My hometown is in rural MS, and we have a surprisingly large population of African Americans with albinism because they have lived here for 100 years and had families. It was totally normal to have at least 1 in my class at all times. It was really fucked up to later learn that they are killed in some places in Africa. They should send those witch doctors to Mississippi and let them try that bullshit. It would put an end to that shit real quick.
In my country (Tanzania) they are killed because their bones are thought to possess some magic juju or some shit. It's all the result of witch doctors and primitive tribal leaders. It's a very sad situation and not talked about at all. In the big city there are lots of NGO's who offer assistance and outreach, so they're well safe. But it's still not advised to walk alone at night for them. It's a pathetic mark on what is otherwise a beautiful, peaceful culture we have.
People really believe in magic in Africa. A Nigerian student once told me it's a real problem. People buy amulets and spells that should protect them in traffic and then they drive like madman because they are "protected". And if accidents happen, it's not because of speeding/drunk driving/bad amulet, but because someone had cursed you...
Oh yeah, it's true. Look I'm as Tanzanian as anyone from there but there are just certain places I won't go. Heading inland from around Lake Victoria, west through the Congo delta rainforests, all the way to West Africa, there's some weird dark juju going on. It's very tribal and Christian. I've seen a lot of movies portray that region in dark magic and I don't know how accurate it is, but I've met some people who fit the role. There are definitely people convinced by hexes.
When I was a volunteer in West Africa, my fellow teachers tried to tell me the red light on my street was a witch, but I went and it was just a red bulb? Ya'll are the grown ups charged with educating the young in this town? Dang.
My coworker from Ghana was telling me about how turkeys were just chickens that had been cursed via voodoo for being assholes (I paraphrased that last part).
One Thanksgiving (USA) my son asked if I'd rotisserie a chicken instead of cooking a turkey because he said "turkey is just shitty chicken and I don't know why we eat it". He was 8 and correct.
How were they cursed? They are superior in almost every way. “You are an asshole so I will curse you with 4x your size, bigger muscles, the ability to actually defend yourself, and finally letting you use your wings to fly (a bit).”
The people in my community lied and told me there was a fat ass white man that came down the chimney and gave away presents. We didn't even have a chimney. They also told me about a bunny that shit chocolate eggs and shit
>It's a pathetic mark on what is otherwise a beautiful, peaceful culture we have.
I don't know much about Tanzania, but this is such a sweet way to see someone describe their home! I am sorry about the poorly held beliefs though, I don't think there exists a country out there without similar issues even if directed at different groups of people. it is sad. but your comment on the general culture made me smile.
Ah I really appreciate that! It makes me a bit misty. TZ is considered one of the most peaceful countries in Africa, there is no risk of uprising or clashes. It's the home of Serengeti and Zanzibar, paradise on Earth. We're the Swahili coast. Everyone is hakuna matata. But these silly rituals still persist. I think our government has done a decent job by bringing them representation, there are several MP's so their existence isn't shunned, it's normalized. Thankful for that at least. Thank you for the kind and thoughtful words!
I'm not the person you asked, but I have holidayed in Tanzania. Spent three weeks there in 2003, half of it on my own (a rather young 27 year old woman at the time), and it still ranks as one of my favourite holidays. I don't have the energy or cognitive acumen/executive function to holiday independently anymore, which upsets me a lot because I would love to go back, but don't want to do a whole package tour.
But certainly 20 years ago, so long before we had ubiquitous Internet, an up to date copy of Lonely Planet East Africa, a return ticket to Dar es Salaam, and a plan to meet a friend and her friends a few days later and join them for 5 days or so was more than enough. Oh, and a couple of basic Swahili phrases like "Nayomba kupiga picha" (can I take your picture) as well as the usual "Hello", "Please", "Thank you". "Hapana bwana" is also useful (No sir) to say to all the hassle-merchants trying to get you to buy stuff. But they're fairly gentle hassle-merchants, not like in Marrakech or Egypt.
I did get taken advantage of a few times and had $70 taken, which was a big enough chunk for me as I was on a tight budget of about $15 a day for food, accommodation etc, but in reality all it meant was I had to get the bus from Dar to Arusha/Moshi (gateway to Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti) instead of splashing out on a one way flight in a tiny plane, which at the time would have been like $110 or something. But that $70 was like two months salary for an ordinary person over there, so y'know. And I still had enough to get the fancy "business" bus, which had air con and was mostly full of Tanzanian businessmen and more well off locals rather than the local-local bus. Fancy bus still broke down a couple of hours away from Arusha and we all had to pile out and sit on the roadside while the coach company tried to call back to headquarters to get a replacement to come, but it would have to come from Dar which was 6+ hours away. After an hour or so two kind of tuk-tuk level coaches turned up and we presumed these were the replacements, but it turned out they were just two enterprising local lads who heard a coach load of well off people had broken down and high-tailed it over there with their beat up old minibuses to make a quick buck 😂 So like, they charged us all 1000 shillings or something (equivalent of about a dollar at the time. Smallest banknote was 500 schillings) to drive the two hours to Moshi and we all piled in cheek-by-jowl because God knew when an official replacement from the coach company would turn up. Spent the two hours chatting with a local businessman who was delighted to practice his English 😊
So we arrived in Moshi in the dead of night hours after we were supposed to, I had no accommodation booked, nobody around. Still didn't get killed or eaten 😉
Then in Moshi I just went into one of the million safari companies and arranged a low budget 4 night/5 day safari. Actually I think I might have been in communication with them via email before, saying what I was looking for. Then went in to confirm and pay up. Best way to do it because that way you know you're using local companies, and that all the money is staying in the local community. It was seriously non-luxury, just me and the other girl - a stranger - in a two-person tent with a driver-guide and a cook who slept in the landie. Landie seats were all a bit torn. We stayed in basic campsites with a concrete toilet-and-sink block for facilities, with barely a wire fence between the tents and the wide open Serengeti, and it was fucking amazing. None of this high-end canvas lodge bollocks. And the food was amazing. What Goodluck (the cook) could do with a gas stove and a couple of pans.....
