In the defence of albinos

REPORTS that people with albinism in Burundi are vacating their homes for fear of being killed and their organs exported to Tanzania is sacrilegious and damning.

When this was reported no government official responded to this effect! So the world was left to believe that these satanic killings have spilled over to Burundi.

Mark my words. This is not the first time such dogging allegations are surfacing. It was BBC that broke the news of this crime against humanity in Burundi and Tanzania.

After BBC reported this calamity, the EU Parliament chipped in issuing a stern warning to Tanzanian authorities. What is not clear is that the government did not come forth with full force to curb this menace! After issuing this ultimatum the EU seems to have dove-tailed!

Aside from seeing its ambassadors to Tanzania signing agreements of cooperation and donating money, nothing tangible can be said to have been done! Albinos go on being killed; prominent one being the one who was killed in Bukoba after EU issued its ultimatum.Should we remind the duo that much remains to be seen and desired?

It becomes difficult to understand the country self priding as an ’island of peace’ to sit on such a ticking bomb knowing that it will dent her reputation internationally! Where and how, on earth, do we get this stomach? Are we becoming such useless and failed nation?

This coupled with the killings of elderly, thanks to satanic beliefs that are also known internationally, Tanzania is fast losing her reputation of being the refuge for people facing dangers in neighbouring nations. It becomes even more unthinkable to believe that in the 21st century crime against humanity like this could go on unabated in a country self chest beating to be the champion of human rights!?

Now let's look at how we reached at this off the cliff stance. We’ve allowed ourselves to fall prey of quick rich by neglecting humanity. We’ve legitimized corruption, thanks to the rotten and archaic system embedding and condoning systemic corruption. Let’s face it head on.

Under Julius Nyerere this did not exist in this magnitude. How could it, if there was no room for a person to become rich without reasonable explanation as it is now?

Let's mince no words or beat around the bush. We have consented to thuggish mind sets and systems so much that we are preying on and selling each other openly!

You will see the person that yesterday was totally in penury, without doing anything known, he abruptly rises up to become a tycoon overnight! Sadly, nobody queries this explosive change! We live with them. They are everywhere: Drug-dealing, signing bogus contracts on our behalf, giving empty promises, lies and such other sweet nothings.

Corruption that used to be a crime is no longer one. In some countries it is regarded as being smart and blessed! We now even have a saying that smartness is success. This myopia coupled with our being prone to committing this sin our people can nowadays believe any nonsense given that there is a promise of opulence even by selling, harvesting and exporting human organs!

There are two potential areas siring this animism. Firstly, we have bad systems when it comes to owning properties. Nobody is asking or being forced to tell how one got his wealth.

Secondly, it is at individual level. Though nobody likes poverty, escaping it by killing another human being should never be tolerated and become the means.

How can we condemn genocide in the Sudan and Rwanda whilst we are molly-codling the same? We seriously need to put our house in order. The ball is in our court and the earlier the better.

Blame games will never solve this problem. But if innocent people are killed whilst the government sits and looks, of course the general public will point the finger to it; even blaming it for condoning this bulimia. The chief obligation of any government is to equally and diligently protect its citizens and their properties.

We can blame corruption as the mother of all crimes. We can blame quick wealth also. Looking at how wealth is made in Africa, our rulers cannot escape blame nonetheless.

Firstly they are the ones manning everything. So they are duty bound before God and men to see to it that we and our properties are safe. Do they really do this?

Secondly they are the ones that have allowed some of them to reach where they are. How do politicians get to power? They do by means of rigging elections, bribing voters and so on. Where do they get the money to bribe voters? It becomes circumstantially logical that those guys are funded by covert rich entities intending to return their money covertly. For most of them are the children of paupers. Without wheel deals, many of our rulers would not be where they are really. Those are corrupt even though we can not in details tell how. We can blame the president that his government has failed to protect its people. But where will he get clean people if at all he is almost surrounded by diablos? Well, is it sufficient to blame him or make him accountable?


As citizens, if we keep mum as if everything is normal and honky dory, aren't we to blame? Does it mean the general public does not know people behind this crime against humanity? How many so-called traditional healers do we live with in our streets? Don't we see their placards advertising their lies as the government looks on? Well, if the government is unable to deal with them what of us? Where do we get the stomach to inhumanly kill chain snatchers?

What is the way forward? We need to squeeze each other to come clean on how one made his fortune regardless his position in the society. Without this, we are not going to make it. Without overhauling and changing the whole system as a nation, we are doomed.

There have been some incidents whereby some people threatened the media for unveiling their rot. These must be brought to book. Likewise, the government must get out of the slumber. For shall the situation remain as it is, nobody will be safer. Who knows who the killers will choose as their next victim?

Let me surmise. Our system is rotten and this is the reality. Let us change it at any cost. Indeed the killings of albinos reported in Burundi are not the legacy of our peace loving nation. More importantly, it is time for the government ended the killings of albinos and elderly.

Source:Thisday October 12, 2008.