Albino Children: Superstitions in Africa

Being an albino child in Africa is like carrying a permanent tombstone on your shoulders. When they are born, they are usually, in many cases repudiated, in others sold to those who kill them and trade their remains. In others, the worst, they are bred like dogs until they grow up and at an early age they are killed and dismembered to sell everything from their hair to their genitals as aphrodisiacs. Albino children in Africa are worth their weight in gold.

When Europe talks about evolution, about the Agenda 2030, about values, we forget the treatment that millions of people around the world receive. Women are removed from academic training, subjected to humiliating marriages, and hidden behind clothes more typical of the Middle Ages than of the twenty-first century. We Europeans and Americans feel obliged to protest, inventing non-existent genocides or we entertain ourselves by consolidating beliefs that keep us from approaching the darkness that reigns in the chaos of black Africa. We package food and let others do the dirty work for us. As the poet would say: let others speak of the government of the world and its monarchies, while butter and soft bread govern my days. But there are issues that cannot be ignored and that of the albino (cursed) children of Africa is one of them.

When an albino child is born, he has to be accepted by the family. If not, their life will be very short. This acceptance is the only way they have to survive. In areas such as Sierra Leone and surrounding countries where magical beliefs and superstition prevail, recognition by the family means that both the child and his or her environment are considered plagued. He is not repudiated, but he is singled out.

The zeru or invisible as they are called in  the Swahili language, are usually strangled at birth, and are even buried far from the village in order for their remains to rest in peace. Their graves are not marked so that they are not desecrated and the family forgets them. There is a widespread belief among many African peoples that they are jinxes, beings that if they live will bring bad luck to the people. However, if they die, things change. In an article in April 2009, in the magazine XL Semana, in Spain, based on the testimony of one of these children, who arrived on the Mediterranean coast by boat, named Moszy, the following could be read:

All of the above is true. Significant amounts of money are paid for these remains. In 2009, a bone could cost up to 1,500 dollars. Imagine now. Over the centuries albinos, like Jews, have been exterminated in a slow genocide. Some of the former continue to be cannon fodder, the others try to defend themselves from the rest of the world that condemns them for trying to live in peace. Cursed beliefs, perverse ideas, in the end prevail in a globalized world where fear prevails.

The figures of the time are shocking (2009): in Tanzania alone, 41 have been kidnapped and killed in the last year. Another 10 in Burundi. Seven in Mali in Cameroon… And so country after country the figure is increasing mercilessly.

Salif Keita, an eminent albino musician born in Mali, whose music can still be heard, was born in 1949 in Djoliba, in the central-southwest of French Sudan at the time. He is considered the golden voice of Africa and escaped assassination because he was a direct descendant of King Sundiata Keita (1190-1255) who was the founder of the Mali Empire. Even so, he confesses in all the interviews in which the subject comes up, that he escaped death due to his lineage, but that he was repudiated by the family and hidden from society because he was considered a jinx in the Mandingo culture. He assures that albinos continue to be sacrificed today and in general when in any of the countries where these miserable and superstitious beliefs prevail, these children are kidnapped and sacrifices are made with them in order to obtain better results in the elections. In general, Keita himself confesses that in his country, even today, if they go to a hospital, doctors do not usually touch them in case they catch their bad luck.

In 2023, just a year ago, in the newspaper La República (1) one of its headlines could be read: Living in fear: albino children and adults in Africa are killed for organ trafficking. More than 24 years have passed since the reference in the previous article (2009) to this one and everything remains the same. But the worst thing is that there is no legislation that regulates this issue. From Interpol, to Brussels, and the different governments over the years, no one seems to have acted effectively. Sorcerers who carried out these practices have been arrested, but in most cases they have had to be released, because no one was going to testify against them. Europe washes its hands of it and this is not an issue that seems to be of interest to the Criminal Court in The Hague, even if it is a full-fledged genocide.

In the introductory of the same previous newspaper it was stated: A single bone of an albino person can be worth about 1,000 euros on the black market. A recent United Nations report states that a “complete set” reaches up to 60,000 euros. We know exactly what 1,000 euros or 60,000 euros mean in the non-existent economy of that area of the world. Why is there a United Nations report dated 2023 and nothing is done about it? Who buys these amulets? Why is both the seller and the buyer not persecuted in a real way?

In the end, it is a nefarious market for trafficking in human remains that promotes a genocide that has been practiced in one area of the world for hundreds of years. But who cares, at the end of the day it is not enough for a television reality show, nor would its dissemination contribute absolutely anything to any decent media. Society in general and ours, that of well-being more, have too many navels in which to look at ourselves, while we continue  to “fight” for human rights in the world. But is it really fought? I wonder, or is it just propaganda.          

Reference LaRepublica.PE here