A few years ago I watched a documentary about child abuse in Nigeria, and how witchdoctors and evangelical pastors over there are reaping the benefits of money and fame in exchange for spreading the vile rhetoric that if your baby cries in the night or if somebody in the family dies or loses a job shortly after you give birth to your child, than your child is a witch and the evil must be beaten out of it.
It shocked me because, prior to that I'd never suspected that in this day and age people actually believed in witchcraft, especially to the extent where they would harm their own child over it. However, sadly the documentary that I watched tonight didn't shock me, and that in itself disgusted me more than the actual subject matter of the show.
'The Albino Witchcraft Murders' focused on a growing phenomenon in Tanzania, whereby people with albinism are murdered or maimed for their body parts, which are believed to transmit magical powers. Witchdoctors all over the country are telling heavily superstitious, poverty stricken people that all their problems will go away if they can get hold of the limbs of an albino. Hair, arms, legs, skin, eyes, genitals and blood are used in rituals or for witch potions. Fishermen are told that if they incorporate albino hair into their fishing nets, then they will catch more fish than usual, or will find gold in the belly of their fish.
Flip the coin the other way and you still find albinos being persecuted for being born with albinism. Those that don't believe their limbs are sacred and the key to monetary success believe that to be struck with albinism is a sign of the devil or 'white demons' and that to prevent the spread of evil, albinos must be killed. As a consequence of both these beliefs, albino life is not valued anywhere near as much as the lives of the other members of society, if at all. The poor fishermen struggling to make a living believe that they have no choice but to kill in order to better their own lives and to be in with a chance of driving the fancy cars that they see the witch doctors driving, thus not thinking about the fact that they are murdering a human being who is the same as them in every way apart from the colour of their skin and the people on the opposite end of the scale believe that they are doing society a favour by ridding their country of satan and his minions.
Those who are not murdered, the "lucky ones" are cut to pieces and left without limbs. They might lose an arm or a hand in a brutal attack. A girl who remains unnamed on the documentary says 'they held my arm out and cut it off, then went to get kerosene from my brother's shop. They told my mother to pour it on me.While she did that, the others beat up my brother.' When asked if she thinks she will ever return to her village again, the girl replies 'No because if I go back they'll come and slaughter me.' She does not cry when she says this. Her voice does not falter. Even though she is just a child, she has accepted the beliefs of the people of her village. Though she does not agree with them, she has accepted that this is the way life is for her and so she must remain locked away at a special school for albinos, away from home, from her family.
Further atrocities include albino girls being raped due to the belief that having relations with a girl with albinism will cure AIDS. Around 1.4 million people among a population of 40.7 million people living in Tanzania have the AIDS virus, a virus which was spreading quickly enough even without this new misguided belief that sleeping with an albino girl will rid you of the disease. Ernest Kimaya, head of the Tanzanian Albino Society, said that there is a huge social stigma attached to reporting being raped and so it is difficult to know just how many people have been made rape victims as a result of this belief.
So why, in 2012 do these terrible crimes occur? I am no sociologist, but upon watching the documentary and listening to people speak to casually about such events, laughing and joking about the killings, it became clear to me that many of the people in the communities where the killings occur believe that:
a) If a knowledgeable man tells you that all your dreams will come true if you kill somebody for him, there is no reason why you should not do it. The effect of killing somebody on your conscience can be dealt with: poverty cannot.
b) People with white skin are cursed/their body parts have magical properties. These superstitions are held in high regard and the people of the communities really take heed of what witchdoctors and evangelical pastors tell them with regards to what to believe in and how to conduct your life. Religious beliefs are seen as fact and so if you truly believe that somebody is possessed by the devil, killing that person would not be seen as a sin by you or anybody else who shares the same beliefs.
c) The people who witness the crimes but do not share the same beliefs as the killers still seem to empathise with them, saying 'It's strange for a white child to be born to a black man. That's why they call you a curse.' Obviously, in our Westernised world, with everything media saturated and technologically advanced to the highest level, we understand albinism. We understand that it is a condition in which people's skin lacks melanin and the protection it affords against the sun, causing a partial or complete lack of pigment in the hair, skin and eyes. Only a child would look at a albino person from a black family and think it strange. Josephat Torner, a man with albinism who has dedicated his life to raising awareness and improving the living conditions of people suffering, says 'There's only one thing in life that's helped me. Only one thing. Education.'
See, living in poverty, combined with high levels of superstition and a lack of basic education makes events like the slaughtering of hundreds of innocent albinos seem, dare I say it, understandable. Who are we to say that we would be doing any different if we were in the killers' shoes? How can we know for certain that if we had a choice of killing a stranger or letting our families go hungry we would not do it? We can't. The people of Tanzania cannot have been born evil, or born killers. Their morals and prejudices have been shaped by a society that is severely lacking in its treatment of the citizens within it.
The first ever conviction for the killing of an albino occurred in 2009. Despite albinos having been murdered for years before that, it was nevertheless a step in the right direction for Tanzania. The three men held responsible for the death of 14-year-old Matatizo Dunia were sentenced to death by hanging, but if Tanzania is to truly move forward, it must take into account that merely punishing men after they become killers will not stop the problem. Education is the key.
Hopefully, with the awareness of charities such as The Tanzania Albino Society, communities can begin to learn the error of their ways and Tanzania can move forward. In recent years, albino children have been sent to special schools guarded by police where they can pursue an education in safety, and adults from certain villages have to live in walled camps away from the rest of society. While institutions like this have no doubt prevented huge numbers of unnecessary deaths, people shouldn't have to be locked away and hidden from the world. These people are not criminals. They should not have to live in prisons. Torner says 'I do not know what our future will be like. Will we be a segregated and forgotten society?' and gestures to toddlers saying 'They are growing up without knowing their parents.'
Hopefully the actions of the charities, documentaries such as this one and Torner's efforts to raise awareness, such as a climb up Mount Kilimanjaro in an attempt to prove that people with albinism are just as strong and just as human as everybody else, the people of Tanzania will begin to see things differently and change their ways. While Tanzania has a long way to go, things seem to be moving in the right direction.
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