In July 2022, in Tanzania, Africa, the hot sun shone on the ground, and many people returned to their homes to avoid the sun.
At this time, there were very few pedestrians on this street, and a few were also dark-skinned locals.
Suddenly, a man in his twenties appeared on a street corner, and pedestrians looked at him with strange eyes as soon as they saw him.
"Go away, you damn Zelu, stay away from me." A man spat at him as he ran off into the distance like a plague god.
However, some pedestrians looked at this twenty-something youth with greedy eyes, as if they were measuring goods, and some even couldn't help but clench the sharp tools in their hands.
The reason why this young man has attracted the attention of so many people is because his skin is snow-white.
But compared with the European and American Caucasians, this person is a typical African look, but the skin has changed.
On the predominantly black African continent, the existence of these people is strange.
Some people call them "Zeru", which means ghost and plague god in the local language.
However, some people feel that things are scarce and expensive, and the existence of these people can bring them a different kind of "value".
What's going on here?
Wizard's prey
When people think of Africa, they can't help but think of poverty and backwardness.
Because of the discovery of the New World, a large number of black people were trafficked to the Americas and other regions, and began a tragic life.
The arrival of these Western imperialists not only plundered a large number of local black slaves, but also brought advanced civilization to this place.
In the middle of the twentieth century, many countries on the African continent were established one after another, becoming modern independent states.
But before it was colonized, the people living in this area were still in the process of primitive social development.
From the primitive to the modern, the distance spanned is too large, even with the help of external forces, it will cause many problems.
Barbarism and violence pervade the land, and because of historical problems, the economy here has not developed well.
Not only that, many of the people living in this land have deep-rooted feudal superstitions.
In Africa, shamans have supreme status and power, and many ordinary people see them as the representatives of God.
In the beginning, African wizards did have a positive effect.
Many shamans were well versed in the art of medicine, thus treating many patients who believed in them and saving many lives.
But gradually, the wizards went to an extreme, bent on seeking higher status and power.
Desire is like an unsatisfied beast, and once you get caught up in it, everything begins to change.
In order to compete for more believers, wizards have frequently resorted to means, and there is no less harm to heaven and earth.
Similar to witchcraft in other regions, witches in Africa also need to sacrifice sacrifices at the time of the incident to increase the sense of mystery and ritual.
In the beginning, most of the sacrifices used by wizards were animal bones or furs.
These things were valuables at the time and required a lot of manpower to catch them.
Because of the high investment in the early stage, ordinary people will believe more in the power of wizards.
But gradually, advances in production techniques and means of labor made these sacrifices no longer rare.
In order to secure their position, they needed more mysterious and inaccessible offerings.
Later, the wizards turned their attention to the local "white children".
They told the public that these "white children" had mysterious powers in their body parts, and that it would be better to use them to communicate with the gods.
At first, they sacrificed things like the hair and urine of these "white children."
But later, with the development of time, these people gradually went to perversion, directly using the genitals and even life of "white children" as sacrifices.
So, who are these African "white children"? Why did they bring them to the altar?
Africa's "Tang monk meat"
In fact, these African "white children" are just ordinary African children with albinism.
Albinism is a genetic disorder caused by a lack or absence of melanin in the body, which also causes the skin, hair, and eyeballs of these patients to be mostly white or brown in color.
Although with the blessing of modern science and technology, people have been very clear about the cause of albinism.
However, in the relatively poor and backward African region at that time, people generally regarded albinism as monsters.
Most of Africa's population is dark-skinned, so these people with albinism stand out.
It's like suddenly mixing a kiwi fruit in a bunch of native eggs, out of place.
For this reason, many ignorant local residents refer to albinism patients as "Zeru", which means ghost.
When newborns are found to be albinos, some ruthless parents even end their lives with their own hands, because in their eyes it is an ominous sign.
But then, when African shamans were instructed to sacrifice albinism, these spurned people suddenly became "golden."
Even, in many african countries, such as Tanzania, there is a specially derived profession, "hunter".
These "hunters" do not need to go to the jungle to hunt, because they hunt only one object, that is, these albinism patients.
The "hunters" would kidnap these albinos directly in broad daylight, then dismember them, and clearly mark their various parts.
Some also believe that the more miserable their cries are when dismembered, the better the wizard's use.
Therefore, some heart-wrenching "hunters" directly let these albino patients watch their limbs being cut off by knives and tortured to death.
Some local people believe that if wizards use the organs or bones of white sick people for sacrifice, they can help them find diamonds and wealth.
Others believe that the limbs, internal organs and even genitals of albinism patients are a drug that can play a role in "curing all diseases".
There are even rumors that amulets made from their body parts have a magic bonus that can play the role of a fierce ji.
People die for money, birds die for food, even if this statement is extremely absurd, there are still many people who flock to it, so the "hunters" are not worried about the market at all.
In Tanzania, trafficking in body organs of albinos patients has formed a specialized industrial chain.