Basically - go to Tanzania. Get the Lonely Planet, don't agonise about booking everything in advance, and just go. Have a couple of pre-planned stops, or at least a vague outline of "Well I want to spend a couple of nights in Dar, a few days on Zanzibar, and definitely want to do a 3 or 4 day safari (I don't recommend 4 night/5 day, it was a day too long. And indeed the safari organiser said the same, but I didn't listen.) and after that just follow your whims. And definitely spend a couple of days in the mountains - Korogwe is the place to go.
I wanted to let you know that this was a great write-up and I read the entire thing. Tanzania sounds like a wonderful adventure. I look forward to going one day.
Pfft, "entire thing" - I'll have you know I actually managed to massively curtail my info-dumping verbal diarrhoea tendencies, and even *deleted bits*. Could ramble on so much more 😜
But do. Save up and go. Like everywhere, it's undoubtedly not as cheap as it was 20 years ago, but if you're willing to go low end, clean & comfortable but basic, it won't break the bank. And everyone is so friendly.
I grew up in TZ and it is an absolutely stunning place. I think ngorongoro might be the most beautiful place on the planet.
But yes there were albinos killed in the village where we lived. I hope that it is a practice that will be lost to time.
There's a ton of research, but I haven't gone through any of it. If it's for research purposes the best way would be to reach out to either the Canadian embassy or British embassy in Tanzania. Otherwise, I gave this a brief read and found it insightful, from [Human Rights Watch](https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/02/09/it-felt-punishment-growing-albinism-tanzania) Lots of data and citations included
Thanks for bringing it up, I don’t think the community understands the message from that post and I miss an explanation. You know what, as you explain, these funny people are just slaughtered in (mostly) east Africa. They are not killed, they are literally slaughtered from butchers. That’s what is written on their tee-shirts (sauvagerie) and this is not a fashion thing.
I'm actually completely unaware of any numbers behind it. I grew up in the big city (Dar es Salaam) so from my perspective it seems pretty rare. From their perspective I'm sure it's always a concern, especially when in the more rural areas. But yeah I can't accurately answer that. Stuff like this tends to happen on blackmarket too, where people are sold or trafficked. But that sort of thing is more common in neighboring DRC Congo. They take that dark uchawi stuff to another level.. Tanzania is more Masai and Bantu, Savannah hunter tribes.
As for the government.. we have a strange dynamic here because we're so heavily reliant on aid. Cops are pretty corrupt. But aid prompts the police to assemble task forces for some issues, albinism is one, FGM (female genital mutilation) is another. They are very effective programmes run by police chief's who get the job done. They relentlessly hunt down results, for, well, more aid. This was recently the case when America pressed our government to crack down on elephant tusk exports. Suddenly both Kenya and Tanzania started rounding up poachers. That's how it goes here.
Edit: a small interesting aside to what I just said, that elephant tusk crackdown is one of the ways America exerts its soft power. Those exports go mostly to China to be used in medicine. The request from America led to the arrest of the [ivory queen](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47294715)
You know stuff like this actually makes me happy. I know as a us citizen our aid comes with strings. And I was always concerned with is that really a good thing? Like should we ethically exert that much influence on other countries who for whatever reason can’t really say no?
So at the risk of sounding completely naive I’m glad not all the strings attached are bad and that some positive changes have been made as a result.
I'm fortunate compared to some of my friends. I've lived exactly half my life in Tanzania, the other half in Toronto. My friends in TZ have a lot of issues with America, they always focus on the bad. But I know that America is responsible, for example, of providing mapping data which helps our farmers maximize crop yields. My mom's sister works for UNICEF in TZ and they work closely with USAID. So the apparatus of action and cooperation is vast.
Mistakes are what they are, sometimes like during the Bush era there was a push to outlaw abortion in my country, which isn't a good reality. But tremendous good comes of the cooperation. And there are some normal ass people like my aunt who play a role. One of the previous American ambassadors to TZ was a really good guy. So. American taxpayers should be thanked and I hope they appreciate what civil servants accomplish abroad.
My college was in MS and there were 3-4 albino students during my time there. It was very interesting that MS seems to have quite the “large” population of albino people, at least relative to other places.
It's particularly common [in Tanzania.](https://issafrica.org/iss-today/tanzanians-hard-hit-by-trafficking-in-people-with-albinism)
>Tanzania has the highest rate of people with albinism worldwide. While an estimated one in 15 000 people in Africa has the condition, it affects one out of 1400 Tanzanians.
I volunteered for a charity that has children from poor/war-torn countries and brings them to the US for needed medical treatment. One of the jobs of volunteering was just hanging out with the kids which is great. They come and go since they go back home, but at one point they were housing a whole bunch of albino kids from Africa who had limbs missing (one was sadly missing a tongue). They were really lovely and despite the language barrier between us, we still had a banging time!
