Who in the 21st century is not familiar with the concepts of “homosexuality”, “fetish”, “drug addiction”, “prostitution”? Over the course of several decades, the world literally exploded with freedom of morals and tolerance for freaks. Modern Europe will give odds to any country in terms of liberality in relation to the strangest people. It doesn't matter what your skin color, religion or orientation is. But have such orders been established everywhere? Tanzania and albinos – this topic is still relevant today.
Our planet is experiencing a huge number of diseases - plague, smallpox, AIDS, cancer, genetic mutations... We seem to have come to terms with everything that can directly or indirectly affect the fate and health of a person. But we have never been able to eradicate superstition and painful prejudices in ourselves.
An albino is a person who is congenitally lacking skin pigmentation. In European countries there are 1 in 20,000 such individuals. But there are countries in which the percentage of albinos is incredibly high. And for people born with such a disease, life becomes a real challenge.
West Africa, and especially Tanzania, boasts a huge number of albinos. It is still unclear why this disease is increasingly occurring there. But one thing is known for certain: a Tanzanian albino is unlikely to live to be 40 years old. Because he will be eaten.
Some corners of our planet still remain illiterate and underdeveloped; shamanism and various types of witchcraft, especially black magic, flourish in them. People have blindly believed in the power of shamans for many centuries, and it is almost impossible to eradicate this belief. Poverty and lack of basic education leave their mark on almost all of Africa. People still treat colds by spraying ground and charmed tree bark around the house, and attract wealth into the house by eating the limbs of “special” fellow tribesmen.
For five hundred years there has been a belief that an albino is a superbeing. Some believe that he is a messenger of the divine, while others believe that he is a fiend of hell. But both opinions boil down to one thing - if you eat a certain albino limb, you can get rich, be cured of all diseases and bring good luck to your home.
Photo: Yasuyochi Chiba/AFP The life of an albino in Tanzania is similar to a scary fairy tale about Hansel and Gretel, whom the old witch wanted to cook in the oven. The hunt for “transparent” neighbors has become so commonplace that no one will be surprised if in broad daylight a couple of healthy adult African Americans grab a white boy or girl and, without going far, shoot them in front of their parents, cut off all the necessary parts of the body and leave mutilated corpse at the crime scene. And it doesn’t matter to the hunters whether the victim has a family, because even one hand of “magical” meat can provide 10 years of a carefree and rich life for an insensitive killer.
The situation is so hopeless that even the authorities are taking virtually no steps to tame the population. Unhappy people with colorless skin are forced to hide in their homes almost all their lives. Even special boarding schools with enhanced security cannot protect poor children from death - the soldiers themselves are ready to collude with the hunters and take away an innocent life for a mountain of money.
Photo: Yasuyochi Chiba/AFP But not only desperate hunting is a danger for the African albino - the scorching sun has too harmful an effect on the skin and vision, and by the age of 16-18 they become almost blind, and by the age of 30 they develop skin cancer. Of course, it is much easier to escape from these ailments than from superstitious neighbors - you just have to apply sunscreen and wear dark glasses. But...we are talking about one of the poorest countries in the world, and such luxury is practically unavailable there.
The only salvation for the unfortunate people now is the Red Cross organization. Naturally, such blatant cruelty did not go unnoticed in civilized countries - everything possible is being done to create closed institutions in which people with no pigment can live without fearing for themselves and their families every minute. Due to the high response throughout the world, the African government was forced to introduce penalties for the murder of an albino (death penalty) and for the deprivation of limbs (5-8 years in prison).
But the most important thing has not been done yet - uneducated Africans still believe in their shamans, and this blind faith is embedded so deeply that it will probably take several more centuries to remake the people there.
Until then, their “transparent” brothers will flinch at every rustle in their own home and pray to meet the next day alive...
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Albinos of Africa are an amazing phenomenon of the black continent. These people have to fear both the hot Sun and ignorant fellow tribesmen who kill them in order to test the ancient wild belief that after death an albino melts into air. In addition, parts of their bodies are used by shamans in pagan rituals. It is believed that a person who kills a white tribesman acquires his strength. Some shamans claim that albinos are cursed and evil. Women are afraid to look at an albino lest they have a white child. Even the government of the country cannot guarantee the safety of any of these people. In Africa, albinos rarely live past 40 years.
