Albinism and social unawareness. East Africa crimes.

Danny om

And the beat goes on....
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Woke up after a very, very bad nightmare which has compelled me to post this thread

WARNING: WHAT I AM ABOUT TO TELL YOU IS EXTREMELY DISTURBING. I AM ONLY TRYING TO RAISE AWARENESS AND NOT OFFEND. THANKS.


An example of what is taking place Tanzania;

`We want your legs' The last adult albino to be murdered - just a few weeks ago - was Nyerere Rutahiro.

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Nyerere Rutahiro's body was laid to rest in a cement-sealed grave

He was eating dinner outside in his modest rural compound, when a gang of four strangers burst in, and threatened to arrest him. As his wife Susannah looked on helplessly, the men began to hack at Nyerere's arms and legs with machetes. "We want your legs," they shouted, "We want your legs," his wife recalls, still deeply traumatised by what she saw.

Nyerere was clearly being targeted for being albino - but in every other respect he was an accepted part of his community. A father of two in his 50s, farming cassava - just like everybody else. His body was laid to rest in a cement-sealed grave to protect against grave robbers who often steal body parts of the dead to give to witchdoctors. A builder had been hired to do the job. Looking on as the funeral came to a close, is Nyerere's sister Winifrida. She too is albino.

Terrified, she pulls her six year-old-son closer to her. Though he is black (the gene that causes albinism is a recessive gene), he too is vulnerable. It is all too clear what is going through Winifrida's mind. Will they come for her next? Squinting her pale eyes against the midday sun, Winifrida whispers in a barely audible voice: "Please, ask the government to take me away from here, I dare not come out of the house since my brother was killed.".
No one with albinism is safe; children and babies are also victims of this barbaric crime.

I`ve recently. Been thinking about my albinism and how it has affected my life positively as well as the negative aspects. I am coming to the conclusion that the positive comes from my inner core of self value and unique (sic) views on human interaction. The negative aspects of my condition dwindle day by day... until the east africa crisis. I feel helpless, angry and filled with revengeful thoughts. I try to tell myself that this crime against humanity will stop one day. I feel pretty bad because I knew about the situation for a while now (2007) but have done nothing to raise awareness about the plight of these people. Being albino and the experiences of the bigotry over the years I have met has had an affect my confidence to the point that it prevented me from speaking out. BUT NO LONGER.

Spread the word. Lets try and put an end to this madness.

Thanks again.

Danny om
 
I read about this a couple weeks ago and was horrified by the stories. Tanzania has a relatively high concentration of people with albinism (like 1 in 4,000), and they are ostracized for their appearance. If it were that alone, it would be a sad story, but the killings and the witchdoctor stories are just beyond me. People are capable of such incredible barbarism.
 
There is a brilliant documentary called 'Albino United'. A story of a football team, mainly of albino lads, trying to raise awareness of their plight, destroying the myths and superstitions about our kind. Powerful stuff, but ultimately heart warming. It was on 4od, but it now can only be viewed outside of the UK & US (don't know why... its one of the best things I've seen in years).

Not too long ago Tanzania just elected it's first albino member of parliament, so things are changing for the better... long may it continue!!!
 
I've heard about this on Radio 4. It seems that it happens all over Africa, not just Tanzania. Education is the key.
 
Just an idea for awareness, but Facebook seems to be a good awareness raiser. I'm always getting linked to save the tar sand forests or stop an Iraqi woman's execution. I agree with Mycernius, education would go a long way to stopping this.
 
My god... yeah I definitely wasn't aware of something like this going on, but in this world its not that surprising.. I agree with Revenant, put this on Facebook, you'll definitely get quite a number of people to know about this.
 
The official facebook group for Albino united here----->

Nuff love!
 
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