Nigeria-Born Albino Fights Deportation

Over the years I've covered a number of cases related to the African trade in albino body parts. In traditional African folk magick it is believed that the body parts of a person afflicted with albinism have special magical powers that unscrupulous sorcerers can exploit in order to strengthen their spells. Albinism is rare and the demand is apparently quite high, leading some criminal gangs to resort to murder and dismemberment in order to obtain parts that can be sold for a huge profit.

Franklin Ibeabuchi is a Florida resident who emigrated to the United States from Nigeria with his parents at the age of 10. He is also an albino, and is fighting deportation on the grounds that if he returns to Africa his life may be in danger.

Ibeabuchi is like a lot of Americans: He graduated from high school (Wolfson High School in Jacksonville), earned an associates degree from what is now Florida State College at Jacksonville, married, had three children and worked for Staples for a decade, reports The Florida Times-Union in Jacksonville.

He also has a condition called albinism.

His pale skin, his reddish blonde hair and his light blue eyes make him a moving target in Nigeria where witchcraft is common. People like him in sub-Saharan Africa risk death because superstitious folks there believe his body parts possess special powers -- and they'll pay an arm and a leg for one of his limbs.

Now he faces being deported to Nigeria because of a 2003 battery charge, which was later dropped.

An immigration right's clinic has stepped in to help him by pursuing a unique claim: Ibeabuchi's albinism makes him part of a persecuted social class.

That we live in a world where such a defense is necessary is a sad realization, but the fact is that albinos are threatened in much of Africa by the stupidity surrounding this superstition. On those grounds I hope that Ibeabuchi's defense succeeds, because whether or not the belief itself is imaginary the hazard it poses to people like him certainly is not.

Albino Killings Return

Here's some terrible news out of the African nations of Tanzania and Burundi. Last June Tanzanian authorities arrested a gang that was engaged in the murder of albinos in order to sell their body parts to unscrupulous witch doctors for use in magical ceremonies. The gang members went on to be convicted and were recently executed.

At the time of the arrests I expressed my hope that with the killers brought to justice this wave of murders would be over, and indeed, the killings did stop over the summer. Unfortunately, this fall they seem to have started back up again.

"It has been a crisis for over two years, 56 albinos have lost their lives as a result of killings done by hunters," Matthias Schmale, IFRC Under Secretary General for Development, told journalists at the report launch.

"The report demonstrates ... that thousands of albino lives in these two countries ... are literally put on hold."

There are 7,000 registered albinos in Tanzania and 1,000 in Burundi, although officials believe actual numbers are higher. According to the IFRC, these albinos are unable to live normal lives due to the threat of murder.

The attacks kicked off in 2007, and quickly spread across Tanzania - where the majority of the murders have occurred - and into Burundi.

A lull this summer led to hopes that the attacks were over, but in late October, hunters beheaded 10-year-old albino boy Gasper Elikana in front of his family in Tanzania, then made off with his leg.

It seems that the market for albino body parts is lucrative enough that a new batch of criminals has stepped up to take the place of the previous gang.

Tanzanian police estimate that a complete set of albino body parts - including all four limbs, genitals, ears, nose and tongue - are worth as much as 75 thousand dollars to witch doctors, who use them to concoct potions believed to bring wealth and good luck.

According to Isaac Mwaura, national coordinator for the albinism society in neighbouring Kenya, a combination of globalization-induced greed and old African superstitions is to blame for the killings, which he believes are well-planned and organized.

"Witch doctors commission people to look for these body parts," he said. "The gangs were organized, had certain targets and certain motivation."

I'm still trying to figure out why body parts lacking melanin are so valuable to practitioners of this particular school of traditional magick. It sounds to me like one of those superstitions based on scarcity that is widely believed despite never having been subjected to sufficient empirical tests.

Suspected Albino Killers on Trial in Tanzania

The African nation of Tanzania is continuing its offensive against traditional witchcraft by opening five cases against suspects believed to be behind the killing of albinos for their body parts, which were then sold to traditional witchcraft practitioners for use in magical rituals.

State-run Daily News newspaper, citing High Court’s Senior Deputy Registrar John Utamwa, said the five cases started in Shinyanga, one of the regions worst affected by the killings in which over 40 people have lost their lives since mid 2007.

The newspaper said Utamwa would not give more details on the cases and did not say how many people were arraigned in court.

Daily News, citing Director of Public Prosecutions Eliezer Feleshi, said another five cases will be filed in Tabora, three in Mwanza and two in Kagera.

Tanzania is an odd case in that usually legal prosecutions of individuals connected with witchcraft in Africa are either persecutions of the falsely accused or prosecutions of vigilante mobs who decided to take "justice" into their own hands following the accusation of a neighbor. It sounds like the accused were not witchcraft practitioners themselves, but without the continuing demand for body parts they of course would have had nothing to sell and probably would have pursued a different line of work - though it may have been some other form of organized crime.

Trials were held earlier this year in neighboring Burundi related to the killing of albinos there, apparently for the Tanzanian witchcraft trade.

The trials follow similar ones that started in neighbouring Burundi in late May. At least 11 people have been killed in Burundi since last year. Authorities in the tiny central African nation say the murders were done at the behest of people in Tanzania, who use the genitals, skin and bones in witchcraft in the belief that this will bring prosperity in areas such as fishing and mining.

Hopefully most of the killers are now on trial and will be found guilty by the legal system. If the trade in albino body parts ends Tanzanian magicians might be forced to do some empirical research and realize that there is nothing special about albinos that makes their body parts especially suitable for magical rituals. It's not like the absence of a pigment-producing gene substantially alters the body's morphic field in any useful way. Better still, maybe the body-part-using magicians will be forced out of the business leaving only those who figured out a long time ago that you don't need body parts of any sort to cast a successful spell.

UPDATE: A group representing albinos in Tanzania and Burundi has called for more education about albinism to dispel the superstitions surrounding it, on the grounds that these prosecutions alone will not be enough to stop the killings. Sadly, they're probably right.

Albino Killings in Tanzania

Usually witchcraft hysteria is based on a bunch of made-up allegations centered on individuals who are harmless but have accumulated enemies within their communities. Rather than the accusations accurately reflecting any action on the part of the accused "witch," they serve as a convenient excuse for the community to attack those that they simply dislike. However, every so often magical practitioners really do commit heinous crimes. In Tanzania, there is a folk belief that the body parts of albinos have special magical powers. This belief is so strong that Tanzanian albinos are being killed and their body parts apparently taken for magical rituals.

The story first came out in April after 19 albinos were killed during the preceding year. Despite actions ordered by the Tanzanian government, however, a more recent undercover investigation by the BBC found that the killings are still going on and I can find no evidence online that any arrests have been made or that the Tanzanian police have managed to conduct an effective investigation. The Tanzanian President has ordered a census of all albinos in the country to make protecting them easier for law enforcement, though some now suspect elements of the Tanzanian police could be involved in the killings.

Various systems of folk magick use human body parts, but I don't really see why the body parts of albinos would be more powerful than those of people who have melanin in their skin. Does melanin inhibit the flow of magical energy or something? I'm sure there are a lot of African spiritual practitioners who would take serious issue with that statement. It seems more likely to me that it's all just superstition that arose because albinos look different. After all, I'm guessing that even if these spells work really well nobody has ever tried to do any double-blind studies on the effectiveness of normal versus albino body parts.