The most striking thing is that people with a congenital absence of pigment in the skin, hair and irises are found here much more often than in other places on the planet. If in Europe and North America there is one albino per 20 thousand people, then in Africa there is one per 4 thousand. In Tanzania, for example, there are about 370,000 albinos.
Zihada Msembo, an albino woman, says that until recently she was afraid only of the Sun. And now, when she goes out into the street, she constantly hears insults, such as: “Look - “zeru” (in the local dialect “ghost”). We can pin her down."
In Africa, the killing of albinos has become an industry based on terrible superstitions. Fishermen in Tanzania believe that if you weave red hair from an albino's head into a net, the catch will increase several times. Shamans inspired people that the legs, genitals, eyes and hair of these people bestow special strength and health. “Ju-ju” amulets, made with an admixture of albino ashes, are supposedly capable of bringing good luck to the house, helping in a successful hunt, and winning the favor of a woman. Amulets made from the genitals are in particular demand. They are believed to cure all diseases. Even bones are used, which are ground, and then mixed with various herbs, used in the form of decoctions. This supposedly gives them a special mystical power.
The dismembered organs of albinos are sold for big money to buyers in Congo, Burundi, Kenya and Uganda. An albino hand costs 2 million Tanzanian shillings (1.2 thousand dollars). In poor countries this is a lot of money! Having killed one such victim, the hunter can exist comfortably for a couple of years.
Recently, more than 50 people have been killed in Tanzania for the sake of profit, including men, women and even children. Five-year-old albino Mariam Emmanuel was killed and dismembered in the home of her 76-year-old grandfather in February 2008. Relatives collected what was left and buried it right in the hut. They were afraid that hunters for albino bodies might even steal her bones. Indeed, after the funeral, the killers raided the house a couple of times, but Mabula’s grandfather guards his granddaughter’s bones around the clock.
It happens that relatives of the victim participate in the murder. Thus, seven-month-old Salma was killed by her relatives. They ordered the girl's mother to dress her daughter in black clothes and leave her alone in the hut. The trusting woman did everything they wanted, but decided to hide and see what would happen next. A few hours later, unknown men entered the hut. They used a machete to cut off the girl's legs. Then they cut her throat, drained the blood into a vessel and drank it. The mother could do nothing to help the child.
In early November 2008, the Daily News reported on a fisherman from Lake Tanganyika who tried to sell his albino wife for $2,000 to Congolese businessmen. One guy was caught with the head of a child. He told the police that the shaman promised to pay him for the goods by weight.
Bloodthirsty savages from Burundi broke into the widow's clay hut. They grabbed her six-year-old albino son and dragged him outside. In front of his screaming mother, they shot the boy and dismembered his body. They took away what they thought was the most valuable thing: tongue, penis, arms and legs. Then they threw the mutilated corpse of the child at the feet of the mother and disappeared. None of the local residents of the village came to the rescue, since almost all of the tribesmen believed that the unfortunate woman was cursed because she gave birth to an albino child.
In the past, midwives killed such children; now they are destroyed by hunters for profit. There is also a belief that a woman became pregnant from a spirit; even albinos themselves believe in this. This is what one of them said: “I am not part of the human world. I am part of the spirit world." According to another version, the parents had sex with each other during the period when the woman was menstruating or there was a full moon, or it happened in broad daylight. In general, they violated the prohibitions of society, and so they were cursed.
In Tanzania, near Lake Tanganyika, a public school for the disabled was established, which began to accept albino children. These schools are carefully guarded by local army soldiers. But cases have become more frequent when soldiers collude with criminals, and even in this school children do not feel at least somewhat safe. True, they do not go beyond the boundaries of their classes and dormitories.
Sometimes there are trials of murderers. For example, in May 2009, a trial of 11 Burundians took place. They were accused of killing albino blacks whose limbs were sold to healers from neighboring Tanzania. Parts of the human body appeared as physical evidence: a femur, flayed skin. The defendants were given between one year and life in prison, but albino killers usually go unpunished.
