Encomium
In a bid to stem a surge in the murder of people with albinism, whose body parts are sold for witchcraft, Tanzania today (January 14) banned witchdoctors, officials have said.
The ban follows last month’s kidnapping of a 4-year-old girl by men armed with machetes, who took her from her home in the northern Mwanza region. Police have since arrested 15 people, including the girl’s father and two uncles, but she remains missing.
In the words Isaac Nantanga, Tanzania’s spokesman: “These so-called witches bear responsibility for the attacks against albinos”.
As well as the ban, the government has launched an education campaign to end the killings. Albinism is a hereditary genetic condition which causes an absence of pigmentation in the skin, hair and eyes, and affects one Tanzanian in 1,400, experts say. Albino body parts sell for around $600 in Tanzania, with an entire corpse fetching $75,000, a fortune in the impoverished
country.