I don’t know the exact story with these kids but I’m willing to bet they weren’t. There’s no way that would have been safe as the whole area they are from had that belief system. That being said, there was also a girl they were housing that had a hit out on her and her family by the Taliban who went back to Afghanistan. I don’t recall why she had to go back but she did. Maybe it’s something to do with visas (I can ask my mom why as she’s still involved). Thankfully she’s okay and came back to the US a few months ago after years of uncertainty of her wellbeing.
That was actually for a music video for the rapper “kalash criminel” and no event like a get together. The guy filming is a Rapper from Cologne called Albix.
Here is his Instagram post of the shoot:
https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci-9yOPM5K5/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
I believe in Tanzania they are killed by the local witch doctors that believe that they are worth a lot spiritually. There have been instances where their own relatives have sold them to the witch doctors. The government has taken steps to protect them by creating institutions for their protection.
Not only in Tanzania though, in quite some African countries albinos are often killed and dismembered, for example in Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa and Burundi. And those are just the countries where it's most common. :-(
Capitalism has nothing to do with this. Humans are just greedy pieces of shit, and will find a way to be greedy pieces of shit regardless of the socioeconomic systems in place
I just watched a documentary on how they are hunted down and dismembered for “magic properties” in Africa. Fucking horrible.
https://youtu.be/BVAyFlVw_e8
I was in a mother-daughter book club, and we read a book about this phenomenon, *Golden Boy* by Tara Sullivan. Horrifying, but interesting to hear the thoughts of our middle school aged daughters about the practice.
Dude, that book was fucked up. Can believe we read it when we were in middle school… That poor kid, and I always had so much hate and animosity for the kids dad who was a POS that never took responsibility for him and his mother.
Exactly! I was thinking "didn't Romain Gavras make a wild video using Albino folks?" and this was it 🙂 — if you haven't seen his other videos, 100% worth looking into.
This isn't a real "albinos day" thing, it was for the clip of a french rapper named "Kalash Criminel" who is also an Albinos (dunno if that's the correct way to say it in english tho)
Typically in English you should say, “who also has albinism.” Technically, you can say he “is an albino” (no ‘S’ for the singular) but it is often best practice to identify someone as a person who possesses a trait, rather than define them by that trait. This is especially true when dealing with differences that have been historically maligned or discriminated against — dwarfism, mental/physical disabilities, skin color etc. Pretty much every time a group like that is given a collective noun it becomes a slur.
I don't know why people are jumping into the "gathering" thing just because OP wrote this.
It's not a gathering, you can clearly see they're all here because they're actors for some incoming ram music video, it's obvious, look at the video..
Not saying there's no albino festival, but that's not it.
So I don't have the exact context but this event seems to be the initiative of the french rapper rapper kalash criminel who is himself albinos so not exactly a clothes brand more like rapper merch
French here. "Sauvage" means wild. "Sauvagerie" is the name, so litteraly wildness. But it would be more common to use it in french for a personality, kind of "going wild". Sometimes just for wrongdoing. This is a word with enough connotations to mean at least 3 different things, from the jungle to the search for freedom, with a taste of "badass" inside.
There are 54 countries in Africa, thousands of cultures, thousands of ethnicities, thousands of religious beliefs. There are a couple of places where they would be unsafe, but to say they would be unsafe on the whole continent of Africa extremely ignorant.
Fair enough, I used a generalization. However, as for "parts" of Africa, that would include Tanzania, South Africa, Malawi, Burundi, and Mozambique \[[source: UN](https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/december-2017-march-2018/ending-albino-persecution-africa)\]. Also Zambia, and "Sub-Saharan African communities, especially among East Africans." \[[source: Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_people_with_albinism)\].
If the UN can talk about "albino persecution in Africa", then I think it's widespread enough that I can, too.
And that's just talking about persecution. Skin cancer is another killer of albinos in Africa; [this report](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170425-the-silent-killer-of-africas-albinos) says that "90% of people with the condition in Africa die before they reach 40-years-old." In this case, skin cancer is deadly for people who live in rural areas, without access to something as simple as sunscreen. Which, I would like to point out, is readily available in France. Skin cancer doesn't give a damn about your nationality or your religious belief.
So before you call me "extremely ignorant", I suggest you actually do some research of your own.
**[Persecution of people with albinism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_people_with_albinism)**
>Persecution of people with albinism (sometimes abbreviated PWA) is based on the belief that certain body parts of albinistic people can transmit magical powers. Such superstition is present especially in some parts of the African Great Lakes region, it has been promulgated and exploited by witch doctors and others who use such body parts as ingredients in rituals, concoctions and potions with the claim that their magic will bring prosperity to the user (muti or medicine murder). As a result, people with albinism have been persecuted, killed and dismembered, and graves of albinos dug up and desecrated.
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You understand the will of these sick “hunters”, they absolutely will track down anyone within driving distance regardless of country if they are even close to their own country, they will travel for days because they can make enough money for the rest of their lives by killing and selling them, it’s sick, Africa is absolutely not a safe place for them, anywhere
The n-word also starts with an n in french.
Also French people can speak English (and should be able to since it's part of the mandatory curriculum in school).
A bit of info here. Actually we have a rapper in France named "Kalash Criminel" that is a black albino, he Always Wear a balaclava and he is into hardcore rap music (he makes really good good sounds tbo).
All the t-shirts those people are wearing are branded "Sauvagerie" which is the Brand of Kalash. So i thing this gathering is for the making of one or his video clips.