East Africa and especially Tanzania is an area with an abnormally high proportion of albinos - it is 15 times higher than the world average. Albino blacks are the most vulnerable part of local society - they are hunted, chopped into pieces and eaten as medicine. The West saves them in special boarding schools.
On average, there is 1 albino per 20 thousand people worldwide. In Tanzania the ratio is 1:1400, in Kenya and Burundi it is 1:5000. Scientists still cannot clearly explain why in these areas the percentage of albinos is so high. It is known that both parents must have the gene for this deviation in order for their child to be born “transparent.” In Tanzania, albinos are considered the most outcast part of society, and they are forced to marry among themselves. Perhaps this is the main reason for the abnormally high percentage of such people in these territories.
The high number of albinos is “regulated” by consumer consumption – in the literal sense! – the attitude of “classic blacks” towards them. For at least five centuries, there has been a belief that albino flesh is medicinal, and a real hunt is organized for them. Since 2006, at least 71 albinos have died in Tanzania, and 31 managed to escape from the clutches of hunters. You can understand the passion of the hunters: albino flesh, if you sell it to healers and sorcerers in parts - tongue, eyes, limbs, etc. – costs 50-100 thousand dollars. This is what an average Tanzanian earns over 25-50 years.
The demand for albinos increased sharply with the spread of AIDS in Tanzania. There was a belief that eating dried genitals would get rid of this disease.
Until recently, hunting for albinos was almost not punished - the system of mutual responsibility of the local society led to the fact that the community basically declared them “missing”. But Western public opinion, outraged by the brutal practices in Tanzania, forced local authorities to reluctantly begin searching for and punishing the cannibals.
In 2009, the first trial of the killers of an albino took place in Tanzania. Three men caught a 14-year-old albino, killed him and cut him into small pieces to sell to sorcerers. The court sentenced the villains to death by hanging.
But this incident made the cannibals more inventive - they switched from killing albinos to cutting off their limbs. Even if the criminal is caught, they will be able to avoid the death penalty, and will receive only 5-8 years for grievous bodily harm.
Over the past three years, at least 90 albinos had their arms or legs cut off, and three died as a result of such “operations.”
98% of albinos in Tanzania do not live to see 40 years of age. But this is not only due to their killing (for the sake of eating). Their skin and eyes are especially susceptible to ultraviolet radiation, and therefore by the age of 16-18, albinos lose 60-80% of their vision, and by the age of 30 they have a 60% chance of developing skin cancer.
It is not difficult to save your health - you need to constantly use sunscreen and wear sunglasses. But in impoverished Tanzania, people do not have money for all this.
Albinos have one hope for salvation - the attention of the West. And he helps them survive. Medicines for albinos are being supplied to Tanzania and other countries of East Africa, and most importantly, special boarding schools are being built for them with Western money, where albinos live behind high walls and guards in isolation from the surrounding terrible reality.
This island has a lot of spices, great travelers, slaves and slave traders and I want to meet the ghost people who are on Zanzibar hiding from hunters behind their heads, arms, legs and even hair.
Albinos Hassan and Aisha together with their peers
Zanzibar- a calm island, there are no pirates here for a long time, neither are there slaves. It has even become a haven for “transparent people.” It’s hard to believe that in the 21st century, when we are about to explore Mars, in Tanzania “ju-ju” amulets made ... from people, or more precisely, albino people, are still highly valued. They are being secretly hunted in Tanzania! If you weave albino hair into fishing nets, you will catch more fish. If you bury the bones of an albino in a mine, they will turn into precious stones. If you have sex with an albino woman or eat dried albino genitals, you can be cured of AIDS, and the blood you drink will defeat cancer, and so on... The list of atrocities is overwhelming!
It seems that all this is the plot of a thriller! That’s right, on the mainland Tanzanian albinos live like in a horror film. They can be killed or maimed at any moment; an arm or leg can easily be cut off in broad daylight. You can't even trust your relatives!
Zanzibar albino Hassan Moshin shared this terrible information with us. He is 52 years old, he is a school teacher, teaching English and history. In Zanzibar he feels safe, perhaps because here 95% of the population professes Islam, and there are practically no various shamans, sorcerers, or healers. But on the mainland, the body, organs and limbs of an albino are a profitable business. It is known what a wealthy person is ready to do in the face of the threat of an incurable disease.
