The white black 
The muffled drums beat, a clear voice sings. Ntanga David and his ten-member dance group moving to the beat. The crowd holds its breath as the troops synchronously forward jumps. The music dies away, applause breaks out. A long whistle from one of the back row hurts in the ears. A few hundred people have gathered to watch the performance; Ntanga is satisfied. "There are more and more people cheering for us and say: Keep it up," says the mid-thirties in jeans and short-sleeved khaki shirt. "But the majority still believes that we can not. Finally, we have only albinos. "
" Albino Cultural Liberation Front "is the title Ntangas Ensemble, and the name says it all. With dance, music, theater and film screenings, the group toured for weeks through Tanzania and neighboring countries occurs in clubs and on dusty village squares on . 'We want to show people that we are normal people, "says Ntanga." For many ordinary people it is the first time that they see deliberately an albino and not look away just disgusted. "
The struggle for greater understanding for their difference in Tanzania is not only a question of emancipation, but of survival. About a year ago began the first ritual killings, which were albinos live arms or legs chopped off. Others were killed before they withdrew the skin. "After sunset I'm not on the road traveling," says Ntanga who lives in the slums of Tanzania's three-million-metropolis of Dar es Salaam.
Tanzania is regarded as the country with the most albinos, an estimated 200,000 of which are registered but only 4,000. spent shady side of healers also heard that they can make their owners rich, is trading in albino body parts is big business. The police estimated the number of killings to more than 40 Ernest Kimayo but believes that there are many more that they were the authorities were simply never reported. He also considered twice, where he goes. "I'm even afraid to go during the day in an office or meet business partners, because I can not be sure if the person does not want me to sell to the murderer," says the chairman of the Tanzania Albino Association. throwing to the eyebrows, the black Tanzanians the pale albino, Kimayo has become accustomed to. The fact that people change the street when he comes, it does not touch. "As a child I always wanted to grope all: If we have to touch the skin flows, blood out immediately, said the" recalls Kimayo. But ignorance and discrimination are one thing. "It was We never really good, but have such a horror as now we have never experienced. "
In his small, stuffy office on the grounds of the Ocean Road Hospital, one of the largest hospitals in the city collects Kimayo the stories of the victims. The worst he says, the situation in western Tanzania, where the belief in spirits is widespread. striking many deaths had occurred in the villages on Lake Victoria, because Fischer albino hair weave in their networks and to hope for a greater yield. Even in the mines of the region it is believed that the use of albino body parts brings happiness when prospecting.
Esther Charles was only ten years old when they by a gang in his parents' Hut in her village Shilela was detected. The cheerful girl with white hair and sensitive eyes, was murdered brutally, with machetes cut literally in pieces. Fingers, eyes, genitals, or even a piece of skin to bring the murderers far more money than they could otherwise earn in a month, knows Kimayo.
client of cruel persecutors are recognized healer. And they are inseparable from the Tanzanian life. "Entrepreneurs Albino skull lay on its gold mine to increase the gold in a magical way to the surface," says Kimayo. "Fischer albino meat used as bait, because they believe that the fish caught have any gold in the belly. "Are Others believe that to have their diseases cured by albino body parts. On the road Kimayo hears constantly whispering.
In the tiny town Kimnyak in Western Tanzania, at the foot of the 4,600 m high Mount Meru, lives seven-year Metili Mollel with his grandparents, he is a true "white Maasai" -... an albino boy from the East African pastoral people until last year was his worst enemy is the sun, which burns his skin mercilessly wanted Then his father to kill him, because in the Maasai are albinos as the incarnation of the devil. grandfather Samuel Mollel saved his grandson's life and took on him, even though the family only a few cows and live goats and some corn. "I can not alone on the street," says the boy. "Not even the neighbors I can go alone." On the road it is called "Zero Zero" insulted - as a brood of the devil. He still sees the epithets, but his grandparents know. In the beautiful, empty savannah, the police is far away, and albinos are defenseless. "Actually, the boy never alone. We have also warned him to accept candy from strangers," says the grandfather.
Even the school is no safe place for Metili dar. "My eyes are bad, I do not see often, which is on the board. The teacher wants me in a special school going, "says the boy in a low voice in all of Tanzania, there is only one such special school -.... in the distant capital, Dar es Salaam Metili sits in the shadow of the house, he is a lonely boy Playing outside is dangerous because the sun is skin cancer caused and may give ambush killer. is to stay in the house the best, but it makes a prisoner from him.
Not far from Kimnyak, in the town of Arusha to prepare albinos against the self-defense. "I have the first deposit made for a pistol, "said Godson Mollel, chairman of the Department of Arusha national organization Chama cha albinos, although only just over 200 members added. He is not with the small Metili used - most of the Maasai in Arusha region Mollel hot or Leyser. Godson Mollel is afraid. "I have to protect myself, because the authorities do not."
