, which has the highest known proportion of albinos. In the year to June 2008, 50 were killed in Tanzania. The authorities reacted. In April 2008, the Tanzanian president, Jakaya Kikwete, appointed a 48-year old albino, Al-Symaa Kway-Geer to parliament. Part of her task was to crack down on witch-doctors who encourage the killing of albinos. In January 2009, the Prime Minister revoked the licenses of witch-doctors, many of whom use body parts in black magic.
Why this persecution? The situation is somewhat like when the first whites entered the African interior. People believed that they were half-men, half-gods, that they had some kind of supernatural strength, that they could predict the future, that they could bring sorrow or wealth and that they had either good or evil powers. Since they were different, they were kept at a respectful distance. They were the “pink strangers” carrying sticks that fired and killed.
The albinos must have “powers” too, but the difference is that they are “us”, born among us.
Their body parts, particularly those considered the “most powerful”, such as the head and genitals, are thought to bring good luck and transmit supernatural powers. Unscrupulous businessmen have smelt money. They have been known to sell a complete set of body parts for as much as US$75,000. Illegal miners looking for gems use them; fishermen tie hair to their nets for good luck in getting a catch. Members of the business community in Mwanza, on Lake Victoria, have confessed to buying human body parts from witch-doctors. The word is spreading and traders from the neighbouring countries of Kenya, Uganda, Burundi and eastern Congo are cashing in. Some politicians also regularly consult witch-doctors.
In Tanzania they have been trading in albino organs; in Uganda small children are used by witch-doctors as human sacrifices. A Witchcraft Act has been in force in Uganda since 1931, but it has not been implemented effectively, since some top business people and a few politicians take part in these practices to get rich and further their careers.
The law in Tanzania has been slow to act but something is happening now. As of December 1, seven people had been sentenced to death -- although the death sentence has not been actually implemented in the country since 1995.
In Burundi, albinos have become proactive. They are demanding a census, as well as their own Member of Parliament. In the Ruyigi region of the country, a safe haven has been set up for them by Nicodeme Gahimbare, in his fortified house. Good as this initiative is, a more lasting solution is called for.
Mali, in north-west Africa, and Malawi in the south-east, however, each has albinos who have become popular musicians -- Salif Keita from Mali and Geoffrey Zigoma from Malawi. Social acceptance has proved to be possible.
All this fear and loathing is one of the paradoxes of Africa in transition. On the one hand there are the internet and mobile phone. On there other there are dark superstitions to conjure success at any price. Western countries, of course, are no strangers to such paradoxes. For all their sophistication, they still believe that killing children in the womb will bring relief to broken lives. The temptation to dehumanise people who don't look like us is universal.
Martyn Drakard writes from Kampala, in Uganda.
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