When there was no large-scale intervention in western countries, the "hunters" directly took the lives of albinism patients, knocked them out of the bone and sucked them to the end.
In the eyes of many people, The albinism patients in Africa have become a golden doll, the "Tang monk meat" in people's eyes.
Some children with miserable fates were sold by their parents not long after they were born and got a lot of money.
Even if parents feel sorry for their children and want to work hard to protect them, it is not easy for these albino children to grow up.
Because of their genetic defects, they are born destined to face this cruel world.
Edna was a very ordinary woman in Tanzania, but she gave birth to a pair of not-so-ordinary twins.
Both of her children suffer from albinism and are born different in color from those around them.
When the children were born, a nurse suggested that Edna throw away or sell the two children.
But how can Edna, a new mother, give it up, after all, this is a piece of meat that fell from her body, even if life is difficult, she also wants to work hard to protect them.
After having these two children, Edna was worried at every moment, afraid that when the child would be taken away.
But on second pass, a casual oversight caused the death of one of the children.
One day, Edna was cooking in the kitchen, and the two children were playing in front of the house, but she suddenly heard the children's cries.
Edna reacted immediately, went to the door and looked at it, and found that one of the children was gone, and the other fell to the ground and cried.
Edna frantically looked around for the child and called the police, but found nothing.
Days later, the police told Edna that the child's head had been found in a village and that the body was gone.
After the loss of her son, Edna kept another child every day, even taking him to the bath and going to the toilet.
Perhaps in this life, she will fall into deep grief because of her own mistakes.
And what happened to Edna's children was Mariam, who lived not far from their family.
Maryam, also an albino sufferer, disappeared on the same day as Edna's child.
Maryam has been dependent on her grandparents since she was a child, and when she disappeared, her grandparents cried and fainted.
Later, when the police found her, Mariam had lost her heartbeat and breath, and her torso had become bloody, apparently dismembered.
Maryam's grandmother was devastated and cried as she held her granddaughter's mutilated body.
Later, in order to protect her granddaughter's body, Grandma buried Mariam's body directly under her bed to ensure that it would not be dug up by others.
In some parts of Africa, albinism is very valuable all over the body.
Their blood, under the hype of people with hearts, is even more valuable than gold and diamonds.
Some local tycoons will buy the bones of albinos at high prices and let wizards help make potions, while the remains of a complete albinism patient can sell for an average of 130,000 pounds, equivalent to 1.26 million yuan.
In Malawi, a large number of cases of theft of the remains of albinos are discovered every year.
In 2017 alone, the local police received 39 reports of theft of the graves of albinism patients, not to mention that some patients' families did not call the police, but chose to swallow silently.
In 2007, there were at least 70 killings of albinism patients in Tanzania and at least 150 albinism body parts cut off.
Even if these people stay at home quietly, there will be unscrupulous people who will break into the home with knives.
However, in 2009, the local legal department did not take any measures at all to stop these egregious acts.
Later, rumors spread in these areas that having sex with albino patients could cure AIDS.
However, as we all know, AIDS is an infectious disease with deficiency in human immune function, and there is no other means and method except for drug treatment.
However, many ignorant people are convinced of this rumor, which has led to the tragic death of a large number of albino women.
Rescue and resistance
With the development of the Internet, the tragic experience of albinism patients in Africa has gradually attracted the attention of caring people around the world.
In 2009, with the interference of some Western forces, local governments in Africa had to severely punish "hunters" who hunted and killed albinism patients.
The Tanzanian government caught three suspects who together killed a 14-year-old boy with albinism and dismembered him for sale.
Because of the heinousness of this behavior, the local court sentenced three people to death by hanging, which was also the first public punishment for the "hunters".
While this has had a deterrent effect, some people have become more crazy.
Since it is illegal to kill people, they do not take the lives of albinos, but directly cut off the limbs, so that they will not be sentenced to death.
If caught, the court will only sentence these people to 5 to 8 years in prison, and when they come out, they will continue to commit evil.
And African albinism patients not only have to face man-made disasters, but also natural disasters, which is another reason for their relatively high mortality rate.
Due to the lack of melanin in the body, their skin color will become very white, which is very dangerous on this continent that is penetrated by the equator.
Strong ultraviolet rays can easily damage their eyes and skin, resulting in skin cancer.
Although sunscreen and sunglasses can play a certain protective role for them, these are not affordable for ordinary people.
In Tanzania alone, a bottle of sunscreen sells for as much as $15, and most people spend less than $2 a day.
And if you want to protect your exposed skin, you almost consume a bottle every two weeks.
Thankfully, the situation has improved in recent years.
With the intervention of caring people from all over the world, the local government has built special schools and protected areas in some areas, and the police have protected them 24 hours a day.
Because children with albinism are excluded and at risk in schools, the government has also set up a separate curriculum for these special children.
But this chronic disease cannot be completely eliminated in a moment and a half, it still needs a long process.
The only thing we can do is treat these albinos equally, and not look at them the same way.
-Ends-
Text | Don't mistake the little stars
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