Albinos in Tanzania ‘hunted’ for their ‘magical’ flesh

Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Zawia Kassim, 12, lives at the Kabanga Protectorate Center. Many parents send their albino children to boarding schools for protection.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Angel Salvatory, 17, who has skin cancer, poses with her half-brother Ezekiel, 1, and mother Bestida. Skin cancer is responsible for the death of about 98 percent of albinos in Tanzania, NPR reported. Most die before they turn forty.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Salvatory's maternal grandparents were killed protecting her from an attack led by her own father. She is interested in becoming a journalist.
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Eumen Ezekiel, 13, hopes to become a member of Parliament to defend others living with albinism. He hasn't seen his mother in the four years he has lived at the Kabanga Protectorate Center. "I wish to go home, even for one day," says Ezekiel, "one day would be enough for me."
Jacquelyn Martin/AP
Helen Sekalima, 40, holds her two-month-old baby Jessica at the Kabanga Protectorate Center in Kabanga, Tanzania in August. Of Helen's nine children, three have albinism. "The people in the village said that the children are not normal people, that they are like devils," she said.

PUBLISHED: December 5, 2012 at 6:58 p.m. | UPDATED: January 10, 2019 at 12:29 p.m.

Albinos in Tanzania face a lifetime of hardship due to widespread, deep-rooted superstition regarding the skin condition.

Those with the disorder, caused by a defect in melanin production, are targeted for their flesh, which is believed to have magical powers in the impoverished East African country, population 43 million.

“When you bring [a witch doctor] a body part, such as an arm, a leg or a finger, the witch doctor will make a potion with it,” Isaac Timothy, an albino activist in the town of Geita, told NPR.

“A miner will pour it in the ground where he wants to find minerals or a fisherman will pour it in his canoe.”

Helen Sekalima, 40, holds her two-month-old baby Jessica at the Kabanga Protectorate Center in Kabanga, Tanzania in August. Of Helen’s nine children, three have albinism. “The people in the village said that the children are not normal people, that they are like devils,” she said.

Over 100 albinos have suffered brutal attacks because of their skin since 2006, including 71 who were killed, NPR reported.

“I worry about my safety,” Godfred Tarima, an albino shopkeeper in a town near Mount Kilimanjaro, told the media outlet.

10,000 AFRICAN ALBINOS IN FEAR OF LIVES AFTER SPATE OF KILLINGS SPURRED BY ‘MAGICAL’ BODIES BELIEF

Tarima said albinos are so sought after that he often hears people joke, “There goes a deal, there goes something valuable,” when he goes out in public.

Some will pay anywhere from $500 to $2,000 for the limb of albino, ABC News reported. Per capita income in Tanzania in 2010 was $442 per year.

Zawia Kassim, 12, lives at the Kabanga Protectorate Center. Many parents send their albino children to boarding schools for protection.

For a country that stigmatizes albinism, Tanzania has one of the highest rates of the disorder. About 1 in every 1,400 people in Tanzania exhibits the condition, as compared to 1 in 20,000 worldwide, according to NPR.

Researchers suggest the predominance of albinism can be attributed to two reasons.

First, East Africa is thought to be the origin of the genetic mutation that leads to the condition.

Second, albinos also tend to marry other albinos, which boosts the probability that their children will be albino.

Yet despite their prevalence, albinos are still hunted – and if they do not face vicious attack, they struggle with rampant prejudice.

In 2008, Mariamu Staford, then five months pregnant, was attacked by a group of machete-wielding men in her sleep. The group began cutting off her arms to sell on the black market.

Angel Salvatory, 17, who has skin cancer, poses with her half-brother Ezekiel, 1, and mother Bestida. Skin cancer is responsible for the death of about 98 percent of albinos in Tanzania, NPR reported. Most die before they turn forty.

“In the middle of the night, a group of men stormed in and said, ‘We are going to cut your arm off, and if you scream we’ll cut the other arm off,'” the albino single mother told ABC News in 2010.

“And then they started to chop my right arm off. And because I was screaming, they also started to do the same with the other.”

Staford lost both of her arms and her unborn child in the attack.

Murders of albinos have recently been on the decline, partly in thanks to the attention they are receiving through documentaries like Spell of the Albino, by Claudio von Planta, and the government’s demands to stop the practice.

Salvatory's maternal grandparents were killed protecting her from an attack led by her own father. She is interested in becoming a journalist. — Salvatory’s maternal grandparents were killed protecting her from an attack led by her own father. She is interested in becoming a journalist.

However, it will be a long time before the superstition surrounding albinos is completely eradicated, Vicky Ntetema, Tanzania executive director of Under the Same Sun, a group working to help those with albinism based in Vancouver, Canada, told NPR.

“It’s going to be very, very difficult for every Tanzanian all of a sudden to forget about the myths and then believe that persons with albinism are human beings,” she said.

croberts@nydailynews.com