THE KILLINGS OF ALBINO IN TANZANIA

As Warren Baffet and Billy Gates work hard to maintain their billionaire status in the world, back home in Tanzania, some greedy, heartless gold miners and fishermen in the Lake Victoria zone are trading in the body parts of albinos, which are controversially reported to enable them catch more fish and strike the precious stones more easily and in huge quantities. It is the appalling truth that proves how our nation is slowly turning into a ``garden of evils`` as lust for quick wealth, drives some Tanzanians into murdering the rare albinos, who, in addition to the suffering occasioned by skin disorder, are now living in perpetual fear of being kidnapped and murdered.

The section of the Lake Victoria Zone that embraces Mwanza and Shinyanga regions ? informally known as Sukumaland --used to be notorious for the brutal killings of elderly women suspected to be witches. The wind has changed dramatically as unscrupulous traders are targeting albinos whose body parts are reported to be catalysts for boosting business and generating wealth.

Dozens of albinos have lost their lives, over the one year period of frenzied activities by treasure hunters, including fishermen and miners, who are told by witchdoctors that, respectively, catches from fishing grounds will increase and precious stones will be struck fast and in large quantities. The hunters start off as hunters of albinos as a preamble to being treasure hunters, because per the superstition experts, wealth can be created only after parts of the bodies of the ``prey`` have been obtained and processed. Scientists recently reported a sharp decline of the Nile perch population in Lake Victoria, casting the livelihood of about 300,000 fishermen into jeopardy. Witchdoctors are cashing in on the situation, by selling the albino boy parts idea, which defies scientific logic. ``I know one of my friends who has claimed increased catches after fixing albino`s hairs in his gillnets?This is a total lie, but some people believe it.`` James Mkama, a fisherman at Kayenze beach in Mwanza, told me recently. Some small-scale miners are caught up in the controversial web, by believing that ?to get more ounces of gold? the blood of albino has to be shed. Working with outdated technology and little capital, small scale miners have been facing a bleak future, forcing them to turn to the witchdoctors as their major consultants on how to improve their businesses. For the witchdoctors the solution is very simple and clear: ``bring the parts of an albino`s body and I will make you mine more gold``. ``It is very difficult to separate witchcraft from artisan mining?some miners believe that when you bury parts of an albino`s body at your site, the next step is to hit the gold reef,`` Hussein Mabari, a small scale miner from Mugusu in Geita town told me. This is what is fuelling the massive killings of albinos in Lake zone regions which host a huge amount of gold reserves and fish stocks. The genesis of evil Whether measured by the total number of people killed or the impact on the society, the killings of albinos fuelled mainly by the lust to get rich, is a fresh threat facing not only the rare creatures but the government as well. For years, the biggest enemy of albinos has been the sunrays, but this time around, there`s a new danger in the spate of the witchcraft killings that continue unabated in Tanzania, despite several government`s condemnations. In November last year, Rebecca Machungwa, a 10 year old, together with her mother Kado Manyibuluba (54) and her elder pregnant sister, Monica Charles (18), were brutally lynched by the unknown killers believed to be trading on albinos` organs. Some reports say that albino body organs, are in high demand by unscrupulous business people involved in mining and fishing activities in the Lake Victoria Zone, which host the world`s second largest fresh water lake. Rebecca, an albino, who had not been registered in school, fearing for her life, is among dozens of victims killed during the past ten months since the killings broke out in Bunda District. The young are often targeted. In early May this year a 17-year-old Vumilia Makoye was eating dinner with her family in their hut in Ilungu village Magu district when two men burst in, wielding long knives. Vumilia was like many other Africans with albinism. She had dropped out of school because of severe near-sightedness; a common problem for albinos, whose eyes develop abnormally and who often have to hold a book two inches from their faces to see it. She could not find a job because no one would hire her. She sold peanuts in the market, making 1,2000/- a week while the sun seared her delicate skin. When Vumilia\'s mother Jeme saw the armed men, she tried to lock the door unsuccessfully, but the killers overpowered her. ``They cut my daughter quickly,`` she says, making hacking motions with her hands. The killers sawed off Vumilia`s legs above the knee and ran away with them. The teenager died. Yusuph Malogo, who lives nearby, fears he may be next. He is also an albino and works alone on a rice farm some four kilometers away from the village. He now carries a whistle to blow for help in the event of sensing danger. ``I`m on the run,`` he says. He is 26, but his skin is thick and leathery from sun damage, making him look 20 years older. Indeed, the spate of killings