African Witchcraft Victims Treated After Limbs Were Cut Off | NBC 10 Philadelphia

Kabula Nkarango Masanja returned home to Tanzania with a new American prosthetic arm replacing the limb that was chopped off with a machete by followers of African witchcraft.

She's one of Tanzania's children with albinism, a condition that leaves people with little or no pigment in their skin, hair or eyes. Their severed body parts are used in potions witch doctors believe bring wealth and good luck. The soft-spoken 17-year-old Kabula is now one of the lucky ones.

Doctors at Shriners Hospitals for Children in Philadelphia recently created new artificial limbs for Kabula and four other youngsters. And New York City resident Elissa Montanti provided housing about two hours away in the borough of Staten Island and organized all their daily, medical and travel needs.

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Lacking natural pigmentation, people with albinism look almost white - ghosts of departed humans, according to witch doctors who order body parts to be hacked off: hair, nails, teeth, tongues, hands, feet, even genitals. More than 200 witch doctors have been arrested so far in the killings of Tanzanians with albinism. The government outlawed witch doctors last year.

Still, attacks continue; at least eight were recorded in Tanzania in the past year.

There's another, even more cruel twist.

Some parents are collaborators because "they still believe their children are cursed," says Ester Rwela, a social worker who accompanies the children and translates their Swahili language.

African Witchcraft Victims Treated After Limbs Were Cut Off | NBC 10 Philadelphia

Thousands Of Children Risked Their Lives In Tanzania's Gold Mines For $2 A Day | ThinkProgress

More than 12,000 children have been freed from life-threatening work in gold mines in Tanzania over the past three years according to Plan International, the children’s rights organization that spearheaded the initiative. The children, some of whom were as young as eight years old, have been reintegrated back into schools as part of the effort to curb child labor in the dangerous industry.

“When my mother died our father abandoned us and he never supported us,” Antonia Benedict, a 13-year-old who was rescued from work in a gold mine said during a discussion on child labor in the Tanzanian capital, Dar es Salaam.

Benedict’s only option was to work in a mine, despite the fact that her mother was killed while doing so.
“I had to work to get a little money to buy food for my siblings,” she said. “With the little I earned I had to buy maize flour and some vegetables to feed my younger brother and sister.”

Through PLAN International’s work, nearly 5,000 of the rescued children’s families have been offered access to credit so that they can create alternative revenue streams to keep their children from having to mine.

Thousands Of Children Risked Their Lives In Tanzania's Gold Mines For $2 A Day | ThinkProgress

Tanzania Police Arrest Man Who Tried to Sell Albino Niece for Body Parts | VICE News

Tanzanian authorities have nabbed a 44-year-old man in an undercover sting aimed at curbing the selling of people with albinism to witchdoctors and others who would use their body parts in black magic.

People with albinism, also known as albinos, have an extreme deficiency of melanin pigmentation that makes their skin and hair very pale. The condition generally results from recessive genes carried by parents. Albinism in Africa brings with it an increased chance of developing fatal skin cancer, and the lack of pigment to protect eyes against the bright sun can cause sight problems.

Morbidly, in some areas where superstitions prevail, there are those who believe that the body parts of people with albinism bring wealth and luck when used in charms.

The suspect arrested in Tanzania was allegedly trying to sell his six-year-old albino niece, but did not know that he was actually dealing with security officials as part of an operation to put a halt to the illegal body part trade, Reuters reported.

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One child in 3,000 is born with albinism in East Africa, compared to one in 20,000 in the United States. Advocacy groups estimate that there are more than 100,000 albinos in Tanzania. The targeting of this group in abductions and killings has become common — more than 76 albinos have been murdered in the country since 2000 and various others mutilated in some way.

Tanzania Police Arrest Man Who Tried to Sell Albino Niece for Body Parts | VICE News

Two suspected ‘witches’ hacked to death in Tanzania

Two Tanzanian women were hacked to death by men who accused them of casting spells that made them sexually impotent, police said Friday, in the latest killings of alleged “witches.”

The women, one aged in her 80s and her 45-year old daughter, were killed in the village of Ihugi in Tanzania’s northern Shinyanga province late on Tuesday.

Three men slit their throats and then chopped their bodies up, local police chief Justus Kamugisha said, adding that their neighbour was suspected of carrying out the attack after he believed they had made him unable to have sex.

A 40-year-old man, who also accused the women of poisoning his mother last year, has been arrested.

“The victims were attacked as they were about to take their evening meal,” Kamugisha said.

The attack follows the killing last week of seven people in a separate attack in western Tanzania, burned alive in their huts, who were also accused of witchcraft.

Two suspected ‘witches’ hacked to death in Tanzania

ADDENDUM::Tackling Witch Hunts in Tanzania: A Proactive Approach - JREF

Researcher and activist Leo Igwe reports to the JREF on the governmental response to such atrocities.

The killing of a witch is the end of a murderous process that starts in the mind. Witchcraft has to do with people’s cosmological notions and a people’s mentality. Changing attitudes and mentality takes great time and effort. Legislation is not enough, enforcement has to go in hand with mental and cultural reorientation.
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We need to understand why the imaginary evil of witchcraft is so real to some people to the extent that they can kill and maim suspected witches as well as poisoning family and community relations.

The government should encourage skepticism, rationality and critical thinking in all areas of human endeavor. Be they students or teachers, taxi drivers or market men and women, technocrats or artisans - the value of critical examination of issues and questioning of magical narratives that fuel suspicions and accusations of witchcraft should be encouraged in society.
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The misconception that witchcraft is African “science” has to be corrected. Scientists, skeptics and rationalists in the country should adopt a more proactive approach.

The government should address traditional healing practices and the sanctioning of healers who mix magic and medicine including faith healers of all types - traditional, Christian and Islamic.

Tackling Witch Hunts in Tanzania: A Proactive Approach - JREF

Seven accused of witchcraft burned alive in Tanzania | News | Africa | Mail & Guardian

Attackers in Tanzania burned alive seven people they accused of witchcraft, police said Friday, who have arrested 23 people for murder in the latest killings of suspected “witches”.

“They were attacked and burnt to death by a mob of villagers who accused them of engaging in witchcraft,” the police chief for the western Kigoma region, which borders Burundi, Jafari Mohamed, told Agence France-Presse.

“Five of those killed were aged over 60, while the other two were aged over 40,” he added.

Among those arrested on suspicion of carrying out the killings was the local traditional healer, or witchdoctor. Relatives of those killed described horrific scenes, with the bodies of family members hacked with machetes or burned almost beyond recognition. “When I returned home in the evening, I found the body of my mother lying 10 metres away from our house, while the body of my father was burnt inside the house,” said Josephat John, according to Tanzania’s Mwananchi newspaper.

The attack in the village of Murufiti took place on Monday, but reports only emerged after police announced the arrest of the suspects. “We are holding 23 people, including local leaders, in connection with the attack,” Mohamed said. “They will appear in court to face murder charges.”

Belief in witches and black magic remains strong in many parts of Tanzania.

Seven accused of witchcraft burned alive in Tanzania | News | Africa | Mail & Guardian