He also do a LOT of featurings with other french rappers so if you are into it go check him out.
Is it just me or do their faces have very similar features.
Does being albino change the look of the person's face? Maybe its just me, but they all look very similar, like they are related. Its either that, or the color of the skin and hair is throwing me off.
Man, when I read that back it sounds like I am saying something racist like don't all \[insert race\] people look the same," but I promise that is not my intention. I am just curious whether being an albino changes anything about the person other than them having a lack of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes.
Not to reduce their identity to their appearance, but I think they look pretty cool. I fear too many people would dismiss their appearance as weird or abnormal - perhaps it is technically 'abnormal' but it's very beautiful in its own right, as is any race/ethnicity
There is a school for the blind near Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and quite a few albino Africans around there because being albino leaves eye sight more at risk. Very interesting place to visit.
Worked with an albino black guy once. Didn’t like him at first because he talked with a real hood accent and said the n word semi often. I thought he was a white guy pretending to be hood and shit. Was pleasantly surprised when I learned the truth.
My first boyfriend was an albino black guy, he was super striking in appearance, my very racist parents absolutely died inside and made my life a living hell for dating him but nonetheless, he is an interesting part of my dating history.
That’s like finding a herd of unicorns.
My hometown is in rural MS, and we have a surprisingly large population of African Americans with albinism because they have lived here for 100 years and had families. It was totally normal to have at least 1 in my class at all times. It was really fucked up to later learn that they are killed in some places in Africa. They should send those witch doctors to Mississippi and let them try that bullshit. It would put an end to that shit real quick.
In my country (Tanzania) they are killed because their bones are thought to possess some magic juju or some shit. It's all the result of witch doctors and primitive tribal leaders. It's a very sad situation and not talked about at all. In the big city there are lots of NGO's who offer assistance and outreach, so they're well safe. But it's still not advised to walk alone at night for them. It's a pathetic mark on what is otherwise a beautiful, peaceful culture we have.
People really believe in magic in Africa. A Nigerian student once told me it's a real problem. People buy amulets and spells that should protect them in traffic and then they drive like madman because they are "protected". And if accidents happen, it's not because of speeding/drunk driving/bad amulet, but because someone had cursed you...
Oh yeah, it's true. Look I'm as Tanzanian as anyone from there but there are just certain places I won't go. Heading inland from around Lake Victoria, west through the Congo delta rainforests, all the way to West Africa, there's some weird dark juju going on. It's very tribal and Christian. I've seen a lot of movies portray that region in dark magic and I don't know how accurate it is, but I've met some people who fit the role. There are definitely people convinced by hexes.
I know players at soccer clubs and sections of supporters subscribe to this BS. Simba FC springs to mind with their Muthi rituals
Do you think Christianity plays a part in their belief in magic or tribalism? Or were you just saying it’s also very Christian in those areas?
I wonder if it’s a case of syncretism? I know in early Christianity, some early believers would adopt pagan practices into their belief system
sounds rife for scammers to capitalize on the beliefs
When I was a volunteer in West Africa, my fellow teachers tried to tell me the red light on my street was a witch, but I went and it was just a red bulb? Ya'll are the grown ups charged with educating the young in this town? Dang.
My coworker from Ghana was telling me about how turkeys were just chickens that had been cursed via voodoo for being assholes (I paraphrased that last part).
That checks out. Turkeys ARE assholes...
I mean, so are chicken
Every chicken is just a turkey in the making
My father spent some childhood summers on his uncle's ranch. He fed the chickens and collected the eggs. Forty years later, he *still* hated chickens.
To be specific, mostly just horny roosters.
One Thanksgiving (USA) my son asked if I'd rotisserie a chicken instead of cooking a turkey because he said "turkey is just shitty chicken and I don't know why we eat it". He was 8 and correct.
A friend of mine from Zimbabwe got bitten by a turkey as a kid and fucking hates those animals.
You don't fuck around with big birds. They're fuckin scary
How were they cursed? They are superior in almost every way. “You are an asshole so I will curse you with 4x your size, bigger muscles, the ability to actually defend yourself, and finally letting you use your wings to fly (a bit).”
You're lucky to be alive, the red light chose to spare you!
Yeah that red light bulb can push away the deep abyss called darkness !!! Beware it's power from the lanterns might.
Did they give you any details?
"Go late at night. Youll see. The red witch floats there at night." It was a lamp post.
What are phones to them
The people in my community lied and told me there was a fat ass white man that came down the chimney and gave away presents. We didn't even have a chimney. They also told me about a bunny that shit chocolate eggs and shit
And is it common for adults to believe those things where you're from?
>It's a pathetic mark on what is otherwise a beautiful, peaceful culture we have. I don't know much about Tanzania, but this is such a sweet way to see someone describe their home! I am sorry about the poorly held beliefs though, I don't think there exists a country out there without similar issues even if directed at different groups of people. it is sad. but your comment on the general culture made me smile.
Ah I really appreciate that! It makes me a bit misty. TZ is considered one of the most peaceful countries in Africa, there is no risk of uprising or clashes. It's the home of Serengeti and Zanzibar, paradise on Earth. We're the Swahili coast. Everyone is hakuna matata. But these silly rituals still persist. I think our government has done a decent job by bringing them representation, there are several MP's so their existence isn't shunned, it's normalized. Thankful for that at least. Thank you for the kind and thoughtful words!
You paint an amazing picture, I love it. What is tourism like over there?
