What is albinism ?

 

What is albinism?

It is a genetic disease characterized by insufficient production of the pigment that colors the skin, eyes, body hair and hair. The term albinism also derives from the Latin word "albus" which means white. There are several forms of albinism.

What are the consequences of albinism in Africa?

Albinos are victims of ancestral beliefs conveyed by village wizards who claim that drinking a decoction made from their hair or wearing one of their limbs as a gri-gri would protect against bad luck and impart supernatural powers. 

In Tanzania and Burundi, it is customary to hunt them down, amputate them or even kill them in order to attract the benevolence of the heavens.

Albinism is all the more badly experienced in Africa as it is very visible when it affects a person of black color, which, in parallel with persecutions, leads to isolation by obligation. An African albino will have great difficulty in leading a decent life, in being socially integrated and very often will remain single because no one will propose marriage to him.

A situation of "parianism" which comes on top of the fact that living under the blazing sun of this continent is, in the long term, a real danger for these very fragile skins. To be albino in Africa is therefore, still today, synonymous with a curse for thousands of men, women and children, who, if they survive the legends that have them massacred, will have to fight another fight: the one against skin cancer.