Proverbs 20: 17 says, ‘What you get by dishonesty you may enjoy like the finest food, but sooner or later it will be like a mouthful of sand’.
Joseph Murphy observes that, ‘As you would want people to think about you, think about them in like manner, as you would want people to feel about you, feel you also about them in like manner, as you would want people to act toward you, act you toward them in like manner’.
In other words, what goes around comes around!
The Times of Zambia edition of January 11, 2018 carried a sad story of a 20-year-old pregnant albino woman of Muchinga Province who had survived a horrific attack in which unknown assailants cut off her right arm and went away with it for suspected rituals.
This is not only criminal but also barbaric, satanic and un-Zambian in a Christian nation to say the least!
Poverty as a mental illness is driving some people crazy and making them so desperate to become happy, healthy and wealthy that they are doing all kinds of negative things like sleeping in coffins, sleeping with their parents or own children, exhuming dead bodies, sexually abusing children, killing their parents or other family members, killing people with bald heads, killing albinosand other satanic practices all of which have absolutely nothing to do with acquiring true happiness, health and wealth.
There is need to shed more light on the phenomenon of albinism.
What is albinism?
Albinism is a genetic disorder which is caused by a mutation in one of the several genesleading to the reduction of the pigment melanin, often causing white skin, light hair and vision problems.
Research indicates that albinism affects an estimated 1 in 17,000 people globally.
However, its prevalence varies by region and in sub-Saharan Africa, the rate of albinism is around 1 in 5,000 but in Europe and America it is around 1 in 20,000.
Albinism is also found in animals, snakes and other creatures.
Why are albinos persecuted?
There is a strong correlation between persecuting albinos and high levels of poverty, ignorance, paganism, superstition and witchcraft.
Albinos are persecuted in some African countries mainly because of false and negative traditional beliefs, folktales, myths, superstition, valuesas well as witchcraft.
These misconceptions, coupled with the lack of education, take the place of medical and scientific facts in the minds of many Africans, especially those in the rural areas.
The misconceptions are mostly promoted by witch doctors and others who out of ignorance and paganism claim that body parts of albinos can be used in rituals, concoctions and potions to bring about prosperity.
What these people need to know and understand is that it is impossible for negative means like cutting some one’s arm or killing somebodyto bring about something positive like true and sustainable prosperity! This is because negative means can only bring about equivalent negative conditions like misery and poverty and similarly positive means also can only bring about equivalent positive conditions like happiness and prosperity!
The fact is that it is only genetic disorder and a defect of melanin production that cause albinos to look different from other people. Albinism is inherited and it is not contagious.
In other words, you cannot catch albinism from touching or eating with an albino.
People are born with albinism because they inherit an albinism gene or genes from their parents.Albinos are normal people like anyone else and their body parts have no more magical powers than the body parts of all other people.
Frantz Fanon definitelyhit the nail right on its head when he said, ‘A negative mind-set is the tabernacle of all that is evil!
People should be taught and made to understand that true happiness, health and wealth are blessings from God!!
In other words, our true happiness, health and wealth are products of the spiritual dimension in our own lives. Many of these people are committing such atrocities out of sheer ignorance of the Laws of Life and desperation engineered by their own poverty of thoughts.
Europe which brought capitalism and money to most of Africa realised a long time ago during its Period of Enlightenment of about 1400 to 1700 AD when it went through a spiritual re-birth that darkness, ignorance, superstition and witchcraft donot co-exist with light, progress and development.
It did away with most of its negative practices of the Dark Ages of about 500 to 1400 AD when magic and witchcraft cohabited and competed with new ideas, religion and science.
It was this European positive mind-set change that released the dynamo of development that we see today in Europe and later spread to other Western countries.
This is why it is a responsibility of every one of us to also do away with our own type of ignorance, superstition and witchcraft which constitute the driving force behind the plight of albinos and commission of negative practices in Zambia in particular and Africa in general.
There is need for proper education for a positive mind-set change that can significantly help to overcome these negative attitudes, practices and values which are centuries old.
Church, community and civic leaders need to communicate to their congregations and audiences that albinos and all of us are all created in the same image and likeness of God and what you do to the other will come back to you whether you like it or not and whether you know it or not!
This Christian Golden Rule is so important and true that it is also the foundation of all world’s major religions. Brahmanism says, ‘This is the sum of duty. Do nothing to others which cause you pain, if done to you’; Buddhism says, ‘Hurt not others in ways that you yourself would find hurtful’; Confucianism says, ‘Do not, to others what you would not have them do to you’; Judaism says, ‘What is hurtful to yourself, do not, to your fellow person. That is the whole of the law, the rest is merely documentary’; Islam says, ‘No one of you is a believer until he or she desires for his brother or her sister that which he or she desires for himself or herself’; and Taoism says, ‘Regard your neighbour’s gain as your own gain; and your neighbour’s loss as your own loss’.
The United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights has published a report regarding discrimination which has been directed toward people with albinism.
This report has been submitted as part of the Human Rights Council resolution 23/13 of 13 June 2013.
It reinforces that ‘States would adopt specific measures to protect and preserve the rights to life and security of persons with albinism, as well as their right not to be subject to torture and ill treatment, and ensure their access to adequate health care, employment, education and justice.’
Although there is discrimination and stigmatisation against albinos also in Zambia, the situation is however slightly better than it is in other neighboring countries.
Just as the Patriotic Front (PF) Chama South Member of Parliament (MP) Davison Mung’andu said in the same Times of Zambia edition, ‘Cases of albino killings were on the increase and the perpetrators were selling body parts to a named neighboring country for ritual purposes’.
Zambia as a Christian Nation should remain vigilant to curb the scourge by protecting our albino population in the country.
In addition, it should met out stiff penalties to those involved in such barbaric and pagan acts, especially that our two countries are culturally and socially interconnected.
The US 38th Vice-President (1965-1969) Hubert Humphrey under President Lyndon Johnson was right when he said, ‘The moral test of government is how it treats those who are in the dawn of life, the children; those who are in the twilight of life, the aged; and those who are in the shadows of life-the sick, the needy and the handicapped’!
In addition to the role of the Government let us all be on the lookout and responsible to protect the human dignity, happiness, health and safety of our loved albino population in Zambia.
The author is a motivational mentor and consultant in positive mind-set change. Email: positivemindpower1511@yahoo.com.