26 Dec 2009

TANZANIA / ALBINOS

The mistaken belief that albino body parts have magical powers has driven albino people in Tanzania into hiding, fearful of losing their lives and limbs to unscrupulous dealers. UNTV

Posted at: December 26, 2009 12:01 am

Duration: 06:52

Available in: SD

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Full script

STORY: TANZANIA / ALBINOS 
TRT: 6.52 
SOURCE: 21ST CENTURY 
RESTRICTIONS: NONE 
LANGUAGE: ENGLISH / SWAHILI / NATS

DATELINE: APRIL 2009, NORTHERN TANZANIA

SHOTLIST:

APRIL 2009, NORTHERN TANZANIA

1. Wide shot, rural landscape 
2. Various shots, Miriam being fed by mother while her son looks 
3. Wide shot, Miriam walking in patio 
4. Various shots, mother assisting Miriam with prosthetic arms 
5. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Ash, businessman, albino: 
The core of this is not about poverty fundamentally. It's about witchcraft and it's about evil and it's about and it's about discrimination." 
6. Various shots, Peter talking with other albinos 
7. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Ash, businessman, albino: 
 "I cried myself to sleep the first day I spent hearing the stories. I couldn't believe it that, you know, children and women and men were being chopped apart for their body parts and being used in potions." 
8. Various shots, albino youth 
9. Various shots, missing limbs

GOOGLE GRAPH

10. Close up, google map

APRIL 2009, NORTHERN TANZANIA

11. Various shots, mother helping Miriam dress 
12. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Miriam, albino: 
"The leader had a machete, a torch and a bottle. He started to cut me up. He totally cut off this arm and gave it to the man with him. I was being slaughtered like a goat."   
13. Med shot, Marisa and Leontine 
14. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Miriam, albino: 
 "Miriam started to bleed and then I saw that her other hand was dangling." 
15. Various shots, Miriam outside house 
16. Various shots, Miriam's mother Geodisia, preparing food 
17. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Geodisia, Miriams mother: 
"She can't eat, she can't dress, she can't wash herself. I have to do everything. I don't know how to cope because I've got small children." 
18. Wide shot, albino football team   
19. Various shots, albino men and women 
20. Various shots, hospital with albinos with skin deceases 
21. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Semini, albino: 
 "People always call us names. That we are zero zero, that we are albinos…" 
22. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Ash, businessman, albino: 
"The notion is that they are magical. They're not human like us, they're ghosts. Right? And so if you've got these ghost-like creatures – (a) it's not bad killing them, because they're not human beings anyway, and (b) if you kill the ghost and have a part of its body and can harness it and use it for your own ends, you'll have magical power. So you really need to understand that to understand this crime." 
23. Various shots, female witchdoctor with other women 
24. Various shots, albino men and boys 
25. Various shots, witchdoctor and patients 
26. Various shots, Milanda out of her hut 
27. SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Milanda James, witchdoctor:   
"People are accusing us, but I don't know what they're talking about. We are healers; we are not involved in this albino issue." 
28. Med shot, Peter ash gets off plane 
29. Various shots, Peter Ash with prime minister 
30. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Ash, businessman, albino: 
"We want justice to roll like a river for people of albinism in this country and I know you want that". 
31. SOUNDBITE (English) Raila Odinga, Prime Minister, Tanzania: 
"We have what we call probably a headache in the prosecution process." 
32. Various shots, Peter ash with prime minister 
33. Various shots, Miriam 
34. SOUNDBITE (English) Githu Muigai, Special Rapporteur on Racism, United Nations: 
"That is a gross violation of the right to be a human being. The government of Tanzania cannot succeed –or indeed any other government cannot succeed, without the population, the local population, buying in to the effort to eradicate these practises, supporting the law and order enforcement machinery, in finding the perpetrators, apprehending them and punishing them." 
35. Close up, hands typing 
34. Close up, Githu Muigai 
35. SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Ash, businessman, albino: 
"My dream would be that we would have educated, capable hard working people with albinism, that the average Tanzanian citizen would see these people in all walks of life, contributing to all kinds of different jobs in society and that over time they would just become integrated into society, just like anybody else, as they have been in North America and Europe."   
36. Various shots, Miriam's sisters under tree 
37. Wide shot, Miriam with her mother 
38. Various shots, Miriam with her son 
39. Med shot, Miriam singing

STORYLINE:

In a remote rural district of northern Tanzania, a 28-year-old woman has to be fed by her own mother. She can do nothing to help her three-year-old son.

She is a victim of a brutal assault – targeted because she's an albino – she lacks pigmentation in her skin, eyes and hair. Attacks like this have been multiplying.

SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Ash, businessman, albino: 
The core of this is not about poverty fundamentally. It's about witchcraft and it's about evil and it's about and it's about discrimination."

A year ago, half way around the world, Canadian business man Peter Ash, an albino himself, read about the attacks.

SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Ash, businessman, albino: 
 "I cried myself to sleep the first day I spent hearing the stories. I couldn't believe it that, you know, children and women and men were being chopped apart for their body parts and being used in potions."

In the Mwanza region around Lake Victoria in Northern Tanzania, more than 50 albinos have been murdered in the last two years. The attacks are spurred by rumours that potions made from albino blood, skin, and body parts can bring wealth and good fortune.

Last October, Miriam was several months pregnant when a group of men attacked her during the night.

SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Miriam, albino: 
"The leader had a machete, a torch and a bottle. He started to cut me up. He totally cut off this arm and gave it to the man with him. I was being slaughtered like a goat."

Miriam's sister Marisa can't forget the horror of that night.

SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Miriam, albino: 
 "Miriam started to bleed and then I saw that her other hand was dangling."

It took more than 10 hours to get Miriam to a local hospital. It's a miracle she is alive today but the baby she was carrying in her womb died.

Miriam's mother has moved from her own village to take care of her daughter and grandson. A gene she carries means that several of her children are albino, though she doesn't have the condition herself.

SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Geodisia, Miriams mother: 
"She can't eat, she can't dress, she can't wash herself. I have to do everything. I don't know how to cope because I've got small children."

In Tanzania as a whole, there are as many as 170,000 albinos, far higher than the worldwide average. Scientists are still trying to understand why. Albinos are much more susceptible to skin conditions, especially skin cancer. Their average life expectancy here is just 40 years.

In the past albinos in rural areas were often killed at birth. To this day, few albinos even go to school, let alone to university and their job prospects are limited.

SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Semini, albino: 
 "People always call us names. That we are zero zero, that we are albinos…"

SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Ash, businessman, albino: 
"The notion is that they are magical. They're not human like us, they're ghosts, Right? And so if you've got these ghost-like creatures, (a) it's not bad killing them, because they're not human beings anyway, and (b) if you kill the ghost and have a part of its body and can harness it and use it for your own ends, you'll have magical power. So you really need to understand that to understand this crime."

It's this climate of prejudice that has been exploited by some of the 15,000 witchdoctors registered in Tanzania's Mwanza region. The limbs, organs and hair of an albino can sell for 1,000 US dollars. Witchdoctors are respected citizens and an established part of the local culture.

Milanda James denies she has anything to do with the attacks on albinos but admits that a few unscrupulous practitioners are giving all witchdoctors a bad reputation.

SOUNDBITE (Swahili) Milanda James, witchdoctor:   
"People are accusing us, but I don't know what they're talking about. We are healers; we are not involved in this albino issue."

Having suffered discrimination himself as a child, Peter Ash is now campaigning to protect albinos in the country. He opened an office in the capital for his aid agency, called "Under the Same Sun".

Here he lobbies Tanzania's Prime Minister.

SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Ash, businessman, albino: 
"We want justice to roll like a river for people of albinism in this country and I know you want that".

SOUNDBITE (English) Raila Odinga, Prime Minister, Tanzania: 
"We have what we call probably a headache in the prosecution process."

The wheels of justice in Tanzania have turned slowly. It's taken more than two years for the first murder convictions against killers of albinos. Miriam recognized one of her attackers, a neighbour, and he is now under arrest but the government says bringing his case to court could take as long as five years. And in the meantime, the attacks continue.

SOUNDBITE (English) Githu Muigai, Special Rapporteur on Racism, United Nations: 
"That is a gross violation of the right to be a human being. The government of Tanzania cannot succeed, or indeed any other government cannot succeed, without the population, the local population, buying in to the effort to eradicate these practises, supporting the law and order enforcement machinery, in finding the perpetrators, apprehending them and punishing them."

SOUNDBITE (English) Peter Ash, businessman, albino: 
"My dream would be that we would have educated, capable hard working people with albinism, that the average Tanzanian citizen would see these people in all walks of life, contributing to all kinds of different jobs in society and that over time they would just become integrated into society, just like anybody else, as they have been in North America and Europe."

But until that dream is fulfilled, Tanzania's albinos are left in a desperately vulnerable predicament.

Miriam's sisters Marisa and Leontine fear for their lives. They now stay with their grandmother and hide most of the time in the forest near their hut.

Miriam attempts to make do with a pair of artificial arms, but they are unwieldy and painful to wear. It's even difficult for her to hug her own son.

But despite the struggle she faces every day, she is still grateful to be alive. 
  
Thank God, she sings, for hiding my heart so that I survived that day.