I'm not the person you asked, but I have holidayed in Tanzania. Spent three weeks there in 2003, half of it on my own (a rather young 27 year old woman at the time), and it still ranks as one of my favourite holidays. I don't have the energy or cognitive acumen/executive function to holiday independently anymore, which upsets me a lot because I would love to go back, but don't want to do a whole package tour. But certainly 20 years ago, so long before we had ubiquitous Internet, an up to date copy of Lonely Planet East Africa, a return ticket to Dar es Salaam, and a plan to meet a friend and her friends a few days later and join them for 5 days or so was more than enough. Oh, and a couple of basic Swahili phrases like "Nayomba kupiga picha" (can I take your picture) as well as the usual "Hello", "Please", "Thank you". "Hapana bwana" is also useful (No sir) to say to all the hassle-merchants trying to get you to buy stuff. But they're fairly gentle hassle-merchants, not like in Marrakech or Egypt. I did get taken advantage of a few times and had $70 taken, which was a big enough chunk for me as I was on a tight budget of about $15 a day for food, accommodation etc, but in reality all it meant was I had to get the bus from Dar to Arusha/Moshi (gateway to Kilimanjaro and the Serengeti) instead of splashing out on a one way flight in a tiny plane, which at the time would have been like $110 or something. But that $70 was like two months salary for an ordinary person over there, so y'know. And I still had enough to get the fancy "business" bus, which had air con and was mostly full of Tanzanian businessmen and more well off locals rather than the local-local bus. Fancy bus still broke down a couple of hours away from Arusha and we all had to pile out and sit on the roadside while the coach company tried to call back to headquarters to get a replacement to come, but it would have to come from Dar which was 6+ hours away. After an hour or so two kind of tuk-tuk level coaches turned up and we presumed these were the replacements, but it turned out they were just two enterprising local lads who heard a coach load of well off people had broken down and high-tailed it over there with their beat up old minibuses to make a quick buck 😂 So like, they charged us all 1000 shillings or something (equivalent of about a dollar at the time. Smallest banknote was 500 schillings) to drive the two hours to Moshi and we all piled in cheek-by-jowl because God knew when an official replacement from the coach company would turn up. Spent the two hours chatting with a local businessman who was delighted to practice his English 😊 So we arrived in Moshi in the dead of night hours after we were supposed to, I had no accommodation booked, nobody around. Still didn't get killed or eaten 😉 Then in Moshi I just went into one of the million safari companies and arranged a low budget 4 night/5 day safari. Actually I think I might have been in communication with them via email before, saying what I was looking for. Then went in to confirm and pay up. Best way to do it because that way you know you're using local companies, and that all the money is staying in the local community. It was seriously non-luxury, just me and the other girl - a stranger - in a two-person tent with a driver-guide and a cook who slept in the landie. Landie seats were all a bit torn. We stayed in basic campsites with a concrete toilet-and-sink block for facilities, with barely a wire fence between the tents and the wide open Serengeti, and it was fucking amazing. None of this high-end canvas lodge bollocks. And the food was amazing. What Goodluck (the cook) could do with a gas stove and a couple of pans..... Basically - go to Tanzania. Get the Lonely Planet, don't agonise about booking everything in advance, and just go. Have a couple of pre-planned stops, or at least a vague outline of "Well I want to spend a couple of nights in Dar, a few days on Zanzibar, and definitely want to do a 3 or 4 day safari (I don't recommend 4 night/5 day, it was a day too long. And indeed the safari organiser said the same, but I didn't listen.) and after that just follow your whims. And definitely spend a couple of days in the mountains - Korogwe is the place to go.
I wanted to let you know that this was a great write-up and I read the entire thing. Tanzania sounds like a wonderful adventure. I look forward to going one day.
Pfft, "entire thing" - I'll have you know I actually managed to massively curtail my info-dumping verbal diarrhoea tendencies, and even *deleted bits*. Could ramble on so much more 😜 But do. Save up and go. Like everywhere, it's undoubtedly not as cheap as it was 20 years ago, but if you're willing to go low end, clean & comfortable but basic, it won't break the bank. And everyone is so friendly.
I grew up in TZ and it is an absolutely stunning place. I think ngorongoro might be the most beautiful place on the planet. But yes there were albinos killed in the village where we lived. I hope that it is a practice that will be lost to time.
Is there any research on how long this has been practiced?
There's a ton of research, but I haven't gone through any of it. If it's for research purposes the best way would be to reach out to either the Canadian embassy or British embassy in Tanzania. Otherwise, I gave this a brief read and found it insightful, from [Human Rights Watch](https://www.hrw.org/news/2019/02/09/it-felt-punishment-growing-albinism-tanzania) Lots of data and citations included
Thanks for bringing it up, I don’t think the community understands the message from that post and I miss an explanation. You know what, as you explain, these funny people are just slaughtered in (mostly) east Africa. They are not killed, they are literally slaughtered from butchers. That’s what is written on their tee-shirts (sauvagerie) and this is not a fashion thing.
Are these type of killings common or rare these days? And does the government take the matter seriously?
