Albino Witchcraft Murders Storyville


Albino Witchcraft Murders

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This programme contains scenes which some viewers may find disturbing.

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I first met Josephat and Vedastus in 2006.

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Josephat had dedicated his life to opposing

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the discrimination against people with albinism.

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Vedastus was a 14-year-old who had been bullied out of

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his local school and rejected by his community.

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Two months after I arrived in Tanzania,

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a 35-year-old woman with albinism called Arif was killed.

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Witchdoctors were spreading a belief that albino body parts could

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bring wealth and good fortune.

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People were prepared to pay large sums of money to anyone who

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could get them.

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Arif's murder marked the beginning of many more albino killings that

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would sweep across Tanzania in the following years.

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When a second person with albinism was murdered, Josephat told me

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he was going to leave his family and travel across the country

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to confront the communities where the killings had taken place.

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Vedastus lives 600 miles away from Josephat, on a remote island called

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Ukerewe, which has one of the highest instances

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of albinism in East Africa.

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People told me this prevalence was due to the minerals

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in the island's soil.

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Others believe, many years ago, mainland communities dumped

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people with albinism onto Ukerewe to hide them from the outside world.

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That summer, four more people were murdered

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for their body parts in the lake region.

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Veda's mother decided the island was now too dangerous for her son

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and tried to get him transferred to a school on the mainland.

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In 2008, hundreds of albino children were being placed into

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special schools for their safety. Josephat decided to travel

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to one of the schools in Northern Tanzania to speak with the children.

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CHILDREN CHAT

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By February 2009,

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45 people with albinism had been murdered in Tanzania.

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Most of these killings took place

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in the lake region surrounding Ukerewe Island.

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BAND PLAYS

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SINGING STARTS

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THEY BANG DESKS

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Fearing the killings in the lake region could spread to the island,

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Josephat travelled to Ukerewe to speak with the people there.

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PHONE RINGS

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In a western region of Tanzania,

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communities have taken their own action to stop the killings.

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In Kigoma, children and adults with albinism

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were removed from their homes

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and driven to a camp near the Burundi border.

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By early 2010, there were very few people with albinism

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living freely in their own villages.

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FOGHORN BLASTS

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GENERAL CHATTER

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On March 24th, 2012,

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three men entered a hotel room where Josephat was sleeping

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and attempted to kidnap him.

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Local police arrived moments later

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and intervened as Josephat was being forced into a car.

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I spoke to him shortly afterwards

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and he told me he'd thought that this was the end.

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Subtitles by Red Bee Media Ltd

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