targeting albinos has not even spared the totally innocent, as the latest victim of these grisly murders was a seven-month-old baby, who was mutilated on the orders of a witchdoctor in Shinyanga Region recently. Alarmed by the killings, early this year President Jakaya Kikwete vowed to tame the brutal killings, ordering the law enforcers to take stern actions to protect all albinos in the country. However, despite vowing to arrest the situation, albinos have continued to pay the price. The killings have even spread to neighboring Kenya , where an albino woman was hacked to death in May this year, her eyes, tongue and breasts chopped out. Incidences of witch doctors selling albino skin in the Democratic Republic of Congo have also been reported. Just last week, a Tanzanian trader was arrested by the police in DRC after he was found with a human skull believed to be of an albino. For decades albinos have faced racial discrimination, but today they are confronted by the deadly danger ever experienced in the history of this nation. Many people in Tanzania and across Africa believe albinos have magical powers. They stand out, often the lone white face in a black crowd, a result of a genetic condition that impairs normal skin pigmentation and affects about one in 3,000 people here ? about seven times as many as in Europe and the USA. Government officials say witch doctors are marketing albino skin, bones and hair as ingredients in potions that promise to make people rich; mostly fishermen and miners. As the threats have increased, the government has acted to protect its albino population a beleaguered group whose members are often shunned as outcasts and die of skin cancer before they reach 30. In most cases, the body parts of albinos are then removed from corpses and sold because people believe they are good luck charms which can make them rich. But there have been gruesome reports of body parts being hacked from albinos before they have died. This concept is an evil of its own, precisely because the attainment of materialistic possessions and positions of power in our society appears to override even the sanctity of life, as people go to great lengths to consult spirits, soothsayers, sorcerers and what have you to give them the secret key to instant wealth! Scores of albinos in Mwanza, Shinyanga and Mbeya regions have been brutally murdered in cold blood by unknown people who are inspired by witchcraft beliefs. The victims had parts of their bodies chopped. Woe unto you if you are an albino in this poor East Africa nation of 39 million people. The government says 26 have been murdered since March, 2007, but activists claim the figure could be as high as 60, in a country where more than 160,000 are said to suffer the genetic condition in which the person lacks pigmentation in the eyes, skin and hair. This practice is mushrooming within our society with approximately 15,000 witchdoctors (Mwanza Region alone) at a time when the rest of the world is busy accommodating itself into the new era of science and technology is a shocking testimony of our inherent brutality. The police say the albino killings are worse in rural areas, where people tend to be less educated and so superstitious that some fishermen even weave albino hairs into their nets because they believe they will catch more fish, also suspecting that this is the dastardly work of organised gangs. On the shores of Lake Victoria, albinos are touchy subject. When asked if they use albino hairs in their nets, a group of fishermen just stared at the sand. One traditional healer, a young man in a red shirt who looks more like a student than a witch doctor, says, ``Yeah, I`ve heard of it. But that`s not real witchcraft. It\'s the work of conmen.`` Following the way they handle the situation, it?s obvious that police are at a loss to explain precisely why there is a wave of albino killings now. One community policing head in Mwanza region says an influx of Nigerian films, which play up witchcraft, might have something to do with it, along with rising food prices, which are making people more desperate. ``These witch doctors have many strange beliefs,`` he says. ``There`s a rumour that if you sprinkle blood on the ground in a mine pit, you\'ll find gold... the problem is, the people who follow witchdoctors blindly.`` I and my colleague launched a thorough investigation on the killings posing as ``clients`` with mining and fishing interests seeking to get rich quick, visited a prominent witchdoctors at dusk and were told that albino body parts could be obtained without difficulty, for a price of Tsh. 2.5 million! Although witchcraft is an unpalatable reality that we all have to contend with in Tanzanian society, evidence suggests that witchcraft beliefs are causing the murder of albinos in a gruesome campaign to supposedly enable the adherents to come into lots of money. Many witchdoctors interviewed recently in Lake zone openly agreed that they use human body parts to make good luck charms that can make them rich and insisting that the albino parts are the best though they also use private parts of both male and female. Gone are the days when albinos` biggest enemy used to be the sun. Today, a deadlier threat looms and threatens to wipe all albinos off the face of the Tanzania`s part of the earth if effective measures are not taken to stamp out the scarring, evil practice.