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.
Scientists are reporting that a new species of giant elephant shrew, or sengi, has been discovered in Tanzania and dubbed Rhynochocyon udzungwensis. The animal measures twelve inches in length and looks like a “cross between a miniature antelope and a small anteater”.
The mammal has a grey face with a long, flexible snout. Its body is amber colored and it has a black rump which, apparently, is a major differentiator among elephant shrews, -which, in fact, are not actually shrews- some having “bright golden” rumps or checker patterns.
It was this that caused Dr. Galen Rathbun to suspect that he had a new species on his hands. “This is one of the most exciting discoveries of my career,” said Dr. Rathbun, seen here gleefully grasping one of the aforementioned mammals shortly before launching into a slightly reworked version of Sir Mix-A-Lot’s “Baby Got Back”, much to the chagrin of his employees and collegues.
A crowning achievement in anti-drug hysteria, jenkem has now been cited by various news outlets and law enforcement agencies as the new teen drug of choice. Jenkem, for those not “in the know”, is made by placing raw sewage into a still made from a plastic bottle capped with a balloon. The mixture is then left to ferment in the sun and the user then huffs the gas produced and captured in the balloon. The high is supposed to be of the hallucinogenic variety and many times more powerful then cannabis. Continue Reading…
“A former parliamentarian in the Camerounian Assembly, Bouba Abdoulaye had to leave everything and renounce modern life in order to succeed his father. His great-grand father, Bouba Ndjidda came from Mali in 1799, with his Fulani warriors, and decided to settle on the borders of Adamawa, at the edge of the Mayo-Rey river. He placed a white flag, a silver drum, a sword and a basket containing the royal secrets, and built a palace with a surrounding wall that was 800 meters long and seven meters high.
Today these walls shelter one of the most traditional sovereigns of Africa. He exercises an invisible and permanent power. He is only allowed to go out three times during the year. The Baba is the center of the world and the kingdom. He knows everything, and has to know everything. Hundreds of agents keep him informed of all the movements and acts in his kingdom.”
Deep within the confines of western Zimbabwe can be found the Vadoma tribe, who are also called the “ostrich people”. This is because of a genetic condition called ectrodactyly, which effects one in four of the children within this population. Ectrodactyly is also known as “lobster claw syndrome” and can effect both the hands and feet. In the case of the Vadoma the middle three toes are absent and the two outer ones are turned in.
Ectrodactyly is a dominantly inherited genetic mutation and there are some who theorize that such mutations are usually passed on if they prove beneficial, leading to the hypothesis that their feet may aid in tree climbing. However, more likely is that the defect remains prevalent because of rampant inbreeding. It is against tribal law for members to marry outside the tribe.
I assume that I am not the only person aquiver with the anticipation of this being co-opted as an “extreme” body modification?
A typically gorgeous post from BibliOdyssey looking at the plates from an 18th century folio on the Surinam Slave Trade by Capt. John Gabriel Stedman.
The picture on the extreme left is called “Europe Supported By Africa And America.”
Going now to take my leave of Surinam, after all the horrors and cruelties with which I must have hurt both the eye and the heart of the reader, I will close with an emblematical picture of Europe supported by Africa and America, accompanied by an ardent wish that the friendly manner as they are represented, they may henceforth and to all eternity be the props of each other… We only differ in colour, but are certainly all created by the same hand.
The restaurant provided with water brought from the well in plastic containers serves it to its customers in such jugs, also, like most of plastic goods, coming from China. Adrar des Iforas , Kidal, Tuareg capital of Mali. / www.nygus.info
In sheer defiance of the World Wide Web Consortium's will, Ectomo was designed using a non-web-standard font. Luckily, it is included in the excellent font pack released by the H.P. Lovecraft Historical Society, which can be freely downloaded in Mac and PC formats here. Ectomo should still look fine without it, though.
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:
