Albinos On The Razor-Edge Of Danger Poem by Chinedu Dike

At the behest of witch doctors headhunters are on the prowl.
They're watching, waiting, stalking and avoiding detection,
in the hope of an ambush with a brutal ferocity.
Their bowie knives and gruesome machetes as sharp as
a guillotine blade that is poised for execution,
certain to dismember any unfortunate victim
into chunks of bleeding flesh in a matter of seconds.

Faced with the looming menace many albinistic
persons are housebound in their homes,
swallowed up by anxiety and depression,
in a sustained state of fear for their own safety
and a deep sense of distrust for fellow beings.
But, whenever compelled by a crucial necessity
they would nervously venture out nonetheless.
Such unavoidable runs, risky as hell, can easily
deliver them into the grasps of the cruel fate.

The horrific butchering of persons with albinism
in some parts of Africa, with a single purpose
of harvesting their blood, internal organs,
and other body parts for sacrificial rituals,
has left so many of them revoltingly beheaded;
limps cut off; ears, breasts, and genitals sliced off;
hearts, kidneys, livers, and eyes gouged out —
while victims were still alive in many cases.
Some albinos are also known to have been
buried alive, as human-offerings, to appease
blood-thirsty deities or spirits. Even the ones
who are already deceased and interred are not
left to rest in peace, as their remains are being
dug up and robbed of hair, teeth and bones.

Myths have it that the blood, organs, and other
body parts of the albino can be used to harness
magical powers; that they are known to yield
powerful outcomes when used as ingredients
in preparing portions, charms or amulets, that
can bring riches, provide fortification against
harm, infuse extraordinary powers, or exorcise
ancestral wrath believed to be the root-cause of
the existential anxieties of those who use them.

In those African societies that seem full of myths
and witchcraft, the notion that albinistic people
are endowed with mystical powers is one that
is deeply entrenched in the public perception.
As old as generations this harmful superstition
is what, in recent years, increasing numbers of
sorcerers and criminal charlatans draw on to
trick people into the illusion of human sacrifice.
To validate the efficacy claims of such a weird
practice, these black magicians and con-artists,
who act as both traditional healers and holymen,
translate the existing legends and folklores
on potency of albino in dark magic into terms
that make sense to those who consult them.

Quite keen on making merchandise of persons
with albinism, the so-called witch doctors have
put a price on their heads — thus assigning
a commercial value to members of the group
in the eyes of predatory individuals, who are
lured into the clandestine trade in albinos
and their body parts to make quick money.
The tragic outcome of this bounty on albinos —
dead or alive, adults or children, is the rise of
criminal networks that revolve around witch
doctors, including scouters, body snatchers,
kidnappers, traffickers, killers, and others
who also play their part in sinister schemes
set up by the juju men to feather their nests
at the expense of their clients' murky motives.

The ritual murders of albinos in these societies
remain largely a crime driven by a boundless
quest to gratify out of reach gnawing-desires,
coupled with the widespread beliefs that such
sacrificial rituals work. These superstitions are
by no means limited to the chiefly uneducated,
poor masses, since so many of the clients who
patronize the greedy witch-doctors are people
of means from many different walks of life —
mostly those politicians and entrepreneurs
who believe that lucky talismans made from
albino body parts can make them win elections,
or usher in an era of boom in their business
ventures, by bewitching voters or prospects into
favouring their candidacies, goods or services.

This belief that people with albinism possess
special powers, that can bring success in just
about everything, is nothing short of lethal.
In the rural areas of some African countries,
where everything that happens — whether
good or bad, is directly associated with the
intervention of the spirits, vicious onslaught
on albinistic persons appears to be rampant.
They are being hunted down and slaughtered
like animals by ritualistic criminals, who are all
linked to the trafficking networks, contracted
or established by the traditional spirit healers
themselves to procure these 'commodities'.
Usually, based on the wishes of their clients,
the juju men will determine the body parts
needed to make a given type of potion, charm
amulet or talisman. Through the networks of
their criminal contacts, they will set in motion 
a train of clandestine events which would
wind up either in severe maiming, or murder,
of ill-fated albino with an astonishing cruelty.

Homeless albinistic people, who used to roam
the streets and pathways of cities and villages
as beggers, bear the brunt of the brazen assaults.
With many of these exposed targets already
sent to their early graves; armed with knives,
machetes, and guns at times, human hunters
are now raiding secluded homes after sunset.
While at it, they would forcefully abduct, or
kill and dismember their albino victims before
the eyes of their frequently injured and subdued
family members, who helplessly watch in horror
as excited poachers make away with their trophies.

Most of these brutal attacks are against children,
not only because they are easier to abduct
but also due to a higher ritual value assigned
to their innocence, which is generally believed
to enhance the potency of ritual products.
In broad daylight children with albinism are
preyed on while on their way to and from school.
Infants and toddlers are snatched away from
their mothers who, oftentimes, have sustained
serous injuries in their brave but mostly futile
attempts to rescue crying babes from kidnappers.
Albino mothers carrying albino babes are known
to have been hacked to death and their bodies
mutilated alongside those of their murdered kids.
Due to misconceptions that albinistic women
and girls inhibit a cure for terminal diseases
including HIV and AIDS, they are as well being
targeted for ritual rape that sometimes result in
unwanted pregnancies or death of victims.

