Daily Champion (Lagos)
OPINION
22 April 2007
One of the amazing, but little-known fact in Nigeria today, is the plight of
albinos who suffer different types of discriminations. There are a total of 1.3
million albinos in the country who experience even more discrimination and
deprivation than their traditional, physically handicapped or disabled
compatriots in society.
Albinism, for the records, is a genetic condition akin to sickle cells anemia that renders persons or animals unnaturally white in skin and hair, with pink eyes, due to a quirky lack of natural colouring materials or pigments called melanin that gives natural colour to normal species.
Though a natural condition, albinos nonetheless are viewed by the wider society in much the same way that twins, lepers and other aberrants in pre-christian times, were viewed by traditionalists.
Many insidious myths are still woven around this class of 'white' or 'bleached' individuals.
For example, albinos have hitherto been regarded as a curse from the gods who have to be got rid of in traditional communities. Some communities have traditionally killed albinos at birth or have had them and their parents banished. Another myth links albinos to leprosy while others believe that albino children are results of infidelity of the women who beget them. Other myths link albinism to black women's indiscretion with white European males while some say that the reason albinos result was because couples had indulged in afternoon trysts!
For all these largely unscientific, superstitious and unfounded reasons, albinos, in most traditional African societies, have suffered very grievous discrimination and deprivations, even from the well-educated and governments.
However, the fact, to the extent that empiricism could lead to intelligent deductions, is that albinos are born, not because of some nebulous acts of the gods, but because of some biological, genetic situations that manifest in generations of carrier agents, or not at all, as with twin births. In fact, an albino couple could have children who do not share their conditions while normally dark couples could spawn a generation of albinos!
Because of their special genetic anomalies, albinos also suffer other unique afflictions. Their skins cannot stand the ultraviolet rays of the sun that normal pigment tropical dwellers can withstand. Their skins break up and crack like dried beds of silted lakes. Their skins become cancerous and, occasionally, smelly.
Beyond that, albinos have a hard time attracting reasonable marriage partners, except for many who take them for their novelty values or for other fetishistic ritual reasons.
Even when they overcome these mythological, cultural and biological handicaps, albinos face even greater de-neutering from governments, institutions and laws of their lands.
In schools and other institutions of learning, albinos are not given deserved preferential treatments. Because of their conditions, it takes an albino about 10 minutes to read a material that would take normal persons just three minutes to go through. During competitive tests, albinos lag behind.
Also, because of the absence of proper pigmentation, albinos are not suited to work in the sun. While it takes an ordinary person about one and a half hours to burn in the sun, the albino will roast under fifteen minutes in the sun.
Which is why we applaud and commend the initiative of a non-governmental organization (NGO) to sensitize the public, government and international bodies concerning the unique situation of the world's millions of albinos with a view to ameliorating them.
According to Mr Jake Epelle, founder of The Albino Foundation (TAF), their difficulties start right from birth at their homes and extend all through their social, economic and marital lives.
An albino himself, whose children are normal, Jake Epelle has called for affirmative actions of sorts to help the albinos in order to help themselves.
We think that government could begin by recognizing their unique conditions and situations that firmly place albinos in the ignoble rank of other marginalized, disabled within society.
The ministry of education should look into their disabilities and address them, as with other employers of labour who mostly see albinos as unavoidable nuisance and objects of exploitation.
Some sort of subsidies should be put in place for these unfortunate citizens to take care of their peculiar medical conditions-since, as Jake Epelle revealed, it costs as much as $300 monthly for an albino to take care of his/her skin and ward off freckles, moles, seborrhoeic keratoses, and subsequently, skin cancer.
But more fundamentally, as Professor Anezi Okoro of the Ebonyi State University, who has tracked the incidence of albinism since the 1960s following an encounter with an albino skin cancer patient has said, the authorities should deploy resources for researchers to be able to map out the particular chromosomes that are associated with albinism with a view to isolating and preventing couples who have them, from getting married, as with sickle cell anemia patients.
Though Prof. Okoro admitted that, so far, this has been difficult, it is an exercise worth undertaking, considering the size of the nation's population that suffers this unique scourge.
There is need for a fresh census and look at the albino phenomenon considering that the current figure of 1.3 million out of 140 million was gathered when Nigeria operated a 12 state structure. Today, with 36 states, the figure might be higher, which makes the exercise more imperative.
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