SA NOW EMBRACING BACKWARD BELIEFS
THE arrest, two weeks ago, of a 28-year-old woman who tried to sell three albino children at R100 000 apiece has uncovered what appears to be an underground cartel targeting albino people for muthi purposes.
The woman aged 28 was arrested in the KwaMhlabuyalingana area, in northern KZN, after she had approached a famous local inyanga James “God’olulal’amankankane” Mthembu with the proposal to sell the children to him.
But the inyanga reported her to the police, who immediately arrested her. She was due to appear in the oBonjeni Magistrate’s Court at the time of writing.
This marks a new development in our muthi making because, as far as I am concerned, the attack on albinos for muthi purposes has always been prevalent in East African countries, including Tanzania, Malawi and Kenya.
I can cynically call this the unfortunate by-product of globalisation and the opening up of our borders. We are learning quickly, but we are learning wrong things.
Granted, ritual murder in our country is not new, which is why our police force has a unit to investigate crimes related to witchcraft.
In East Africa, albinos are hunted down like animals. Practitioners of the barbaric practice believe body parts from an albino person must be harvested, mixed with herbs to make concoctions that will be sold to those who want to become rich.
For generations, this has been the practice in East Africa, and the murderers have gotten away with it.
The first ever conviction for the killing of an albino in Tanzania occurred on September 23 2009 at the High Court in Kahama followed more than 50 murders over a twoyear-period in that country.
The mutilation victim was a 14year-old boy, Matatizo Dunia, who was carried from his home late at night in December 2008 before being chopped into pieces.
In Tanzania, albinos represent one in every 1 429 births, a high rate making Tanzania to be thought as having the largest population of albinos in Africa. Witch-doctors there have promoted a belief in the potential magical and superstitious properties of albinos’ body parts.
There are further issues that arise when there is a lack of education about albinism. Fathers often suspect the mother of the albino child of infidelity with a white man or that the child is the ghost of a European colonist.
After 2015 when Tanzania enacted tougher steps against violence against albinos, Malawi has seen a “steep upsurge in killings”.
It is tragic that a relatively openminded and enlightened society such as ours is beginning to rehash what even “darkest Africa” is rejecting. I am consoled, however, that in response to the hunting down of albinos in KwaMhlabuyalingana, Reverend Solomon Baloyi has launched an organisation called Isu Labasha, whose main mission will be to protect albinos, but also teach ordinary people about albinism.
But you have to understand that we live in an era of get-rich-quick schemes. There are churches whose main gospel is not spiritual redemption and good neighbourliness, but how to make money quick-quick.
And, of course, the profligacy of our politicians, who proceed to display their ill-gained riches at the slightest provocation, sends wrong messages to our young people. This is the era of flash and cash. And it does not matter how you acquire riches anymore.
Over the weekend I was in my childhood township of Mpumalanga, near Hammarsdale, KZN, to bury a friend.
During the “after tears party”, conversations revolved around who was driving what, and who had moved to which suburb. And, of course, which famous inyanga an individual used to afford all these things.
Initially I thought the guys were just joking, but I soon realised that they were being serious. There are chaps who are said to have enlisted the services of famous inyangas who have assigned them “short boys” (abafana) who deliver car loads of money to their host every week.
These stories were told with such conviction that when I laughed, and asked if the tales about abafana who deliver money were real, I was told I was acting like “isifundiswa”, or what our president calls clever blacks.
With such beliefs being so prevalent, and with everyone competing so desperately for riches, it is no wonder that our people can be duped into believing that if you murder an albino you will be rich.
Such regression is shocking. But, of course, if you have regressive leaders – from the church down to the political establishment – what would you expect? The fish, as the Chinese say, rots from the head.
“It this era it does not matter how you acquire riches anymore