Tanzanian Albinos Hunted For Body Parts

The New York Times has a horrifying article up about albinos in Tanzania. Long feared and discriminated against in Tanzanian culture, they are now being hunted, and their body parts harvested, by people who believe them to contain magical properties, including the ability to make one wealthy. Tanzania’s president has recently tried to reform the attitudes of his citizens towards albinos, even going so far as to sponsor an albino parliamentarian — Al-Shaymaa J. Kwegyir. This recent spate of killings, now numbering 19 — some of which are children — has forced police officials to draw up lists of albinos in their precincts in an effort to better protect them; some have even taken to escorting albino children to school. The effectiveness of these measures has yet to be felt:

But the killings go on. They have even spread to neighboring Kenya, where an albino woman was hacked to death in late May, with her eyes, tongue and breasts gouged out. Advocates for albinos have also said that witch doctors are selling albino skin in Congo.

The young are often the targets. In early May, Vumilia Makoye, 17, was eating dinner with her family in their hut in western Tanzania when two men showed up with long knives.

[…]

When Vumilia’s mother, Jeme, saw the men with knives, she tried to barricade the door of their hut. But the men overpowered her and burst in.

“They cut my daughter quickly,” she said, making hacking motions with her hands.

The men sawed off Vumilia’s legs above the knee and ran away with the stumps.

Officials theorize that Nigerian movies, with their emphasis on witchcraft, to skyrocketing food prices for the increasing black market demand for albino body parts.

Albinos, Long Shunned, Face Threat in Tanzania [The New York Times]