In those sub-Saharan African countries where
albino amounts to big money, their lives are
constant battles to evade bounty hunters.
Many of them have disappeared without a trace,
and the remains of the ones who were later found
were recovered with some body parts missing —
depending on the kind of spell desired to be cast.
Some of the victims who by a miraculous stroke
of luck survived from the almost certain death,
are left terribly disfigured and disabled for life.
In the most heartbreaking cases of hate crime
against albinos, they have often been abducted
and sold to trafficking networks by members of
their families such as fathers, uncles, partners,
or other relatives out of desperation for money.

In the East, Central, and some parts of Southern
Africa where black market exits for albinistic
persons and their body parts, they are being
trafficked within and across the porous borders
of countries of these neighbouring regions,
by the merchantile criminal networks hoping
that by selling a 'full set' of albino body parts
they can make money as high as 75,000 USD —
an immense fortune in these poor countries.
A living albino is said to be worth much more,
while single body parts such as arm, heart or
head, can fetch several thousands of dollars.
These values make the underground trade in
albinos one of the most profitable and harmful
forms of human trafficking around the globe.

Ironically, in these improvished societies where
individuals with albinism are believed to be
a source of good fortune, they are at the same
time being demonized and, also, being targeted
for violent attacks because they are presumed
to be cursed beyond their 'ghostly' appearance.
Widely perceived as a haunted group of people
who are bearers of badlucks, albinistic persons
are all the time being blamed for the outbreaks
of epidemic diseases, locust invasions, droughts,
floods, hurricanes, and other natural hazards
whose occurances are due to climatic factors.

It is this dehumanisation of the people living
with albinism that provides the rationale for
their stigmatization and the stripping of their
sense of personhood, making it all too easy to
justify all manner of hate crimes against them.
Albinos are the objects of emotional, verbal
and psychological abuse, often followed up
with the physical assaults they have to endure
in societies that would rather be without them.
This irrational hatred for people with albinism
implies that even the heinous crimes that are
being committed against them, are largely met
by the callous indifference of their community
members, and not in any way deterred by the
usual inaction of the law enforcement officials —
many of who feel the same disdain for albinos.

Perhaps the worst act of betrayal many albinos
have to contend with is that from their close
relatives, who look at them as cosmic retribution.
Nearly always, the initial reaction to the birth of
a baby with a pale skin is one of shock disbelief
and humiliation from parents and close relatives.
Parents feel ashamed of their babies and fear
the social impacts of the unexpected birth.
Because such infants are believed to be potential
sources of calamities, they are at times banished,
abandoned or killed after birth by their families,
in an effort to root out the imagined threats.
In some places, even when close relatives are
fond of their albinistic baby, they can be forced
by their community members to give up the
infant for ritualistic killing as impelled by custom.

Due to lack of knowledge about the natural causes
of albinism and the patriarchal nature of most
African societies, almost always women are
the ones being blamed for giving birth to albino.
The accusations get worse in families who,
before the unusual birth, had no albinistic
individuals in their traceable ancestries.
Cases abound of female spouses who have
been subjected to domestic violence, jilted,
or chased away by their husbands and in-laws,
who are convinced that such 'miscreant wives'
were accosted or had been unfaithful to have
delivered for them to a baby with a pale skin.
As a result, many children living with albinism
are brought up by improvished single mothers.
Sometimes, though, there were accounts where
men accepted their baby and offered support.
This rejection of mothers and their albinistic
babies due to cultural taboos, also exposes
them to increased levels of poverty, isolation,
and abuse in their communities, with no men
there to protect and shelter them as their very own.

Historically, people with albinism seldom find
suitable, pigmented partners to date or marry.
Notwithstanding family objections against such
an 'unholy union', some, out of genuine love,
still go ahead to marry their albino sweethearts.
By defiling the odds to tie the knots, the albinistic
female spouses, in particular, often come face
to face with malicious, whispering campaigns
or direct accusation of witchcraft against them.
Because albinos are believed to be inhabited by
evil spirits that enable them to cause harm to
people and things, often those closely acquainted
with them like their inlaws, friends, neighbours or
coworkers, would blame them of having a hand
in the illness, untimely death, or any other forms
of misfortunes that may have befallen them.
Both as mothers of albinistic kids and mothers
who themselves have albinism, these sets of
women, who are badly impacted by the disorder,
often face such baseless but serious allegations,
in many communities where a claim that someone
has bewitched another is usually enough for
banishment or lynching of the accused to occur.

