Albinism in Africa
The first time I saw someone with albinism in Africa was in 1988 in a workman’s bar in Kwekwe, a pretty laidback city equidistant from Harare and Bulawayo in Zimbabwe. Starkly furnished with wooden benches and tables and an earthen floor, the bar was busy, with a boisterous crowd of drinkers, mainly young men.
A shy and very self-conscious albino youth was sitting next to me. He was on his own, being ignored by the others in the bar. He looked sad and lonely, perched at the edge of the table. He seemed to be at the edge of this Zimbabwean society too.
Indeed, adults and children that have albinism (a genetic disorder inherited from parents who both carry a faulty gene preventing the skin from making melanin properly) can be socially alienated, discriminated against and stigmatised in sub-Saharan Africa, treated as second-class citizens or ‘half-humans’.
According to the United Nations, since 2006, its Special Rapporteur (or independent expert, the title given to independent human rights experts called upon by the UN to report on human rights from a thematic or country-specific perspective) received information on nearly 800 cases of stigmatisation or discrimination reported across 28 countries, mainly in the Africa region. There are no doubt many more unreported cases.
Albinos in sub-Saharan Africa are often called derogatory terms such as ‘white goats’ or ‘ghosts’. There’s a common belief that a white man impregnated their mother or that they are the ghost of a European colonist. There was a time when they would be killed at birth.
The prevalence of albinism in sub-Saharan Africa is noticeably more common than in most parts of the world, most likely as a result of consanguinity. Around 1 in 4,000 people in Zimbabwe and 1 in 1,450 in Tanzania have it, for example, compared to around 1 in 20,000 in most populations around the globe.
The factors relating to their health are very considerable: they suffer visual impairments as well as extreme vulnerability to skin infections and cancer because of the melanin they lack, the pigment that gives skin its colour and helps to protect it from damage by ultraviolet light from the sun, in their skin, hair and eyes. This results in many of them dying from skin cancer before the age of 40.
They often cannot access medical care, and typically do not have the funds or knowledge required to adequately protect themselves from the sun, by wearing hats, sunglasses, long sleeves and sunscreen. Some parents of albino children are so desperate to ‘darken up’ their children, so they will blend in more easily with the community, that they leave them out in the sun purposefully. It’s a practice that is in stark contrast to that of those sub-Saharan Africans who conversely buy skin-lightening products, which are often illegally manufactured and contain dangerous chemicals.
As well as the health implications, many people with albinism in Africa find it difficult to find work and also often have to deal with both misunderstanding and negative attitudes from their communities - and in parts of East Africa they can live in fear as their hair, nails, organs and limbs are prized by witch doctors because there is a widespread belief that their body parts can bring good luck and great riches.
Victims - often children - can be kidnapped and dismembered by hired killers, and body parts can sell for many thousands of dollars. The UN believes that 75 people with albinism were murdered from 2000-2017 in Tanzania alone. Many albinos are forced to leave home and live in solitude in fear of hunters wanting to sell their body parts to underground witchcraft markets.
Women are often subjected to blame after giving birth to a child with albinism, and may be accused of bringing a curse to the family or of being unfaithful. They are often subsequently rejected by their husbands and abandoned by their communities, leading to poverty and possibly violence and further discrimination.
Furthermore, the AIDS epidemic in Africa triggered a rise in the rape of albino women, fuelled by the belief that if an HIV-positive man slept with an albino woman he would be cured.
In Malawi, according to the UN, more than 130,000 people are albino, and from 2014 to 2019 it is believed that more than 170 of them were attacked or killed. Forty percent of albinos in Malawi are of primary and secondary school age, and many, as elsewhere on the continent, have little access to education because their parents often keep them back from school, fearing for their safety. Those that do attend school often do not get the special needs support they require, being in many cases visually impaired.
Ikponwosa Ero, a lawyer and advocate in the field of international human rights, and UN independent expert on the rights of persons with albinism, has described the situation concerning albinos in Malawi as “an emergency, a crisis disturbing in its proportions.”
Quoted in The Times, she said: “They are an endangered people group facing a risk of systemic extinction over time if nothing is done.”
The plight of albinos in Africa has recently been highlighted by a 2023 Netflix drama, Can You See Us?, based on the life of Zambian John Chiti, who overcame discrimination and family rejection and survived a violent attack to obtain his body parts. Despite the odds he became a famous musician in Zambia. In 2008 he founded the Albinism Foundation of Zambia to support fellow people with the condition.
Thankfully, many albinos in Africa increasingly thrive, and in recent years there have been increasing signs albinism is becoming more accepted on the continent. South African model, activist and lawyer Thando Hopa was the first woman with albinism to appear on the cover of Vogue, and singer-songwriter Salif Keita, member of the Keita royal family in Mali, became an international music star despite being rejected by his family and ostracised by his community because of his albinism.
In 2010 Tanzanian politician Salum Barwany became the first Tanzanian MP with albinism to be elected to parliament, and in 2017 Dr. Abdallah Saleh Possi became Tanzania’s Ambassador to Germany. Zephania Kameeta has been Namibia’s Minister of Poverty Eradication and Social Welfare since 2015, and in 2021 Malawi saw its first MP with albinism to be elected, Overstone Kondowe.
These significant steps can only help in the battle for the prejudice against albinos in Africa to end.
lots of information I didn't previously have, thank you!
I was recently reminded of african albinism in Paris -- there was a young guy chatting lively and happily on the Métro, who didn't at all seem discouraged or disadvantaged (although of course appearances can be misleading...). In contrast, I remember a village on the Caribbean island of Dominica, which seemed to be majority albino. When I saw them, around 20 years ago, folks seemed to be in a ghastly state, with very poor health.