Suppliers of miracle drugs are easy to find. The average income of Tanzanians is 900-1000 US dollars per year. And for a living or dead albino you can get from 5 to 50,000 dollars! Human “ju-ju” amulets are of interest to fishermen from Lake Victoria, where catches have declined greatly in recent years, diamond miners, as well as wealthy urban businessmen. Part of the “product” is generally exported: albino skin is in demand among shamans in West Africa and even in PAR.
Europeans first learned about these unfortunate people from the stories of the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortez in the 16th century. In Mexico, in the palace of Emperor Montezuma, he saw a room for “absolutely white” people who were sacrificed to the gods during solar eclipses. But this is not the 16th century! It has been proven that in very isolated communities where marriages between relatives are accepted, the percentage of albinos can increase sharply.
In fact, there are albinos all over the world; there is one albino for every 20,000 people. But for some reason East Africa, especially in Tanzania there are many more of them! The ratio is 1: 3000, and according to some estimates, out of the 42 million population of Tanzania, there are more than 35,000 albinos, that is, for almost every thousand two hundred Tanzanians there is one “transparent”.
In the 19th century, such babies born with white skin were usually killed, and the mother was kicked out of the family, believing that she had defiled herself and her kind of connection with a white man. But albinos continued to be born in remote African villages, even where whites had never been seen. Back then, albinos were called “Zeru-Zeru,” which means “ghosts.”
But what is most interesting is that the bloody business on the bodies of albinos appeared in Africa with the advent of civilization. And it is still developing intensively, and the police and officials are being bribed! Even relatives of albinos often participate in this bloody business. There were cases when families themselves sold or killed their “white” children.
One such dad was detained at the border with his own daughter’s head in a bag - a sorcerer from neighboring Burundi promised to pay him according to the actual weight of the goods.
A fisherman from Lake Tanganyika tried to sell his 24-year-old albino wife to two Congolese businessmen for £2,000. It was only thanks to international publicity that in 2009, for the first time, three groups of albino killers were brought to trial and sentenced to death for their atrocities.
Then the merchants, in order to avoid the gallows, began to maim more albinos, cutting off their limbs - arms and legs - right on the streets and in their houses. Women and children suffered especially because they could not defend themselves. Even if the killers were detained, they faced 5 to 8 years in prison for grievous bodily harm. But they say that an albino hand costs $1,500 on the black market in Tanzania! Now many disabled albino people live in boarding schools and say that they were maimed by their own immediate relatives. Living with this in a family is unbearable for them.
They even hide albinos only in secret places so that no one knows about the grave, or fill the grave with cement, because it often happened that looters dug up the deceased after the funeral.
By and large, now only in Zanzibar can Tanzanian albinos feel safe. Here no one despises them, does not offend them, and they are not afraid for their lives. Hassan Moskhin is married: he has five children, and they are all black. His yard is always full of children, they love their school teacher, and he loves them. I ask him: “If the island is such a safe place for albinos, why don’t they move here?”
After all, on the continent, in Tanzania, Albino children are sent to school under police protection. And special schools for albinos have already been created there, more like prisons.
This is a difficult question; poor families have no money.
Here, on Zanzibar, we visited the school where 14-year-old Jamala Juma Gola is studying in the sixth grade. If I didn’t know that she was an albino, I would have thought that she was just a white girl. In the classroom, on the stone floor, among her peers, a girl who looked like a European was sitting. The scarf frames a round face with chubby cheeks.
On his white face there are freckles, a snub nose and a lively look. Children perceive her as an ordinary peer; her friends play with her.
By the way, the school is Zanzibar- this is a separate conversation. No, everything is fine in city schools, but in the suburbs and villages it’s terrible! The children sit on the concrete floor; there are no desks. There are 111 children in Jamala’s class! Boys wipe the floor on one side of the classroom, and girls on the other. And this is not the worst school! Naturally, everyone in the class greeted us vigorously, especially the boys; we took a couple of balls with us as a gift. But not all albino children, even here on the island, go to school. Is it because of poverty, or because of fears and concerns?
We meet the large family of Said Thomond. He has four children, and two of them, brother and sister, are albinos. Said’s family had no idea that we were coming to visit them. Despite the children's clothes, I realized that this family was very poor. But they love all their children.