Being the common pariah of the African societies,
albinos are on the receiving end of society snub.
On daily basis, they face deprecating stares and
harassment from the public wherever they go.
Quite often, they are denied entry or kicked out
of shops, restaurants, taverns, hotels, saloons
and other such public places by the owners.
As one would expect under the dire circumstance,
businesses set up by albinos hardly ever succeed.
For the same reason of albinos being bad omens,
families who have such a member struggle to
find housing to rent and tenants who welcome
albinistic baby face eviction by their landlords.
Denial of access to public transport adds another
layer of challenge for albinos; in some places,
many buses and taxis do not stop to pick them up.
Even in places of worship like shrines, mosques,
temples and churches, where one would expect
to find comfort in the midst of prosecution
and isolation, albinos are as well being treated
as outcasts on the basis of their skin colour.

Scientifically proven to be of genetic origin,
albinism is a partial or total lack of melanin
pigment, responsible for tanning the skin and
for giving the eyes and hair their colouration.
For a child to be burn with the condition both
parents must carry the gene that transmits
albinism for it to be passed on, regardless of
whether they themselves are albinos or not.
Albinism is found in all ethnicities and races
around the globe and within the animal world.
The absence or insufficient supply of melanin,
a substance that also protects the skin cells
against harmful ultraviolet rays, implies that
those living with the disorder are prone to
developing sunburn, blisters and skin cancer.
Due to an elevated sensitivity to glare which
reduces their range of sight, albinos have a blurry
vision of things around them and experience life
in a state of 'partial blindness' without glasses.

People with the congenital oddity experience
various forms of bias against them, in differing
degrees of harshness by nations, worldwide.
In the western world, where they are better off
and often go unnoticed due to their close
outward form with that of the general public,
discrimination against them is mostly based on
their poor eyesight. For example, they are not
permitted to drive in some of the countries.
Discounting that, individuals living with the
condition in these advanced nations are well
integrated into the main stream societies —
where state-support systems are in place
to assist them in those aspects of their lives
that pose challenges to their lifelong disability.
As a result, albinos in the western world are
able to go after their dreams and aspirations.
Being as healthy as everyone else they lead
meaning full lives with the normal live spans,
having adapted quite well to their disabilities.

On the contrary, in Africa, where anti-albinism
runs deep, the stripping of albinistic people of
their humanity virtually affects every aspect
of their lives. So many of them, for example,
have been denied access to education because
they are generally thought to be dullards and
inept beings who cannot cope in school or in jobs —
hence a waste of their families' merge resources.
This false impression stems from their usually
poor academic records and high dropout rates.
Far from being unintelligent group of people,
African albinos can be as talented as everyone
else; their dismal academic performance is
mainly due to the various barriers that militate
against their educational progress such as
ill-suited learning environment, the dearth of
teaching provisions, and their inability to access
optical aids to enhance their overall vision.

On top of everything, stake holders in education
sector including policy makers, administrators,
school authorities and teachers, who are largely
uninitiated about the learning needs of albinistic
pupils, pay no attention to the visual problems
the learners face in class without contact lenses,
by not offering to them extra help nor support.
Because people with albinism are afflicted with
rapid eye movements that make letters of texts
become shaky, the unavailability of textbooks
with enlarged prints means that they are unable
to see clearly what they are reading or writing.
Not only that, the fact that such pupils or students
are not given the privilege of sitting in positions
where they can see best in classrooms, puts a
further strain on their vision of the chalkboard.

The school experience of albinos are worsened
by stigma which paves way for their isolation,
ridicule and bullying, that come from teachers,
schoolmates and, especially, their classmates
many of who do not want sit next to them.
With only a few willing to befriend them or
shoulder the burden of being their teachers,
albinistic learners are left feeling inadequate,
lonely and alienated in school. This situation
not only frustrates them, it also affects their
self-confidence and academic performance.
These difficulties, along with the problem of
albinos being abducted from schools for ritual
purposes, are mainly the reasons why most
of them end up as primary school dropouts.
This lack of education means that a massive
majority of people with albinism are qualified
only for menial jobs, in which they often have
to work outdoors without sufficient protection
against cancer-causing rays of the scorching sun —
their 'silent' and number one killer in Africa.

Through a brutal discrimination that deprives
them of the economic tools and social skills that
are needed to live productives lives, albinistic
people, who are already restricted in their
job choices due to a low tolerance for the
sun's harmful radiation, are left hopelessly
jobless and miserably consigned to poverty
with no means of sustenance, whatsoever.
Only a negligible fraction of them living mostly
in the cities are able to access health checks,
with countless number of others unable to afford
simple remedies like sun-protective garments,
sunscreen creams, sunglasses, wide-brimmed
hats and umbrellas — all collectively vital for
them to live healthy lives in the sunny continent.
With these life-saving means out of the reach
of most, and the fact that little or no guidelines
exist about skin cancer risks and prevention,
an overwhelming majority of albinos living in
Africa die prematurely before the age of forty
due to skin cancer, according to estimates.

While people with albinism once had to only
avoid the blazing African sun and the bullying
they have to stomach in their communities,
they have in recent times withdrawn into their
homes in the face of more frightening threats:
of abduction, sexual violence, horrifying death,
and mutilation of their bodies by ritualistic killers.
But even there, in their homes, they aren't safe.
Clearly trapped in the dark side of magical belief,
albinos pay the price for superstition in Africa.
Theirs is a life on the razor-edge of danger.