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Why Africa's albino are hunted for their body parts

SN ART full story Why Africa's albino are hunted for their body parts

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STEVE PENNELLS: We're on our way to a place few outsiders ever travel, where some of the most unique people on earth have made their home, an island in the middle of Tanzania's mighty Lake Victoria.

JOSEPHAT TORNER: In Africa, people, they believe much on superstition.

STEVE PENNELLS: It's a place of mystery and intrigue.

HARRY FREELAND: Many of the stories were the same. You know, these myths, these legends that people can float on water or see in the dark.

STEVE PENNELLS: I'm travelling with filmmaker and activist Harry Freeland to meet the ghost people of Ukerewe.

HARRY FREELAND: This island surrounded by water and was four hours from the mainland. This community that formed this society to look out for each other.

JOSEPHAT TORNER: I was called maybe a white ghost... ..or a devil. Sometimes other people, they were like, "Oh, my goodness, this person is ghost." And I was asking my mother, "Mum, tell me the truth. Am I a ghost?"

STEVE PENNELLS: Josephat Torner is one of Tanzania's ghost people, striking albinos cursed by a gene mutation traced to a single ancestor 2,500 years ago.

JOSEPHAT TORNER: I asked my mother, "Why am I different? "Why if I go to the sun, I get burned?" Of course, the answer to her was, "It's the will of God. "The way how you are is the will of God." I didn't know if the will of God, why am I different... why others are black.

STEVE PENNELLS: For much of his life, Josephat has been marked for murder or mutilation because of the colour of his skin. His parents were told that their son was better off dead and they should poison him.

JOSEPHAT TORNER: After seeing that I'm white, my father and my mother were advised at that time with some of the community members they need to end my life.

HARRY FREELAND: Josephat was one of 35 children, the only person with albinism. You know, rejected by his own brothers and sisters. Yet you see how strong he is.

STEVE PENNELLS: In these parts, people are deeply superstitious. They fear the albinos, a fear fuelled by witchdoctors... (WAILING) ..who even in this day wield great power. While they proclaim albinos are dangerous alive, bizarrely, they say dead, they can bring great fortune.

JOSEPHAT TORNER: People started to hunt us like wild animals and they started to chop our body parts in different ways, because of believing if you get the body parts of people with albinism, you'll become rich.

STEVE PENNELLS: The witchdoctors have brainwashed these villagers into believing that potions made from the bodies of albinos have mystical powers. The elixir is said to bring great success and happiness. The younger the victim, the more valuable they are.

STEVE PENNELLS: The real toll is hard to know. Many people with albinism have simply disappeared. Other attacks and murders haven't been reported. The ones who have survived the attacks have been left mutilated.

MURRAY BRILLIANT: Say, a femur from a person with albinism could go for $1,000 or more.

STEVE PENNELLS: Murray Brilliant is a geneticist whose studies have brought him to Tanzania to document the victims of this brutal phenomenon.

MURRAY BRILLIANT: We all have differences in our DNA, most of which we can't see.

VILLAGER: Hi, Professor.

MURRAY BRILLIANT: Hi, Samuel. How are you?

VILLAGER: I'm very fine.

MURRAY BRILLIANT: We have different hair colour, eye colour, skin colour. And these are all from genes. So, to say that one particular genetic difference is worth murdering a human being is obscene.

(CHILDREN SING)

STEVE PENNELLS: With a price on their heads, the albinos have been forced to take refuge in remote areas, away from the poachers.

JOSEPHAT TORNER: Hiya!

STEVE PENNELLS: It looks like a happy, functioning primary school.

JOSEPHAT TORNER: Ahh! (ALL SING)

STEVE PENNELLS: But the words the children are singing tell the true story of why they're here. And the razor wire and bars, a stark physical reality of the risk they face. But sadly, even here, they're not truly safe.

STEVE PENNELLS: There are high walls around this place covered in barbed wire. It's meant to be for their protection, but it's incredibly sad. And the whole issue here in Tanzania is very, very sensitive. Sunday Night was only allowed to come here on the condition that we had a government adviser with us at all times, night and day. And the only reason I can tell you this is because for the first time in our shoot, he's just stepped away.

HARRY FREELAND: Some of these camps have 300 children with albinism. They're surrounded by high walls, guarded by police at night, some of them severely traumatised.

STEVE PENNELLS: But the albinos, led by Josephat, are fighting back. He's become an outspoken campaigner for his hunted people. He's gone so far as to bravely trek deep into a cave to confront one of the many witchdoctors promoting the despicable trade in albino parts. Changing the beliefs of witchdoctors is a huge challenge. But life is getting better - and safer - for albinos.

STEVE PENNELLS: So, this is what you've built?

HARRY FREELAND: Yeah, this is the building that will provide, sort of, training for people with albinism on Ukerewe.

STEVE PENNELLS: Harry Freeland has launched a charity and built a community centre where albinos can learn and work in safety.

STEVE PENNELLS: And what's the ultimate goal?
HARRY FREELAND: The ultimate goal is to create more jobs and break down the barriers of discrimination. And we're seeing those barriers being broken down already. You know, real acceptance is taking place.

HARRY FREELAND: And here we're going to have sewing machines...

STEVE PENNELLS: A sign of how life is changing is this young man, Vedastus, who was living in destitute conditions when Harry first filmed him. He was an outcast. This is Vedastus today, standing out in a crowd and among Harry's proud workforce.

HARRY FREELAND: When I first met Vedastus in 2006, he was a 14-year-old boy. He was rejected by his father when he was born. He was kicked out of school, and today is a boy who's graduated. He now speaks a bit of English. He's just met a girlfriend. All his dreams he had when he was young are coming true and life's really changing for him.

STEVE PENNELLS: Brilliant.

HARRY FREELAND: Yeah. I'm very proud of him.

HARRY FREELAND: So, over the next three years, they're providing 4,200 vision devices for children with albinism.

STEVE PENNELLS Albinos have extremely sensitive eyes and many have poor eyesight. Harry's charity is providing prescription glasses to thousands of schoolchildren. The aim is ensuring a better education and a more certain future.

DOCTOR: That's nice.

JOSEPHAT: Yeah, this perfect.

DOCTOR: Yeah? Sure. Can you show me?

HARRY FREELAND: The vision impairment of a person with albinism is one of the biggest barriers in the classroom for a child with albinism. Getting vision care is a vital thing. It's something they've never received in Tanzania before, so we provide prescription glasses, monocular telescopes, they can see the blackboard. Sunglasses, magnifiers to help them read and make the writing bigger in their textbooks.

HARRY FREELAND: You focus on something far away.

JOSEPHAT: Oh, my goodness!

HARRY FREELAND: Focus on those lines. How is it?

JOSEPHAY: Yeah. It's bringing it closer. It's bringing it closer. (LAUGHS) Closer.

HARRY FREELAND: So, imagine if you had this when you were young in the classroom. Being able to see the little details when they're writing.

JOSEPHAT: I wish if I could get this before.

HARRY FREELAND: Yeah, sure.

HARRY FREELAND: We all, I think, everyone here, knows about the suffering that people with albinism had faced in Tanzania.

STEVE PENNELLS: The struggle is far from over, but the campaign, led by Josephat, is making the future brighter than ever.

HARRY FREELAND: I don't think he ever will stop. No, he's tireless. There's a line he says that one day we'll all sit around the same table. I think that's the thing he's always thinking about and that's his kind of thing that keeps him going, that one day they'll be accepted.

STEVE PENNELLS: When is that day?

HARRY FREELAND: I think it's coming. I hope he'll witness it in his lifetime. Certainly in Vedastus's, I'm sure we'll get there.