Gaston Nchek, general secretary of the Tanzania Albino United Soccer Team, oversees practice in a field just across the street from the Tanzania Albino Society in Dar es Salaam. (Cheney/TYG)

"The calming people, the healers, they killed her," panted Starone Makoye, a young man from Mwanza, Tanzania, as he recounted the slaying of his sister. "All the community came to the cliffs to see the body. They checked the bloodstained soil of the cliffs. Then three days passed and the soil had gone dry."

Makoye stood outside the Tanzania Albino Society in Dar es Salaam and wrung his white hands as he recounted the memory. "Two people came to my home to kill me with fire, and so I came here."

Like all albinos, Makoye lacks melanin pigment in his skin, hair, and eyes; with little protection from ultraviolet rays, he is much more vulnerable to the harsh sunlight in East Africa. Albinism is five times more common in Tanzania than in Europe and North America, affecting one in 4,000 people. Albinos must cover their skin and often feel secluded because of their need to stay out of the sun, but in Tanzania, many albinos are in hiding for another reason. The story Makoye described is not uncommon. It is one example of the gruesome, tragic fate of many albinos who are murdered for the fortune that their body parts are worth.

While prejudice toward albinos is common throughout Africa, such widespread ritual killings are unique to Tanzania, where traditional healers serving rural communities brutally murder albino women and children, hacking them to death, skinning them, removing their hair, and carving out and carrying off body parts worth thousands of dollars. They leave behind a grieving family and a pool of blood. Even when albinos are able to escape murder, die naturally, and be buried, they remain threatened. Their graves must be cemented to protect their bones from theft.

The products made from these body parts are met with strong demand and yield high prices, particularly in the Northwest of the country near lake Victoria. Those who buy albino hair to weave into their fishing nets and albino potions to bring them luck believe that albinos never die but simply disappear and that their bodies are there for the taking.

Ruling and Religion

In January, Prime Minister Mizengo Pinda announced that the Tanzanian government would revoke the licenses of traditional healers to save albinos from the murderous "witch doctors." Pinda also appointed an albino woman to parliament and adopted an albino child, all in an effort to indicate government support for the albino population.

"I am urging you to help us in stopping these cruel acts and this shame on our country," said President Jakaya Kikwete in March 2009, indicating how national reputation also motivated the government in encouraging its citizenry to report those who had murdered albinos to the police. But police officers themselves were involved in these killings, benefiting from the trade of albino body parts.

An estimated 30 percent of Tanzanians – a large majority of whom practice tribal religions revolving around spiritual forces and ancestral spirits – rely on diviners and traditional healers to bring them health and good fortune. These populations demand the potions containing albino body parts, whereas people who follow monotheistic religions condemn the trade of albino body parts for religious reasons.

"If you have a fear of God, you do not kill another person," said Josephat Torner, assistant managing director of the organization Under the Same Sun. "Most in the rural areas are non-believers...People are not going to churches. People are not going to mosques. They just believe in witchcraft. They don't believe in God."

Dula Mwalim Ali sells fruits and vegetables at his stand in the Zanzibar Old Town market. Beneath the brim of his hat that protected his pink skin, he became emotional when asked about the killings in Tanzania. "It hurts my heart," he said, struggling to find the words to express his feelings. Ali has been to mainland Tanzania only twice. He said he prefers to stay on the island, where there has not been a single recorded case of an albino murder. As he smiled for a picture, the market workers around him turned his hat backwards, removed his sunglasses, and forced his body into poses, mocking him and using him as a puppet to entertain themselves.

While most people living in more developed areas like Dar es Salaam and Zanzibar understand that albinos are human, discrimination and humiliation persist. As the Tanzanian government works to end albino deaths at the hands, torches, and knives of traditional healers, they must see beyond the greed and the gore and focus on what fuels the murders: ignorance.

Removing from the Roots

International media outlets have covered the murders of albinos in Tanzania, mostly focusing on the gruesome scenes at the sites of the killings as well as government responses to the violence. What is missing from this coverage is an investigation of the underlying reasons for these killings, the reasons behind the voracious demand for albino body parts and widespread disregard for human rights.

"If we want a tree to die forever, we have to remove the roots,"explained Ernest Kimaya, chairman of the Tanzania Albino Society. With these words, Kimaya captured the inefficacy of the government approach to combating the killings of albinos. The murders of albinos will not cease until the ignorance surrounding albinism is replaced by understanding.

There are several problems with the government decision to revoke the licenses of traditional healers. First, the approach does not attack the root of the problem: the ignorance of the rural population regarding what albinism really is. Secondly, traditional healers will likely still practice under the radar, defeating the purpose of the law; if they do not practice, then rural community members, angered by the policy and desperate for their magical potions, will look to the black market. lastly, the government decision only applies to traditional healers, ignoring the parents who kill their own albino children.