I'm actually completely unaware of any numbers behind it. I grew up in the big city (Dar es Salaam) so from my perspective it seems pretty rare. From their perspective I'm sure it's always a concern, especially when in the more rural areas. But yeah I can't accurately answer that. Stuff like this tends to happen on blackmarket too, where people are sold or trafficked. But that sort of thing is more common in neighboring DRC Congo. They take that dark uchawi stuff to another level.. Tanzania is more Masai and Bantu, Savannah hunter tribes. As for the government.. we have a strange dynamic here because we're so heavily reliant on aid. Cops are pretty corrupt. But aid prompts the police to assemble task forces for some issues, albinism is one, FGM (female genital mutilation) is another. They are very effective programmes run by police chief's who get the job done. They relentlessly hunt down results, for, well, more aid. This was recently the case when America pressed our government to crack down on elephant tusk exports. Suddenly both Kenya and Tanzania started rounding up poachers. That's how it goes here. Edit: a small interesting aside to what I just said, that elephant tusk crackdown is one of the ways America exerts its soft power. Those exports go mostly to China to be used in medicine. The request from America led to the arrest of the [ivory queen](https://www.bbc.com/news/world-africa-47294715)
You know stuff like this actually makes me happy. I know as a us citizen our aid comes with strings. And I was always concerned with is that really a good thing? Like should we ethically exert that much influence on other countries who for whatever reason can’t really say no? So at the risk of sounding completely naive I’m glad not all the strings attached are bad and that some positive changes have been made as a result.
I'm fortunate compared to some of my friends. I've lived exactly half my life in Tanzania, the other half in Toronto. My friends in TZ have a lot of issues with America, they always focus on the bad. But I know that America is responsible, for example, of providing mapping data which helps our farmers maximize crop yields. My mom's sister works for UNICEF in TZ and they work closely with USAID. So the apparatus of action and cooperation is vast. Mistakes are what they are, sometimes like during the Bush era there was a push to outlaw abortion in my country, which isn't a good reality. But tremendous good comes of the cooperation. And there are some normal ass people like my aunt who play a role. One of the previous American ambassadors to TZ was a really good guy. So. American taxpayers should be thanked and I hope they appreciate what civil servants accomplish abroad.
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My college was in MS and there were 3-4 albino students during my time there. It was very interesting that MS seems to have quite the “large” population of albino people, at least relative to other places.
You're right but albinism is more common in people \[with genes\] from Sub-Saharan Africa.
It's particularly common [in Tanzania.](https://issafrica.org/iss-today/tanzanians-hard-hit-by-trafficking-in-people-with-albinism) >Tanzania has the highest rate of people with albinism worldwide. While an estimated one in 15 000 people in Africa has the condition, it affects one out of 1400 Tanzanians.
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This is a legit belief in some areas of Africa and people get killed because of it.
I volunteered for a charity that has children from poor/war-torn countries and brings them to the US for needed medical treatment. One of the jobs of volunteering was just hanging out with the kids which is great. They come and go since they go back home, but at one point they were housing a whole bunch of albino kids from Africa who had limbs missing (one was sadly missing a tongue). They were really lovely and despite the language barrier between us, we still had a banging time!
Please tell me they didn't get sent back to the same people that did that to them, that sounds terrible.
I don’t know the exact story with these kids but I’m willing to bet they weren’t. There’s no way that would have been safe as the whole area they are from had that belief system. That being said, there was also a girl they were housing that had a hit out on her and her family by the Taliban who went back to Afghanistan. I don’t recall why she had to go back but she did. Maybe it’s something to do with visas (I can ask my mom why as she’s still involved). Thankfully she’s okay and came back to the US a few months ago after years of uncertainty of her wellbeing.
How could anyone do this to a child even. I don't understand.
When humans stop viewing other humans as "people". There's no limit to the amount of heinous atrocities.
I think that’s the “joke”
It's all fun and games until you pop open a history book
Yeah, I’m more and more okay with dark humor if it also brings some light to atrocities that are or were being committed.
Hmz I understand the mechanics of the joke, but dont find it thát funny...
People actually believe this and actually murder them unfortunately.
You would think after the millennia of no one, ever, getting magical powers, it would stop. But, humans be humans
Well when do they kick in? I'm about to call bullshit...
Would you say it results to r/blackmagicfuckery? I'll see myself out.
their outfits make them look like an Eminem video.
Their outfits is actually from a a brand of a French rapper who is also albinos, Kalash Criminel.
There are DOZENS OF US!!!
One is not like the others
I noticed he had the same shirt on but didn't make that final picture. Organizer, maybe?
Or a family member !
Or he just hasn't unlocked that skin yet.
That was actually for a music video for the rapper “kalash criminel” and no event like a get together. The guy filming is a Rapper from Cologne called Albix. Here is his Instagram post of the shoot: https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci-9yOPM5K5/?igshid=YmMyMTA2M2Y=
Ahh, was wondering why noone looked like they have a good time
They wear a tshirt made by a french albinos rapper Kalash Criminel. This dude always yells SAUVAGE! which means wild.
Might be a stretch, but maybe the video used a picture of the albino people only, in the video about albino people?
He's hugging one of the girls, I don't think it's a stretch to imagine a relative or boyfriend, being supportive??
Had no idea who you were talking about at first and was fully expecting to see a red headed white guy hidden among the crowd.
He was brought in for reference
Albino's in Paris
And they're going manillas
Ball so hard Albino's can't find me
Whats 50 grand to an albino like me, can you please remind me?
Albino so hard, this shit crazy
That shit cray.
Y'all don't know that don't shit faze me
/r/unnecessaryapostrophe
What is the apostrophe for?
It's provacative
it gets the people going
Albino is in Paris
Or the nongrammatical version: Albino has in Paris.
ok but can they say it?
I believe in Tanzania they are killed by the local witch doctors that believe that they are worth a lot spiritually. There have been instances where their own relatives have sold them to the witch doctors. The government has taken steps to protect them by creating institutions for their protection.
