Witchdoctors defy ban on selling albino parts
Police in Tanzania have recently arrested almost 100 people suspected of murdering albinos and/or selling their body parts to witchdoctors. Apparently the limbs, hair, and even genitals are used in some folk medicine. The government has responded by pulling the healers' licenses to practice. The healers are reportedly ignoring the ban. From BBC News:
"We have so many patients and clients who depend on us," (herbalist Haruna Kifimbo) told the Citizen (newspaper). "I believe it would have been better if the PM had consulted us before announcing the ban.""Tanzania witchdoctors flout ban"
In the most recent case last Wednesday an albino man - named as Jonas Maduka - was killed in Sogoso village in the north-western Mwanza region.
He was reportedly eating dinner at home when some people called and asked for his help.
When he went outside he was strangled, before his assailants chopped off his leg and made away with the limb.
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I think i am in the same boat as Nanuq... Thats just messed up
"Should have consulted us first"? Why? How do you go about asking someone to stop selling body parts from a murdered person? "Hey would you mind, er Jonas was a friend and no you can't sell his leg for your batshit bush doctoring?"
There is no arguing with drunks and the insane.
tis only a flesh wound
yyyewww, that shit just put the "eep" in creepy. his body contains no pigments,hmmm, let's make a potion out of him! white or dark meat? hahahaha! it's all white meat!
The government is pulling the licences of ALL traditional doctors, based on what looks suspiciously like an urban legend and a knee-jerk mass-hysteria reaction. Likely after lobbying and bribery by drugs companies, doctors, etc.
Or maybe that's just my jaded eyes. Maybe we only operate like that in the west.
Dewi,
That's not what is happening at all. And that you immediately decide that that is what is happening says more about you than anything happening in Tanzania. Use of albino parts isn't at all an "urban legend". The use of albino parts in traditional Tanzanian medicine has been well-documented. The fact that this leads to the murder and mutilation of albinos is also well documented. See for example: http://www.nytimes.com/2008/06/08/world/africa/08albino.html?_r=1&scp=3&sq=albinos%20in%20africa&st=cse
Instead of the automatic knee-jerk pro-alternative medicine reaction it might help to do a little research.
Get Sara Palin's pastor friend on the case! He takes care of witchcraft in Africa!
(Yes, the political issue is a non-sequitur, but I think its interesting when the other side of something everyone guffaws about comes to the fore.)
pduggie, uhhh, WTF?!?
@#7, Joshuaz,
That you suggest I am pro-alternative medicine says more about... well, never mind :) I'm more anti-kneejerk-legislation and anti-spreading-ULs, than I am pro-anything, but I do admit a strong bias towards properly conducted clinical trials.
I'm also not denying that people have been attacked: but my point is that it exposes the stinky side of politics that all traditional medicine practitioners in a country should be told they're out of a job, business, and career because these attacks have started to make embarrassing headlines.
I suggested that it was because of bribery, or embarrassingly sensationalist headlines resulting in a (literal!) witchhunt: looks like I was on the money, and politicians the world over don't move unless you pay 'em or shame 'em.
Hey let's not go badmouthing witchdoctors! Maybe Mr. Maduka agreed to donate his leg in order to save the life of a wealthy businessman? Kinda like a kidney, except they don't grow back.
I'm curious, why is the term "witchdoctors" always used for healers in foreign countries? You never hear about them practicing in the united states. "Faith healer" maybe.
"The government has responded by pulling the healers' licenses to practice." Yes, because that is so much easier than trying them on murder charges.
Mint, Pduggie is referring to the minor scandal that occurred when a pastor who was a friend of Sarah Palin turned out to have had made a career going after "witches." In this case, the situations aren't actually at all the same because the main issue with him was that the people in question claimed not be to be witches at all. In the most well known case, the past drove an apparently innocent woman out of town. Also there's a clear distinction between being a "witch" and being a "witch doctor."
This has been going on for a while. I remember an even more horrible account from a few months ago where a young girl was hacked apart with machetes by several men while the girl and her family were eating dinner. How do you deal with people willing to murder for profit and crazed witchdoctors that see no harm in buying and using body parts of murdered people? You can't reason with people who clearly have no reservations about what they are taking part in.
@11: "Kinda like a kidney, except they don't grow back"
funniest thing I've heard all day.
Dewi, you are still wrong. There's zero evidence that there are any "sensationalist headlines" unless you mean "accurate headlines that discuss a practice that should have been stopped years ago."
We have a situation where a) people are being murdered and b) the fastest way to stop those people from being murdered is to stop the witch doctors and c) there's no evidence that anything the witch doctors do helps at all (indeed often quite the opposite. Traditional medicine in Tanzania is like in South Africa used explicitly instead of modern medicine. It is connected with HIV-AIDs denial among other problems). Given that, revoking their licenses until this is sorted out seems perfectly reasonable.
This BBC article also ignores a number of points that make the decision even more reasonable.