The little white four-year-old girl's name is Aisha. She was embarrassed by us for a long time, because, probably, for the first time, besides her brother, she saw white people like her.
It’s a pity for Said’s family because his children cannot go to school, he explains this by saying that they are afraid for Hassan, they are afraid that he might be kidnapped, but it’s most likely also a matter of finances. I believe that these children in Zanzibar will remain alive and will be able to escape the horrors that happen to albinos on the continent. I believe that Hassan and Aisha will be fine.
And yet the ice has broken, and Tanzania began to somehow fight for the life and fate of albinos. More than 200 people have been arrested for their involvement in the illegal trade in albino organs. Among them are several police officers who covered up the terrible business.
In addition to executions for murderers, the country introduced a ban on the practice of sorcerers at the state level. If they do not stop their activities, they should be arrested and convicted. And now there is always an albino deputy in the Tanzanian parliament; he receives a deputy mandate from the president.
Its main task is to lobby for various medical and social projects for fellow albino compatriots, as well as to control the courts and law enforcement agencies so that not a single albino hunter escapes punishment.
Well, the once restless island Zanzibar, where from 1830 to 1873 almost 600,000 people were sold by slave traders, now serves as a real fortress for defenseless white Africans - Tanzanian albinos!
East Africa and especially Tanzania is an area with an abnormally high proportion of albinos - it is 15 times higher than the world average. Albino blacks are the most vulnerable part of local society - they are hunted, they are chopped into pieces and eaten as medicine. The West saves them in special boarding schools.
On average, there is 1 albino per 20 thousand people worldwide. In Tanzania the ratio is 1:1400, in Kenya and Burundi it is 1:5000. Scientists still cannot clearly explain why in these areas the percentage of albinos is so high. It is known that both parents must have the gene for this deviation in order for their child to be born “transparent.” In Tanzania, albinos are considered the most outcast part of society, and they are forced to marry among themselves. Perhaps this is the main reason for the abnormally high percentage of such people in these territories.
The high number of albinos is “regulated” by consumer consumption - in the literal sense! - the attitude of “classic blacks” towards them. For at least five centuries, there has been a belief that albino flesh is medicinal, and a real hunt is organized for them. Since 2006, at least 71 albinos have died in Tanzania, and 31 managed to escape from the clutches of hunters. You can understand the passion of the hunters: albino flesh, if you sell it to healers and sorcerers in parts - tongue, eyes, limbs, etc. - costs 50-100 thousand dollars. This is what an average Tanzanian earns over 25-50 years.
The demand for albinos increased sharply with the spread of AIDS in Tanzania. There was a belief that eating dried genitals would get rid of this disease.
Until recently, hunting for albinos was almost not punished - the system of mutual responsibility of the local society led to the fact that the community basically declared them “missing”. But Western public opinion, outraged by the brutal practices in Tanzania, forced local authorities to reluctantly begin searching for and punishing the cannibals.
In 2009, the first trial of the killers of an albino took place in Tanzania. Three men caught a 14-year-old albino, killed him and cut him into small pieces to sell to sorcerers. The court sentenced the villains to death by hanging.
But this incident made the cannibals more inventive - they switched from killing albinos to cutting off their limbs. Even if the criminal is caught, they will be able to avoid the death penalty, and will receive only 5-8 years for grievous bodily harm.
Over the past three years, at least 90 albinos had their arms or legs cut off, and three died as a result of such “operations.”
98% of albinos in Tanzania do not live to see 40 years of age. But this is not only due to their killing (for the sake of eating). Their skin and eyes are especially susceptible to ultraviolet radiation, and therefore by the age of 16-18, albinos lose 60-80% of their vision, and by the age of 30 they have a 60% chance of developing skin cancer.
It is not difficult to save your health - you need to constantly use sunscreen and wear sunglasses. But in impoverished Tanzania, people do not have money for all this.
Albinos have one hope for salvation - the attention of the West. And he helps them survive. Medicines for albinos are being supplied to Tanzania and other countries of East Africa, and most importantly, special boarding schools are being built for them with Western money, where behind high walls and guards albinos live in isolation from the surrounding terrible reality.
