Albinos as endangered species

Albinos as endangered species 

By Clem Oluwole

In elementary economics, we are taught that labour is a veritable factor of production that generates wealth for investors. Most wealthy men and women in civilized climes make their money positively using the human elements in the pursuit of their riches. However, there are those whose sources of wealth are questionable.

Unfortunately, in most primitive climes, the human elements are cruelly used to spawn riches. In other words, rather than float investment and use human resource to create wealth in an enterprise environment, the humans are hunted down like bush meat and shipped to juju men to be used for money rituals.

When I was growing up, the phenomenon of gbomo gbomo (not to be confused with Gbomo Jomo) was so rampant that our parents lived in constant fear that we could be captured by money ritualists while going to or returning from school. We were hardly sent on errands after school hours especially when Christmas season was around the corner. By the way, gbomo gbomo is what the Yoruba call a kid kidnapper.

Kidnapping is still a big business today especially in the South east/Niger Delta axis but only one out of five cases end up in babalawo’s enclave. Attention has since shifted from innocent and wretched kids of the poor to wealthy folks or their relations who are kidnapped for mouth-watering ransom.

Everyone out there is kidnappable or has kidnap value. And as it is said in Hausa, “Dede ruwa, dede garri.” A victim could go for as much as between N30m and N100m. Another prey could go for as little as between N5, 000 and N10, 000. There is a class of Nigerians that has become targets of money ritualists. They are the folks living with albinism. The first reported seizure of albinos was during the heady days of kidnapping of expatriate oil workers in the Niger Delta. A gang of desperate militants had captured the Nigerian whites mistaking them for employees of one of the multi-national oil firms and demanded for a huge ransom. But they promptly set their captives free when they realized they were albinos. The victims were lucky the awareness to use them for ritual purposes had not caught on then.

Tanzania is ranked as the leading country in East Africa where people living with albinism have become endangered species. In that part of the Dark Continent, as Africa is derogatorily referred to by the whites, albinos are hunted down so that their body parts can be used by witch doctors in their rituals. In other words, albinos are negatively used as human elements to generate wealth. Albino body parts are highly prized in those circles. The limbs fetch a hefty price ranging from $2000 to $3000 per limb, and often the heads of albino people are hung on totem poles as good luck charms.

Albinos are heavily discriminated in those countries. It is believed by many that albinism is a curse and may even be contagious. This makes them easy targets for witch doctors and limb-hunters.

Albinism is caused by a defect, or complete absence, of an enzyme which produces melanin. Melanin is what gives hair, skin, and eyes their pigmentation. This lack of skin pigmentation makes the person much more susceptible to skin cancer and damage from the sun (a problem especially bad for those living in Africa). Albinism is a global phenomenon. It exists even in the animal kingdom.

As mentioned above, the Tanzanians are in the forefront and the most diabolic in the quest to become rich overnight, using albinos as their launching pads. Besides the mission for money, albinos are harvested other purposes. Tanzanian traditional healers and witch doctors consider the body parts of people with albinism as being essential to their magical recipes for those seeking political powers. Many Tanzanian, Kenyans and Burundians living with HIV/AIDS have been known to capture young albino girls trusting that raping them could help to cure their afflictions. Fishermen pay hawkers in the belief that albino parts would jazz up their fishing nets and attract better haul. Men in that axis are also known to lure albinos into marriage with the ultimate aim of murdering them for ritual purposes.

The inhuman and primitive culture that is deeply rooted in East Africa is gradually taking root in Nigeria. Only recently, an albino woman was beheaded in Ilorin ostensibly for money or good luck charms. My fear is that once Nigerians (totally) imbibe a terrible culture like this, they would go the extra mile. Scared of the worrisome development, the founder of the Albino Foundation of Nigeria (AFN), Mr. Jake Ekpele, raised an alarm during this year’s UN celebration of the World Albinism Day (May 5) and called on the government to protect his members from predators who harvest them for all manner of rituals.

The government should listen to Jake Ekpele and put in place tough measures that would discourage money ritual conscious Nigerians from emulating their East African counterparts. People living with albinism deserve understanding and support from their fellow Nigerians and not persecution. Albinism, when treated properly with adequate sun protection and vision correction, can engender normal living and certainly not contagious.

There is also another class of people who have forced albinism upon themselves. They are the go-go ladies who have washed themselves down with all kinds of bleaching creams. Not all those light-skinned women you see around are wearing natural complexion. The evidence of those who were not light at birth can be seen from their patchy and wrinkled temples, dark and callused knuckles, elbows, knees and Achilles’ heel. They are commonly referred to as Fanta face, Coca Cola legs. Like the albinos, they are not sun friendly. They exude foul odour when heated by the sun and have to employ heavy perfumes to cover up. They are at risk of skin cancer, leukemia and renal complications, among others. They could also be mistaken for albinos, thus exposing themselves to the danger of being hunted down and their bodies dismembered for ritual purposes. Those ones would have themselves to blame for acquiring Albino Status Syndrome (ASS).

Let me recall that the craze to acquire the status overwhelmed our women as far back as the 70s and the most popular bleaching cream then was Ambi. Many women, who were not proud of being born black, later regretted hugging Ambism as a (beauty) philosophy. The men, fanatical about fair skin, also got sucked in along the line. I know a prominent traditional ruler in the South West that immersed himself in Ambi. The only thing that sets him and Jake Ekpele apart is the colour of his hair. Unfortunately, the hazardous values, driven by inferiority complex, are still catching on … with a frightening sophistication.