"Some people believe that it is a curse to the family and they kill that child," said Josephat Torner. "Or sometimes the father believes the mother must have had sexual affairs outside the family." Ashamed to admit they killed their own child, many parents bury their albino children secretly and tell the community that they magically disappeared, perpetuating the belief that albinos never die but instead fade away.

Al Shayma Kwegyir, the first albino on the Tanzania parliament, has acknowledged that ignorance is a problem in rural areas. "Education is very much needed in the area," she said. Kwegyir said she has worked in eight regions to increase awareness and inform people in rural regions "that albinos are human beings."

Working in the Sun

Aside from the widespread ignorance that perpetuates the killings, another issue affecting the albino population is the unequal access to education for Tanzanian albinos.

"We invest in education and we expect a return out of it," said Torner, explaining why some parents will not send their albino children to school. "Parents think these children could disappear anyway."

Kaganzi Rutachwamagyo of the International Center for Disabilities (ICD) said even parents who realize that their albino children will not disappear often resist sending them to school. "Hiding their children is a way of coping with the situation when someone would be mocked, cajoled," he explained.

Sometimes schools reject albino children altogether. "Teachers say, 'What do I do with such a child? I'm not a specialist so why bring it to me?'" explained Rutachwamagyo. "They do not want to associate with creatures that are rather freakish."

Many albino children who previously had parental support and access to education have not attended school since 2007 because of the killings and their need to stay indoors. This remains a problem in remote areas.

When albinos reach a working age, they find their prospects limited by low education levels and often have to take outdoor manual labor jobs, such as construction and farming.

When Josephat Torner, who wears long sleeves, sunglasses, and a baseball cap to shield his pink skin anytime he enters the sun, described the risk of skin cancer for albinos, he spelled out a deadly, yet simple, equation.

"Most people with albinism lack education and go into economic activities carried out in the sunlight," Torner said matter-of-factly. "And then they get cancer."

He added that skin cancer is also a problem in rural areas where many do not realize the risks of skin cancer nor the importance, or even existence, of sunscreen. He claimed that albinos born into nomadic tribes, such as the Maasai tribe, can die as young as age five or six after days, months, and years of roaming with unprotected skin.

At the Ocean Road Cancer Center in Dar es Salaam, one such albino tribesperson, a 47-year-old named Tatu Juma, sat in extreme pain as melanoma consumed her tissue. "I always played in the sun without covering myself. For a long time, I didn't know the sun wasn't good for me," Juma said. "But I had to collect food. There was no other way."

Juma spit vomit and blood into a small bag as she spoke, and she looked up from her hospital bed with pained eyes set in a swollen face of black patchy moles, red frizzy hair, and yellow wounds.

Moving Forward

The Tanzanian government's public statements and legal decisions have not reflected an understanding of the problems underlying the superstition, persecution, and murder of albinos. Rutachwamagyo of the ICD complained that the government decision to revoke the licenses of traditional healers, in addition to being ineffective and inadequate, is an attempt to repair reputation rather than reform societal norms. "The killings of albinos have brought shame to the country," he said. "The government says, 'How will the rest of the world look at us?' The idea is to save the face of the country."

The government must identify the root problems of albino killings and stop not only witch doctor murders but also murders within families, the unequal access to education, the widespread cases of skin cancer, and the social stigma against albinism. They must do this not by revoking the licenses of healers but by launching an education campaign to address these issues at the source.

The government should support efforts that bridge divides between albinos and non-albinos, efforts like the Tanzania Albino United Soccer Team. Gaston Nchek, general secretary of the team, is an albino man with an albino wife and three non-albino children. Practicing with the team on a field outside the Tanzania Albino Society, Nchek was thrilled as he watched albinos and "black boys," as he called them, playing together, sharing jerseys, and rooting for their teammates regardless of skin color.

Even organizations as established as the Tanzania Albino Society, which receives government funding, feel that the support does not go far enough. "We suffer alone to find a way to stop the killings of albinos," Kimaya said. "We talk to government to say now we want to work together."

Recent pressures on the Tanzanian government may lead to reforms in policies regarding equal rights for albinos. For example, it is believed that albinos were murdered in Burundi and then traded over the border into neighboring Tanzania.

On March 20, the Tanzanian government issued a referendum to identify the killers of albinos. But while more than 90 people have been arrested for alleged involvement in albino murders, only one conviction has been issued. In September, the high court of Tanzania sentenced three men to hang once they were convicted of murdering a 13-year-old albino boy.

Torner said the government efforts must expand beyond convicting murderers. The government must work to change the perception of albinos.

"Empower us, and then you will see what we have to offer. Right now, policies are not friendly toward albinos," Torner said. "We are not animals. We are human beings. We have a right to life. We need the world to understand we are able if we are empowered."

Catherine Cheney is a senior Political Science major in Trumbull College.

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