a family at Kabanga Protectorate Center, Tanzania
albino children playing with mosquito netting at the Kabanga Protectorate Center, Tanzania
a schoolgirl at the Kabanga Protectorate Center, Tanzania
Nengo villager Maajabu Boaz with a knife, Tanzania
gold traders selling cures in a market to make money
Angel Salvatory shopping for cloth to protect himself from the sun, Kabanga Village, Tanzania
two young girls at Kabanga Protectorate Center, Tanzania
children playing outside at the Kabanga Protectorate Center compound, Tanzania
a woman holding her daughter at the Kabanga Protectorate Center, Tanzania
1 of 9
Persecuted Over PigmentBeing an albino can be a death sentence in Tanzania. Since 2006, 71 people with no pigment in their skin, hair, or eyes have been killed there. Another 29 have been attacked.

The genetic condition is believed to have been born in this East African nation. Today, 1 in every 1,400 Tanzanians has it (the world average is 1 in 20,000). Nevertheless, misinformation abounds. Some locals believe albinos are ghosts that can’t die. Others think they were born into cursed families. And—most chillingly—witch doctors want to hack off  their limbs to put in magic potions promising prosperity and healing. A complete albino “set”—ears, tongue, nose, genitals, all four limbs—can sell for $75,000.

As a result, many of Tanzania’s 17,000 albinos have been hidden away by the government. In this image, Bestida Salvatory is reunited with her 17-year-old daughter, Angel, at the Kabanga Protectorate Center. Angel, who has skin cancer, was forced to flee their home four years ago, after Angel’s own father led a group of men to attack her. Here Angel also visits her one-year-old half-brother, Ezekiel.

Sasha Ingber

Photograph by Jacquelyn Martin, AP

Pictures: Inside the Lives of Albinos in Tanzania

A genetic condition surrounded in myth puts the lives and limbs of albinos in Tanzania at stake.

January 27, 2013

Go Further