Save Us From Fetish Killers, Albinism Community Begs Public

Fetish killers are on the prowl and persons with albinism are their main targets, with seven of them already hunted down this year.

This is the summary dilemma of persons with albinism in Malawi, and they add that they no longer had peace of mind, both day and night.

Speaking under the aegis of the Association of Persons with Albinism in Malawi (APAM), they readily cited the latest incident, where some unidentified persons tampered with a grave in Blantyre, Southern Malawi.

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The persons exhumed a body and removed its arms and legs, sending shivers down the spine of people; the incident has raised existing fears within the community, advocates say.

Young Mahamba, president of APAM, said the incident is the seventh this year alone.

“We also had three tampering with graves and another two attacks on the 9th of last month [June 9],” Young Mahamba, president of APAM told a news agency.

“And also, in Phalombe [a district in the southern region of Malawi], there was the tampering of graves. This one was discovered on 20th March without limbs as [was] this one.”

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Additional reports from the VOA which quoted official sources, said since 2014, more than 170 albinos had been killed or attacked in Malawi because of false beliefs that concoctions mixed with their body parts bring luck and wealth.

It said in the past, religious leaders, police, herbalists and relatives of the deceased have been named and arrested in connection to the attacks and body exhumations.

A high court in Blantyre sentenced a police officer, a Catholic priest and four others to 30 years imprisonment with hard labor in late June after finding them guilty of transacting human remains of a person with albinism.

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The spokesperson for the Ministry of Gender, Children, Disability and Social Welfare, Pauline Kaude, told VOA that since 2019 the government has been working on seven priority areas in its national action plan to end such attacks”.

To the albinism community therefore, there is no option than to cry out: Save Us From Fetish Killers.