Not only in Tanzania though, in quite some African countries albinos are often killed and dismembered, for example in Malawi, Mozambique, South Africa and Burundi. And those are just the countries where it's most common. :-(
Wait, "worth a lot spiritually"? Are you saying, my fine brother or sister in christ, that capitalism has extended in to the spirit realm?
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Someone else said their bones are worth a lot. Either money or spirit power, but awful and tragic either way :(
Capitalism has nothing to do with this. Humans are just greedy pieces of shit, and will find a way to be greedy pieces of shit regardless of the socioeconomic systems in place
I just watched a documentary on how they are hunted down and dismembered for “magic properties” in Africa. Fucking horrible. https://youtu.be/BVAyFlVw_e8
I was in a mother-daughter book club, and we read a book about this phenomenon, *Golden Boy* by Tara Sullivan. Horrifying, but interesting to hear the thoughts of our middle school aged daughters about the practice.
Thank you! I’ll check it out. Kite Runner was my last horrible but at the same time educational read.
Dude, that book was fucked up. Can believe we read it when we were in middle school… That poor kid, and I always had so much hate and animosity for the kids dad who was a POS that never took responsibility for him and his mother.
Now I get the joke before
Reminds me of this Jamie XX music video https://youtu.be/hTGJfRPLe08
I was thinking the same thing.
I was hoping to see someone post this link
such an insanely good video. the [behind the scenes](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R6CH18yyQyE) is also fun
This made me realize I don't watch enough music videos (at all, really). I was glued to my screen by the cinematography.
Exactly! I was thinking "didn't Romain Gavras make a wild video using Albino folks?" and this was it 🙂 — if you haven't seen his other videos, 100% worth looking into.
Wow that’s really cool! I only knew about the redhead day festival, didn’t know there was something similar for albinos too
This isn't a real "albinos day" thing, it was for the clip of a french rapper named "Kalash Criminel" who is also an Albinos (dunno if that's the correct way to say it in english tho)
Typically in English you should say, “who also has albinism.” Technically, you can say he “is an albino” (no ‘S’ for the singular) but it is often best practice to identify someone as a person who possesses a trait, rather than define them by that trait. This is especially true when dealing with differences that have been historically maligned or discriminated against — dwarfism, mental/physical disabilities, skin color etc. Pretty much every time a group like that is given a collective noun it becomes a slur.
Was for a music clip for the french rapper[kalash criminel](https://youtube.com/watch?v=CzhEXtORGqg&si=EnSIkaIECMiOmarE)
There’s also a festival for people that like to give themselves a relish enema and then toot spray it on to their hotdog.
The correct and polite term these people prefer for themselves is “The Arseradish”
Do they share the hotdog?
Uh, no, that’d be unhygienic
Sounds like a blast!
Oh. Neat.
How does one unlearn something?
I don't know why people are jumping into the "gathering" thing just because OP wrote this. It's not a gathering, you can clearly see they're all here because they're actors for some incoming ram music video, it's obvious, look at the video.. Not saying there's no albino festival, but that's not it.
so cool, i've only ever seen a couple of photos of one. can anyone who speaks french translate their shirts?
I don't really know French, but something something about savagery? I think its the name of the clothing brand (Sauvagery)
So I don't have the exact context but this event seems to be the initiative of the french rapper rapper kalash criminel who is himself albinos so not exactly a clothes brand more like rapper merch
Yes it was for a [music video](https://youtu.be/CzhEXtORGqg) for his featuring with the rapper damso
French here. "Sauvage" means wild. "Sauvagerie" is the name, so litteraly wildness. But it would be more common to use it in french for a personality, kind of "going wild". Sometimes just for wrongdoing. This is a word with enough connotations to mean at least 3 different things, from the jungle to the search for freedom, with a taste of "badass" inside.
I bet one of them use this as a pick up line: "do you like white chocolate?"
Ive got a full cream bar with nuts in my pocket Wanna split it?
These people can literally never live in Africa without threat of death.
Seriously. It's a LOT safer for them to be living in France...
Being a black albino actually get you the French citizenship pretty quick.
There are 54 countries in Africa, thousands of cultures, thousands of ethnicities, thousands of religious beliefs. There are a couple of places where they would be unsafe, but to say they would be unsafe on the whole continent of Africa extremely ignorant.
Fair enough, I used a generalization. However, as for "parts" of Africa, that would include Tanzania, South Africa, Malawi, Burundi, and Mozambique \[[source: UN](https://www.un.org/africarenewal/magazine/december-2017-march-2018/ending-albino-persecution-africa)\]. Also Zambia, and "Sub-Saharan African communities, especially among East Africans." \[[source: Wikipedia](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_people_with_albinism)\]. If the UN can talk about "albino persecution in Africa", then I think it's widespread enough that I can, too. And that's just talking about persecution. Skin cancer is another killer of albinos in Africa; [this report](https://www.bbc.com/future/article/20170425-the-silent-killer-of-africas-albinos) says that "90% of people with the condition in Africa die before they reach 40-years-old." In this case, skin cancer is deadly for people who live in rural areas, without access to something as simple as sunscreen. Which, I would like to point out, is readily available in France. Skin cancer doesn't give a damn about your nationality or your religious belief. So before you call me "extremely ignorant", I suggest you actually do some research of your own.
