It started off in fun, a silly argument with a good friend in Buenos Aires, one who sports an impressive, brown/black afro, about whether or not there was such a thing as a blond afro. Enter Google search. As you know, kicking off any Google search usually leads you down some ragged pathway to things unexpected. Inevitably, I was led to pages on African albinos. And the conversation went from light-hearted fun to gut-wrenching horror.
It started here: 10,000 Albinos In Hiding After Killings In East Africa.
“…the market for albino parts exists mainly in Tanzania, where a complete set of body parts — including all limbs, genitals, ears, tongue and nose — can sell for $75,000. Wealthy buyers use the parts as talismans to bring them wealth and good fortune.”
What?
Wait, this was written in 2009. How come I’ve never heard of this. Maybe it’s some internet myth. But this is the Huffington Post, a respectable publication. Let me look further.
And I did. And it’s real. What I read made me sick to my stomach. Look for yourself. And keep looking. I felt as if my soul, my whole belief system, my trust in man as inherently good was being savagely attacked. Human beings, with shallow differences, being hunted to the death so their body parts can be harvested and sold for profit to others believing such a purchase will give them a miraculous life. This is beyond shocking.
Daily, we are bombarded with stories from animal activists, and the TV and press that support them, about the injustice of hunting endangered species.
We hear sad stories about the dangers of a species being wiped out, and we give money by the thousands to save these rare animals. Well, okay.
That’s nice and everything, and I praise the work of those who care. But aren’t we missing something here? People, actual human beings are being slaughtered—worse, harvested. Isn’t that more important?
Not only are our own black-skinned and brown-skinned brothers and sisters suffering grave injustice at the hands of the police, and indeed the entire system in the USA — and beyond, so much so that a twitter hashtag #BlackLivesMatter has been trending for over a year, but right here, right now, almost invisible to the mainstream press, and probably to most ordinary people like me, albinos are being hunted to death and mutilation exactly because of the color of their skin. And no one seems to know, or to care.
Sure, a few souls have been saved, by charitable organizations and USA doctors, offering prosthetic limbs. An honorable reaction, but who’s out there stopping this happening in the first place? Where’s the proaction?
Historically albinos have been ridiculed, distanced and abused. In many African countries they are thought to have sub-intelligence, are sidelined and pushed out of schools.
They are looked upon with fear and hatred, considered not quite human. Easy to take the next step and hunt them like animals.
The words that keep echoing today are, Why didn’t I know this? Am I out of touch with the news, do I just not care enough? But then who does care? No one I know has mentioned this, and those I’ve told are as ignorant as I.
This short post, which may reach 100 people or so, is my small contribution to raising some awareness. Please read more. And get mad. Get as mad as you can possibly get. And then do something. Even if it’s only a tiny gesture like this post. Raise awareness.
Don’t let there be more people like me, living in such blind ignorance. Spread the indignation, the horror, the anger. Tweet, in truth, and in irony #WhiteLivesMatter.
And quietly, look upon this beauty…
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