This story about Tanzanian albino children has become very popular thanks to the photographer Eric Laforgue who documented it.
The country in which they live is developing according to its own laws. Here they believe sorcerers, and they believe that the flesh of such people brings good luck.
Presidential elections are coming soon in Tanzania. And this threatens an increased danger for albinos to be caught.
The photographer visited the Under the Same Sun charity, which houses albino children. Why there? Because it's safe there.
The organization is able to provide these special people with constant protection. Even on a regular walk, she does not let them out unattended.
“In Tanzania, albino bodies are worth their weight in gold. Sorcerers use parts of their bodies - noses, genitals, tongues, fingers and ears - to prepare potions that supposedly bring happiness,”explains Eric Laforgue.
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One could consider this story a well-made legend, if not for the statistical facts confirming its reality.
In 2000, there were 76 murders of albinos here. And this is only from the number of officially registered ones. The cost of the limbs of these people without melanin in the skin varies from 500 to 75 thousand dollars. Given that the average salary in Tanzania is only $ 40.
14-year-old Emmanuel Festo, with whom the photographer managed to talk, had a chance to survive the attack. His arm was cut off to the elbow. In the future, he wants to take the post of prime minister and regulate the situation with albinos at the state level.
A girl in Kabul Ngarango at the age of 12 also had her hand chopped off when she was just sleeping. Now her dream is to become a lawyer to protect her own kind.
Six-year-old Barak Kosmas had his hand cut off at the age of three. The investigation suspected 17 people of this. And the culprit was his own father. He sold the limb for $ 5,000.
“While the hand was being cut off, I did not feel pain. As soon as they left, it hurt so much that I screamed. I recognized one of the attackers as my uncle,”recalls the 17-year-old victim Kulwa Lusana.
Mariam is 32 years old. When her body was assassinated, she was left without hands and lost a child, with whom she was then pregnant. After the incident, the woman began to live on the territory of a charitable organization and take care of its little inhabitants.
There are many such stories. The only fault of their participants is that they were born albinos in a country where the cult of witchcraft reigns.
Those Tanzanians who call themselves sorcerers are ready to pay big money for the flesh of albinos, since they themselves receive even more from their clients and remain with a profit.
With the money of foreign countries, special boarding schools are being built for albinos, in order to at least save their lives and isolate them from a hostile society. But this does not help to fundamentally solve the problem of objectionable attitude to those suffering from skin pigmentation disorders.