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Albinos en África, en grave peligro (Mayo 2024)
A medida que la campaña para las elecciones generales de Tanzania en octubre de 2015 se intensificó, las personas con albinismo temían que fueran objetivos potenciales para los proveedores de partes del cuerpo humano y para los practicantes tradicionales (adherentes de prácticas basadas en creencias tradicionales) que a veces preparaban las partes del cuerpo de las personas. con albinismo para clientes que creían que podrían ser utilizados en la búsqueda de medios ocultos para obtener éxito, poder y riqueza. En enero, el número de artículos en la prensa tanzana e internacional sobre este tema comenzó a crecer. Varias organizaciones de la sociedad civil dedicadas a la defensa de los derechos de las personas con albinismo sostuvieron que las demandas de partes del cuerpo aumentaron antes y durante las elecciones en países donde la creencia en la brujería es generalizada. Según una encuesta de 2010 del Centro de Investigación Pew, el 93% de los tanzanos creía en la brujería.
El aumento de la violencia.
El caso de Yohana Bahati, un bebé de un año con albinismo, parecía indicar un resurgimiento de la violencia contra las personas en Tanzania con albinismo. El 17 de febrero de 2015, la policía descubrió su cadáver mutilado en una aldea en el distrito de Chato, región de Geita. Todas sus extremidades habían sido cortadas. Dos días antes, una pandilla de hombres había atacado a la madre del bebé con machetes; su madre resultó gravemente herida y su padre fue capturado por los atacantes. El incidente recibió publicidad mundial de organizaciones locales e internacionales de derechos humanos en Tanzania. En Ginebra, el Alto Comisionado de las Naciones Unidas, Zeid Raʾad Al Hussein, condenó esta violencia y otros ataques en la región como "increíblemente viciosos", y señaló que desde octubre de 2014 al menos 15 personas con albinismo habían sido asesinadas, mutiladas o secuestradas en Tanzania, Burundi, y Malawi
Though no other murders of people with albinism had been officially reported in Tanzania in 2015, there were some documented cases of dismemberment and assault. On March 7 the right hand of six-year-old Baraka Cosmas Rusambo was cut off. On May 14 two unidentified men attacked 30-year-old Limi Luchoma, a housewife, and cut off her right arm below the elbow. Other members of the victim’s household were prevented from offering assistance. The attack on the Rusambo boy might have signaled an act of intimidation, because it occurred only two days after the High Court in Geita region had sentenced four people to death for the 2008 murder of Zawadi Magindu, a woman with albinism.
Tanzanian Pres. Jakaya Kikwete acted quickly to denounce such “barbaric cruelty” and to decry the widespread superstition held about people with albinism. At the end of his monthly address in February 2015, he expressed dismay over the renewal of violence against people with albinism, actions that he thought had virtually ended after the government crackdown in 2011 against traditional practitioners. He enumerated the murder cases involving people with albinism during his tenure in office: 7 in 2007, 18 in 2008, 9 in 2009, 1 in 2010, none in 2011, 2 in 2012, and 2 in 2013—a grand total of 39. In December 2014 a four-year-old girl with albinism was kidnapped, and she had not yet been found. Under the Same Sun, the Canadian advocacy group for people with albinism, reported that on the basis of reports from victims’ families and police reports, it had determined that 76 killings had occurred in Tanzania since 2000 but that the first police-documented murder of a person with albinism was in 2006.
Misconceptions About Albinism.
Albinism is an inherited genetic condition that causes a total absence of pigmentation in the skin, the hair, and the eyes. It may be found in both sexes of any ethnic group. According to the U.S. National Institutes of Health, it occurs in one out of 20,000 people in North America and Europe, but it is more common in Africa, especially in East Africa. In Tanzania it occurs in one in 1,400 people. Actual figures on the population of persons with albinism are hard to determine. The Tanzania Albino Society estimated that the number was 150,000, but the National Bureau of Statistics claimed, on the basis of the 2012 census, a much-lower figure of 16,477. However, if the country’s current population is about 48,435,000, then, using the incidence ratio, the number of people with albinism is more likely about 34,600.
There were many widely held views about people with albinism. They were often regarded as ghosts and not humans, or they were perceived as sorcerers, devils, or cursed. Many believed that contact with them resulted in bad luck, sickness, or even death. Conversely, miners used their bones as good luck charms or buried the bones in gold mines to support a successful venture; fishermen wove the hair of persons with albinism into their nets for successful catches. It was believed that sexual intercourse with an albino girl or woman could cure HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Some thought that the sacrifice of a person with albinism could stop a volcano from erupting, generate wealth, or ensure the success of a project or election. Moreover, perpetrators believed that the ritual should be performed while the person is still alive, because the victim’s screams could enhance the power of the ritual. Children are thought to be especially efficacious because of their innocence, although a cynic might note that they are generally easier to find and capture and do not have the physical strength to fight their attackers. Unfortunately, the Nollywood film industry in Nigeria had popularized some of those views with elaborate scenes of rituals associated with wealth generation and warfare.
Body parts were procured and traded for high prices by wealthy men and women with no regard for human rights. In the International Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies’ 2009 report, a Tanzanian police officer claimed that to purchase “a complete set of albino body parts—including all four limbs, genitals, ears, tongue, and nose—[would cost] the equivalent of $75,000.” In 2010 a Tanzanian court sentenced a foreign national for trying to sell a man with albinism for $250,000.
Apart from living in constant fear of attack, people with albinism were marginalized in many other intersecting ways. Children were often abandoned, and in the past they were sometimes killed at birth. Women who gave birth to such children were often repudiated by their husbands and families. Children did not fare well at school, if they were enrolled at all, because they were teased and bullied. Moreover, the condition of albinism often resulted in poor vision and health afflictions that, left unattended, meant a short life expectancy.
Government Efforts.
What could Tanzania do to improve the life and security of people with albinism? Since 2008 a person with albinism has served as a representative in the parliament; the first was Al-Shymaa Kway-Geer, who was appointed in 2008, and the second, Salum Khalfani Barʾwani, was elected in November 2010.
In 2008 the government also cracked down on “witch doctors” alleged to be connected with the deaths of persons with albinism or suspected of activities using the stolen body parts to make potions or amulets. Later President Kikwete announced that 47 such persons had been arrested nationwide. However, the Tanzania Albino Society (now the Tanzania Albinism Society) and other advocacy groups complained that the government had been lax in enforcing those laws or prosecuting the cases against violators. In addition, critics asserted that the government should develop public-awareness campaigns designed to end discrimination and erase the social stigma attached to the condition of albinism as well as establish temporary shelter for persons in danger of physical attack and provide boarding schools for such children.
It was suggested that the international media had sensationalized the violence against people with albinism to a degree that far exceeded the actual number of incidents. Nonetheless, discrimination against people with albinism was a serious issue that policy makers needed to address.