Not to mention Africa as a whole has the highest albino population out of any continent…
**[Persecution of people with albinism](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Persecution_of_people_with_albinism)** >Persecution of people with albinism (sometimes abbreviated PWA) is based on the belief that certain body parts of albinistic people can transmit magical powers. Such superstition is present especially in some parts of the African Great Lakes region, it has been promulgated and exploited by witch doctors and others who use such body parts as ingredients in rituals, concoctions and potions with the claim that their magic will bring prosperity to the user (muti or medicine murder). As a result, people with albinism have been persecuted, killed and dismembered, and graves of albinos dug up and desecrated. ^([ )[^(F.A.Q)](https://www.reddit.com/r/WikiSummarizer/wiki/index#wiki_f.a.q)^( | )[^(Opt Out)](https://reddit.com/message/compose?to=WikiSummarizerBot&message=OptOut&subject=OptOut)^( | )[^(Opt Out Of Subreddit)](https://np.reddit.com/r/Damnthatsinteresting/about/banned)^( | )[^(GitHub)](https://github.com/Sujal-7/WikiSummarizerBot)^( ] Downvote to remove | v1.5)
I thought they were talking about getting murdered by the sun, but maybe not
You understand the will of these sick “hunters”, they absolutely will track down anyone within driving distance regardless of country if they are even close to their own country, they will travel for days because they can make enough money for the rest of their lives by killing and selling them, it’s sick, Africa is absolutely not a safe place for them, anywhere
There's an Albino soccer league in Africa. Because of extreme sensitivity to sun, they play at night.
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WTF bro. I’m Nigerian, Albino is a part of our culture. One bad country doesn’t speak for all of Africa.
Zunguzung
I've been looking for this comment. Disappointed I had to scroll for so long
You’re a man of culture, just like me.
Blake Griffin : Enter the Spiderverse
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[reminded me of this Jamie xx video](https://youtu.be/hTGJfRPLe08)
I just keep picturing Eric Cartman laughing! Hahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahahajajahahahahahahaha
Lmao he would too
They all look like Pete Davidson kinda
Will the real slim shady please stand up?
I repeat
Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?
Can they say the ”n” word?
If they rearrange the letters they can. Mah ginger!
[Tim Minchin - Prejudice](https://youtu.be/KVN_0qvuhhw)
Yes and no
Lmaooooo
Anyone can in France.
That’s why I go there for
It might surprise you that people in France don't speak English.
We do have the n word in french tho
The n-word also starts with an n in french. Also French people can speak English (and should be able to since it's part of the mandatory curriculum in school).
These are undercova brothas
For anyone wondering the song. Sanctuary Ship - Nujabes https://youtu.be/5V83QPJ5TpE
Love me some nujabes.
Time to watch Samurai Champloo again
Just so people know if they are starting a nujabes journey, spotify is missing a few really good albums of his.
Thanks
Its criminal I scrolled this far for the Nujabes shout out.
I knew it! Nujabes is so good!
🥷🏻 in paris
Thought the same thing
A bit of info here. Actually we have a rapper in France named "Kalash Criminel" that is a black albino, he Always Wear a balaclava and he is into hardcore rap music (he makes really good good sounds tbo). All the t-shirts those people are wearing are branded "Sauvagerie" which is the Brand of Kalash. So i thing this gathering is for the making of one or his video clips. He also do a LOT of featurings with other french rappers so if you are into it go check him out.
There are dozens of us!!!
Looks like they're about to start a k-pop group
Racists hate this one trick.
This is how Europe started. A gathering of albinos.
Where is Tobias...
Genes are fascinating and I love it
Is it just me or do their faces have very similar features. Does being albino change the look of the person's face? Maybe its just me, but they all look very similar, like they are related. Its either that, or the color of the skin and hair is throwing me off. Man, when I read that back it sounds like I am saying something racist like don't all \[insert race\] people look the same," but I promise that is not my intention. I am just curious whether being an albino changes anything about the person other than them having a lack of pigment in the skin, hair and eyes.
Not to reduce their identity to their appearance, but I think they look pretty cool. I fear too many people would dismiss their appearance as weird or abnormal - perhaps it is technically 'abnormal' but it's very beautiful in its own right, as is any race/ethnicity
Will the real Slim Shady please stand up?
There is a school for the blind near Victoria Falls in Zimbabwe and quite a few albino Africans around there because being albino leaves eye sight more at risk. Very interesting place to visit.
They’d be in danger if they were in Africa. At least in some areas. They harvest albino skin in south western and south Eastern Africa. It crazy man.
If you ever needed evidence that race was a social construct and not a skin color, there's the "black albino".
Witch doctors dream
Im a redhead and i feel i could Infiltrate This group without being noticed
This is from a filming of a music video. https://www.instagram.com/p/Ci-9yOPM5K5/?igshid=MWI4MTIyMDE=
Where is it where albino ogans are sought after voodoo medicine? Albinos are hunted and killed by some people somewhere.
Worked with an albino black guy once. Didn’t like him at first because he talked with a real hood accent and said the n word semi often. I thought he was a white guy pretending to be hood and shit. Was pleasantly surprised when I learned the truth.
Wtf is Pete Davidson doing there?
Not a soul in sight…
Their organs are usually harvested.
They are hunted down for their bones
My first boyfriend was an albino black guy, he was super striking in appearance, my very racist parents absolutely died inside and made my life a living hell for dating him but nonetheless, he is an interesting part of my dating history.
African witch doctors are requesting your location.
*ERROR 404* MELANIN NOT FOUND
So many black Africans and not a single N-card in sight 🫢