In elementary economics, we are taught that labour is a veritable factor of production that generates wealth for investors. Most wealthy men and women in civilised climes make their money positively using the human elements in the pursuit of their riches. Unfortunately, in most primitive climes, the human elements are cruelly used to spawn riches. In other words, rather than float investment and use human resources to create wealth in an enterprise environment, the humans are hunted down like bush meat and shipped to juju men to be used for money rituals.
When I was growing up, the phenomenon of gbomo gbomo (not to be confused with Gbomo Jomo) was so rampant that our parents lived in constant fear that we could be captured by money ritualists while going to or returning from school.
We were hardly sent on errands after school hours especially when Christmas season was around the corner. By the way, gbomo gbomo is what the Yoruba call a kid kidnapper.
Kidnapping is still a big business today in many parts of the country but in most cases, only one out of five cases end up in babalawo’s enclave. Attention has since shifted from innocent and wretched kids of the poor to wealthy folks or their relations who are kidnapped for mouth-watering ransoms.
Everyone out there is kidnappable or has kidnap value. And as it is said in Hausa, “Dede ruwa, dede garri.” A victim could go for as much as between N30m and N100m. Another prey could go for as little as between N5,000 and N10,000. There is a class of Nigerians that has become targets of money ritualists. They are the folks living with albinism. The first reported seizure of albinos was during the heady days of kidnapping of expatriate oil workers in the Niger Delta.
There was a story told of a gang of desperate militants that captured the Nigerian whites, mistaking them for employees of one of the multi-national oil firms, and demanded a huge ransom. But they promptly set their captives free when they realised they were albinos. The victims were lucky that the awareness to use them for ritual purposes had not caught on then.
Tanzania is ranked as the leading country in East Africa where people living with albinism have become endangered species. In that part of the Dark Continent, as Africa is derogatorily referred to by the whites, albinos are hunted down so that their body parts can be used by witchdoctors for their rituals.
In other words, albinos are negatively used as human elements to generate wealth. Albino body parts are highly prized in those circles. The limbs fetch a hefty price ranging from $2,000 to $3,000 per limb, and often the heads of albino people are hung on totem poles as good luck charms.
Albinos are heavily discriminated against in those countries. It is believed by many that albinism is a curse and may even be contagious. This makes them easy targets for witchdoctors and limb-hunters.
Albinism is caused by a defect, or complete absence, of an enzyme which produces melanin. Melanin is what gives hair, skin, and eyes their pigmentation.
This lack of skin pigmentation makes the person much more susceptible to skin cancer and damage from the sun (a problem especially bad for those living in Africa). Albinism is a global phenomenon. It exists even in the animal kingdom.
As mentioned above, the Tanzanians are in the forefront and the most diabolic in the quest to become rich overnight, using albinos as their launching pads. Besides the mission for money, albinos are harvested for other purposes.
Tanzanian traditional healers and witchdoctors consider the body parts of people with albinism as being essential to their magical recipes for those seeking political powers. Many Tanzanians, Kenyans and Burundians living with HIV/AIDS have been known to capture young albino girls, trusting that raping them could help to cure their afflictions. Fishermen pay hawkers in the belief that albino parts would jazz up their fishing nets and attract better hauls. Men in that axis are also known to lure albinos into marriage with the ultimate aim of murdering them for ritual purposes.
The inhuman and primitive culture that is deeply rooted in East Africa has since taken root in Nigeria. Not too long ago, an albino woman was beheaded in Ilorin ostensibly for money or good luck charms. My fear is that once Nigerians (totally) imbibe a terrible culture like this, they would go the extra mile. Scared of the worrisome development, the founder of the Albino Foundation of Nigeria (AFN), Mr. Jake Ekpele, raised an alarm during the 2015 UN celebration of the World Albinism Day (May 5) and called on the government to protect his members from predators who harvest them for all manner of rituals.
The government should listen to Jake Ekpele and put in place tough measures that would discourage money ritual conscious Nigerians from emulating their East African counterparts. People living with albinism deserve understanding and support from their fellow Nigerians and not persecution. *A*lbinism, when treated properly with adequate sun protection and vision correction, can engender normal living and it is certainly not contagious.
There is also another class of people who have forced albinism upon themselves. They are the go-go ladies who have washed themselves down with all kinds of bleaching creams. Not all those light-skinned women you see around are wearing natural complexion. The evidence of those who were not light at birth can be seen from their patchy and wrinkled temples, dark and callused knuckles, elbows, knees and Achilles’ tendon. They are commonly referred to as Fanta face, Coca Cola legs. Like the albinos, they are not sun-friendly. They exude foul odour when heated by the sun and have to employ heavy perfumes to cover up.
They are at risk of skin cancer, leukemia and renal complications, among others. They could also be mistaken for albinos, thus exposing themselves to the danger of being hunted down and their bodies dismembered for ritual purposes. Those ones would have themselves to blame for acquiring Albino Status Syndrome (ASS).
Let me recall that the craze to acquire the status overwhelmed our women as far back as the 70s and the most popular bleaching cream then was Ambi. Many women, who were not proud of being born black, later regretted hugging Ambism as a (beauty) philosophy. The men, fanatical about fair skin, also got sucked in along the line.
I know a prominent traditional ruler in the South West that immersed himself in Ambi. The only thing that sets him and Jake Ekpele apart is the colour of his hair. Unfortunately, the hazardous values, driven by inferiority complex, are still catching on … with a frightening sophistication.
Well, the good news is that a bill to establish a National Agency of Albinism has passed the second reading at the House of Representatives. It is hoped that when passed into law, the safety and wellbeing of folks living with albinism will be fully taken care of. Those who ritualize albinos for money or political supremacy deserve to be paid in their own coins.
