On the African Continent, we have seen the impact of colonialism and its attributes of racism and discrimination. The former Apartheid system in South Africa and its institutionalized racial segregation was an extreme expression of European treatments of Africans. The miserable treatment of people living with Albinism by fellow Africans is not only unfortunate, it is shameful. Due to the lack of melanin, people with albinism are more susceptible to the harmful effects of ultraviolet radiation exposure.
The National Institutes of Health reported that about , Americans are affected; and around the world, it is between one in 17, and one in 20, people are people living with albinism. However, it is prevalence in parts of Africa, but it is far higher than the global average. People living with Albinism makeup about one in 4, people in South Africa and perhaps one in 5, in Nigeria.
According to a review published in the journal BMC Public Health, the prevalence in Tanzania is one in 1,, but this estimate is based on incomplete data. The men chopped off both his arms and legs and removed his bones. Then they buried the rest of his body in a shallow grave. There are superstitions in some parts of Africa that albino body parts bring wealth, power or sexual conquest, and that having sex with a person living with the condition of albinism cures HIV and AIDS.
Attackers sell albino body parts to witch doctors for thousands of dollars, according to Amnesty International. In Tanzania, some 75 people living with albinism were reported killed between and Also, there have been reports of people living with albinism killings in South Africa; although such crimes are less common there than in Malawi, Tanzania and Burundi. Last February, a South African court sentenced a traditional healer to life in prison for murdering a year-old woman living with albinism.
People living with Albinism continue to experience social isolation and stigma which includes name-calling, mockery, and exclusion from certain community activities. Some believe their body parts bring wealth or luck. Those born with the genetic condition are calling for an end to this madness. There are more than 25, people living with the condition in Zambia. In an interview with Africa Renewal, Ms. Superstitious mindsets in some African countries continue to seek murdered for body parts, including infants and babies.