First, this is not the first step that was taken to try to halt these killings. See for example: http://www.findingdulcinea.com/news/international/2009/jan/Persecuted-Tanzanian-Albinos-Given-Cell-Phones-for-Protection.html
Second, not all traditional healers have been banned just those without a specific additional type of approval (this is mentioned in this article http://thecitizen.co.tz/newe.php?id=10084 )
Note also that in the testimony in front of the legislature multiple of the witch doctors said they had bought albino parts in the past and would continue doing so.
Please tell me these people aren't getting murdered for use as "fertility potions" in this post-viagra age. It's bad enough to have a bunch of quacks selling medicines that don't work. For people to die for this shit when there are real medicine available is horrifying on so many levels.
And I'm sick of hearing about "alternative medicines" discussed as a viable alternative to science. All medicine falls into one of two categories: the kind that works and the kind that doesn't. If it's of the former then it will eventually be studied, reviewed and accepted by the medical community. If it's of the latter it will be sold under a bullshit moniker like "herbal remedy."
Which doctors?
I hate people that interrupt my dinner with a phone call too.
The government has responded by pulling the healers' licenses to practice.
...which would mean that in Tanzania, there is a government bureau that regulates and licenses witchdoctery. Wow.
I know this would never fly, but the only way I can think of to combat it is flood the black market with a poison, that is marketed as albino body part sourced. People who support the trade by consuming, and the sellers (by retribution once everyone gets sick) get hit. That or get the government really serious about enforcing murder charges, but from what I've heard in reports the government is somewhat complicit.
I'm an ex-South African, and can confirm that the SA government did license and regulate (as much as they regulate anything) witchdoctors or "sangomas".
Partly because of the mass exodus of skilled people from Africa, and partly because education is so poor that it's useless trying to get African people to stop seeing these quacks, getting them into dialogue with the medical community was a well-intended idea.
The reality is that you can't reason with superstitious "doctors" who will not recommmend simple preventative steps to curb HIV infection, give outright bad advice to people who could have been saved from serious conditions, and do in fact mutilate people and animals for "muti" or traditional cures involving body parts. I recall reading articles on a black market trade in cadaver parts from morgues.
It's a lose/lose situation, really. On the one hand, you risk alienating newly-urbanised Africans by insulting their cultural beliefs and you lose inroads to their communities. On the other hand, some of their cultural beliefs are pretty bloody atavistic and cannot be tolerated by any rational society.
So, yah, I left Africa.
@20 Anonymous
Your idea sounds good except that it could lead to complete war against albinos ",,,They are poison now, kill them before they kill us,,," kinda thing.
and see#21 for more
"Hey. . . wait a minute. . . this isn't REAL albino, it's just some blonde guy's leg!! What a rip off!!"
I'm guessing then the Johnny Winter and Yellowman Rock & Reggae Tour will definitely take the long way around Tanzania.
It must suck enough being an albino in Africa to begin with. (Hellooooo melanoma!). This is just so sad.
I think this is the point Dewi is trying to get at-
The title of this entry is wrong. It should read "witch doctors defy government ban on witch doctory" or something. They're not openly defying a new ban on murdering albinos. The ban is on witch medicine (is that what it's called?) of any kind. I'm assuming murder of any sort has always been illegal in Tanzania.
I'm not opposed to this ban in any way, and yes, I'm well horrified to learn that albino murder is a serious problem, but Boing Boing should paraphrase the BBC article in a clearer fashion.
these thing move in waves, They begin as fads and fashions, mushroom and blossom in a word of mouth society and then rot and fade as their uselessness sinks in and the next gimmick emerges. You can't stop it, but you can re-direct it. Counter advertising at the same level and perhaps strategic removal of the worst offenders (witchdoctors most prone to egregious announcements could get a visit form the Polonium Fairy. If they must have their "cures" better to have paid troops of actors that shill harmless snake oil secretly for the government. If they HAVE a government. Also, just pay massive bribes to the most prominent witchdoctors on the understanding that the gold will turn to lead as soon they say the wrong thing.
At least the witch doctors aren't promoting smoking.
I'm appalled by your use of the term "healers" for these people - even the ones who aren't accessories to murder, whether before or after the fact, are often claiming that the sources of people's problems are witchcraft done by some neighbor. There are some people actually attempting to do healing using traditional herbs, but that's not the big witchdoctor business.
It may have been a long time before Western medicine could really live up to "First, do no harm", but it was certainly a good goal, and it's not what many of these practitioners are doing.
Joshuaz@15: I agree. Sometimes I change my mind without noticing it, and rereading my original post I clearly believed it was totally bogus: and even reading my second post, I agree I was wrong there too. Thanks for the informative links that completely argued me around.
Anon@26: Thanks, but you do me too much credit - that may've been a point I was vaguely aiming in the direction of, but I'd have had to dig further to consciously get to it :P S'a good point though, and the BB title may have coloured my opinion into thinking the reporting was sensationalist.
I live and (slowly) learn :)