Albino pride

AlJ has an interesting article about Albino beauty contests in East Africa.

Organized by the Albinism Society of Kenya with partners in Uganda and Tanzania, the contest aims to demystify the condition of people living with albinism and affirm their inherent dignity while challenging myths, misconceptions and negative beliefs around the disorder. The main event was a culmination of auditions held in several countries and a 10-day boot camp where the 30 final participants trained to improve their modeling skills. The contest was aimed at facilitating positive interaction between people with albinism and the society.

Wikipedia article.  describes how they are persecuted and discriminated against in Central Africa. including the recent newspaer reports on the use of body parts of Albinos for ritual healing etc. by shamans.  BBC article.

witchdoctors "diagnose" witchcraft and advise treatment, but one aspect is that some of these people go bad and use human body parts in rituals (hence I use the word Shaman, because murder of anyone means you are a witch, casting a spell, not a witchdoctor).

I ran across a lecture where they said there are 100 thousand Albinos in centra Africa, and many flee to colonies because of prejudice.



When I worked in Liberia, there would be scattered reports about children, usually streetkids, going missing, and one 12 year old escaped and got the police to arrest the guy who was killing street kids for body parts. You put the body parts under the store you are building so that the spirits will give you success.

(even in the west, we frequently put holy medals or memorabelia in the foundations of houses etc. as a blessing, and many places use animal sacrifice for the same reason, e.g. in Santeria etc.).

but I worked in Africa before the HIV epidemic hit, and my friends tell me a lot of men sought witchcraft to cure their disease

(HIV epidemic wiped out much of the middle class in some African countries).

but with the HIV epidemic, a lot of shamans use criminal means to cure the disease, from rape of virgins to killing albinos for medicine.



the BBC article notes that most albinos die before the age of 40, and the photos of the AlJ site suggest why: Skin cancer.

Skin cancer is rarely fatal, but albinos might have dozens of large untreated lesions on their bodies.

Sigh.

When I worked in Zimbabe we had several in our area. One lady had a baby, a beautiful perfect black baby. I was surprised that she found a husband, and asked who would marry her, and was told: Her husband was a blind man.

Apparantly , he lost his sight in a mining accident and had a pension.

They seemed quite happy.


related article: Albino village in Indonesia.