Approximately 8,000 albinos living in east Africa’s Burundi and Tanzania region are in jeopardy of slaughter. They are being hunted and brutally murdered by hired killers because of the pigment of their skins.
The murder of albinos in Tanzania can be attributed to superstition and greed but mostly it is ignorance and lack of education that is causing an increase in rampant killings of individuals who lack melanin to their skin.
According to a report from the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies, over the past two years at least 56 albinos in Burundi and Tanzania have been murdered.
Even more macabre, their body parts are being used by witch doctors to make charms and potions that wealthy buyers seek as lucky charms.
Allegedly, Tanzanians are willing to pay exorbitant prices for the charms. Police have reported albino limbs being sold by witch doctors for $200.
Full “albino kit” consisting of limbs, nose, tongue, ears and genitals sell for $75,000, an astronomical sum in a country where almost 60 percent of the population lives on less than $1 a day.
“Poor people cannot afford to spend so much money on a little concoction from a witch doctor,” the Albinism Society’s spokesperson said.
“The buyers must be wealthy. They are not even trying to strike it rich; they’re trying to strike it richer.”
Reportedly what sparked the surge in targeted violence is still unclear.
However, some blamed local folklore, which says albinos are endowed with mystical powers.
“People think that we don’t die and many other things that aren’t true,” Kenyan albino Isaac Mwaura said.
“Albinos are seen as a cure, because they possess something out of the ordinary.”
However, it is likely that the region’s albinos will only feel truly safe when their black-skinned neighbors regard them as ordinary people and not supernatural beings.
“What’s needed is education,” Engstrand-Neacsu said. “We need to make people understand what albinism really is. Ignorance is the origin of discrimination. And ignorance has ultimately led to these crimes.”
Pressure from campaigners in Tanzania and abroad is forcing the Tanzanian government to crack down on the grim trade. Earlier this year, they revoked all traditional healers’ operating licenses despite resistance from traders.
In the spring, President Jakaya Kikwete ordered all adults to fill out a form and name anyone who they suspected of killing an albino. The courts have also been getting tough: So far this year, seven people have been handed the death penalty for taking part in albino murders.
Franck Alphonse, director of the Tanzania Albino Center and guardian of 79 albino children, said recent cases have failed to unearth the true criminals who ordered the attacks.
“The gangs who kill the albinos, who earn $250 for murdering an albino, have been sentenced to death,” he said. “But the sentence doesn’t touch those wealthy people who sent those criminals to murder the albino in the first place. The source of the crime is still there.”