To read his gun permit, has to keep the 40-year-old piece of paper very close to her eyes. The question of whether it is dangerous to own a gun if he can see hardly for him is not relevant. "I'm afraid," he justified. "During the day I hardly dare to the streets, and at night I lock myself at home. A gun gives me peace of mind."
can in his downtown office, he barely receive. There is just enough for a Table and a chair. Through the open window, noise from the nearby market to penetrate into it - a different world. "I rarely have fun in life," says Godson Mollel. "Last week, an albino is just bled to death while his attackers chopped off his legs, penis and scrotum. Then they shaved off his hair." The grave of an albino, who recently died of natural causes in Arusha, had to be covered with concrete. "Only then can his family be sure that at night the Wizards come to dig up the corpse," says Godson.
It is difficult to muster sympathy for his potential murderers. And yet it is what Al-Shaymaa Kwegyir again in the distant capital, Dar es Salaam daily New tries. "People are poor and uneducated," defended the only Member of Parliament of Tanzania Albino those who seek it and other albino animals for life. "Nobody has ever told them that we are normal people." Also Kwegyir was teased as a child, "No" they called their classmates or "spirit." Now Kwegyir of Tanzania's President Jakaya Kikwete has appointed himself to MPs. "When he called me, could I grasp hard to believe that he thinks I can work just as good as a normal person", it bursts out of the long-standing activist. The always belonged prejudices have left scars. "When I applied for a job, I was as Only one not invited for an interview because the employers thought. The can in any case nothing
the past, says Kwegyir, albinos were often killed after birth. "They were drowned, or you have them turned around his neck. An albino baby was considered a curse. "Your mother has Kwegyir never forget that she has assured her again and again how very fond of her daughter." She said God wanted me this way, "says Kwegyir, and her eyes are moist. "This gives me the strength today to travel through the country and operate reconnaissance."
The series of killings subsided in recent years. This is the opinion of the representatives also helped that the Government now blown to hunt for the killer albino has - with the average of the denunciation. "We have set up all over the ballot boxes and voting booths, and under cover of anonymity, people could write down the names of those they deem guilty." Kwegyir believes that at least four types of gangsters earn on Albino business. "There are scouts who check out where albinos live, there is the murderer, the ones that separate the body parts for sale, and finally there are the customers."
Currently, the government together lists of all persons who fall into these categories. What exactly happened to the suspects, white Kwegyir not - after all, there are also Tanzania laws governing the prosecution. "We wanted to make the murderers, especially fear, and we succeeded." More than 200 people were arrested, Godson Mollel confirmed in Arusha - yet no one was convicted.
The albino self-help groups can not give up. They lodged together with human rights organizations appeal to the Supreme Court because the government does not protect life and health of albinos and thus violates the Tanzanian Constitution. Last week began hearings on the merits.
the sensitization of the public for the Tanzanian albinos is new - like the attention to the secret world of faith healers. Maimuna Ramadhani has in Arusha a tiny shop wedged between a tailor and a hairdresser. She sells herbs for a variety of diseases and conditions. They do not use albino body parts, she says, "not even the blood of animals. I work with just plants and roots. I am a natural healer, not a magician." Yet it also offers a oil for the face, is supposed to bring luck.
"I do not think that the Tanzanian wizards are responsible," she says to the murders and has made a professional statement. "You have to separate the skin from the flesh this you need chemicals, and which we have in Tanzania as little as knowledge about it. " The government has provisionally all natural healers and magicians work prohibited. But the business is going on as before.
Nobody seems to know why the wave of violence began against albinos 2007th Godson Mollel believes Nigerian TV movies are to blame. The dramas are full of ghosts, wizards and wonder. Nigeria is the belief that albinos possess extraordinary powers, is widespread. They are often invited to pronounce blessings, such as the occupation of a new house or opening a new business. There, their difference is a positive connotation.
The cheaply produced and sold Nigerian videos, as "Nollywood" are known, distributed in Africa. "Disappears, the border between fiction and reality for stupid people, "Godson says Mollel." Somehow there must be a few people have brought on deadly thoughts "Even the activist Kimayo warns." On television, always run more Nigerian series and movies in which spirit healers have a nearly unlimited power. The course that traditionally already powerful healer strengthens the village. "
to this the greed. In the beginning, undermined the buyer still bodies of albinos in cemeteries to meet the demand. But earning a full albino body up to 350,000 €, joined across the country head-hunters the hunt. In Kenya, there have been the first murder. In Burundi, where on 19 May in the city near the border Ruyigi to Tanzania when the first trial for a series of albino killings, the chief prosecutor of the border region of all Albinos area has lodged in his house, he protects like a fortress. The long march to Ruyigi put most major roads in the back cover of darkness.
(Copyright with the daily newspaper, 29/05/2009)
