Posted: Fri 25 Jul 2008 12:38 Post subject: Murders of albinos in Tanzania
fwsweet wrote:
This thread has moved far away from discussing neandertals. Let's try to return to the topic, folks.
Getting back on track: Albino killling in Tanzania!
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[Since this message has nothing to do with neandertals, I have moved it from the "Molecular Anthropology and Genetics" forum to here. -- FWS]
Killing Albinos in Africa
June 20, 2008 by tinyfrog
This is a rather sad story: people have killed albinos in Tanzania because they believe albinos are the result of a curse, and that their bodies have magical properties. In the past, I’ve heard of magical thinking being the basis for killing all kinds of wild animals (gorillas, rhinos, and other endangered animals) based on a belief that their body parts can be used in magical potions, but never human beings. How frightening it must be for albinos.
[BBC] Tanzania’s Albino Society has accused the government of turning a blind eye to the killing of albinos, after four deaths in the past three months.
An albino spokesman said there was a belief that the condition was the result of a curse put on the family.
Some witch-doctors also say they can use albino body parts in a potion to make people rich.
A teacher in the northern town of Arusha has been arrested for killing his own child, who was albino.
(Full story available here / December 2007)
According to a more recent story (April 2008), the government has begun doing a crackdown on attacks against Albinos, but the numbers aren’t comforting:
Twenty people with albinism have been murdered in the past year in Tanzania, where there is a widespread belief that the condition is the result of a curse.
…
Our correspondent says that in some parts of the country, people think albinos bring bad luck to the whole community.
While there have not yet been any prosecutions regarding the recent spate of murders, 172 were last month arrested in connection to the cases - 71 of whom said they had been told by witch doctors to bring them albino body parts.
And, as if that wasn’t bad enough, in Zimbabwe, albinos have other problems fueled by superstition - the threat of rape by HIV-infected men:
But now, besides being treated like lepers, albino women have increasingly been the victims of rape - a practice fuelled by myths that if an HIV infected man sleeps with an albino woman, he will be cured.
This is rich! To me it seemed like some of my postings were swallowed up by a big bad wolf.
But now I discover they gave rise to separate threads.
This is good and bad because I saw posting a collection of Albino’s in the Neanderthal thread as enrichment, not confusion. By looking at related topics we can get easier to the heart of the matter. This is how my brain operates: I might be cooking or scratching the earth in my garden and solve some complicated question. So seldom by just sitting down and saying I will find an answer.
I remember a writer stated that White's were descendents from Albino's, and that the hatred from White's against Blacks stems from when they were driven out by the Blacks. The killing of Albino's in Africa, the flaying of their skins and selling of their body parts evokes this old story.
Then again there is this story about Europeans using human leather to bind books. Perhaps, the coloured European elite were using their White subjects for leather?
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