Being a child with albinism

Abductions of persons with albinism have left one boy devastated and out of school. JAMES CHAVULA writes.

On a sunny Thursday morning last week, we entered Mwambuli village in Karonga.

We arrived in the little known locality, when all pupils had gone to school.

However, one of them was absent and he sounded scared stiff to go to school.

Morton, the 11-year-old survived prevailing ritual killings of people with albinism two months ago.

Born on December 5 2003, he scarcely feels at home in what are supposed to be the safest spaces for every child.

“Banthu mbaheni,” the Standard 5 pupil with albinism speaks of “the evil people” who enticed him to escort them to a nearby village, only to shove him into an isolated bush where they hacked him in a foiled attempt to terminate his life.

Now he lives not just with a scar across the neck and the biceps of the right arm which reportedly saved him from being sliced by the attackers’ knife.

There seems to be a permanent scar in his heart that he trusts nobody except his parents and siblings.

During the first meeting that sunny morning, he asked his brother Batista, 20: “Who are these people and what are they looking for?”

The questions have become part of life as the boy feels insecure in the company of visitors, said his brother.

In an interview, his parents, Rashid Juma and Maria Mkandawire, corroborated the boy’s inner fears.

“He always wants to know the people around him probably because he was lured into the trap by a person he grew up knowing as his uncle,” the mother says about her fourth born.

Sam Kaumba, 32, and Fishani Mtambo, 33, stand accused of attempted murder in a case involving the killings that have pushed the boy out of school.

The mother, who sells fish at Karonga, market recalls knocking off early, around 3pm, to go and cheer her friend who had been admitted at the district hospital.

“When I got home, I heard that Sam wanted to see me. I didn’t suspect any foul play because Sam comes from Sadala Village which borders mine, Katili. Besides, the boys call him uncle,” she said.

Sadly, she had hardly arrived at her colleagues’ sickbed when she received a phone call informing her the boy was in a blood bath having narrowly escaped death in Ipiyana Forest near a Police Mobile Service camp.

In their recollections, this is how the events of the tragic Wednesday evening panned out: The parents say it started on a sad note as he asked for a cup of water and the boy gave it to him kneeling down politely. They say ‘Uncle Sam’ called the boy aside and he went to hear him out only to say they had to go to collect chickens which he and the mother of five had bought for sale. Morton says he accepted because the suspect had promised the boy a chicken.

In no time, they were on bicycle taxis.

When they got to Karonga Teachers College Turn Off around sunset, one of the cyclists was wary about heading for Ipiyana Forest and he stirred a hornet’s nest when he reportedly asked ‘Uncle Sam’: “Where are you taking the boy?”

The suspect allegedly paid off the cyclist there and then, stuffed a K100 change into Morton’s pocket and proceeded with the journey.

It was only when they got near the PMS camp that he purportedly pulled him into the bush where two people were waiting and talking about albinos in Swahili.

“In no time, one grabbed my arm and another hacked me with a panga,” Morton recalls.

In his account, the panga was steaming with blood and he had just blocked it from landing on his throat one more time when he held a salvific voice: “What’s going on here?”

That was the voice of Paul Nkhoma, the man the Jumas salute as “the selfless hero who saved Morton”

It sent two suspects fleeing while Sam trailed them all the way to the Police Mobile Service Camp where he was nabbed.

The boy in a pool of blood when community members were alerted.

“Hospital staff were still stitching the wound when I rushed to the hospital,” she says.

Her husband, who traced Morton’s albinism to his father Seleman of Namwera, was entering a mosque for evening prayers when somebody pulled his robe, saying: “hurry home, your son is dying.”

The Jumas spent four days at Karonga District Hospital as the boy battled for life, but that was no end to their hardship as it took slightly over a month before the wound healed and the boy stopped suffering nose bleeding.

“The boy was in pain and our businesses collapsed. Unfortunately, the people outside were arguing whether the boy is really an albino or just brown in complexion,” said his father.

The boy’s condition is brown albinism and it’s rare, says Albino Association of Malawi president Boniface Massa.

We asked the parents how he is fighting back.

“He is coping well, but not well enough,” said the father. “Soon after the incident, he couldn’t sleep all night. Later, he started shouting in his sleep, asking: ‘Who are you? What do you want? Go away.’ Throughout, he fears walking alone—mostly going out in the company of his mom and brothers.”

Agreeing, the mother said: “He only stopped escorting me to the marketplace two weeks ago. He no longer goes to school because of fear of what might happen on the way.

Whose fear?

“The boy fears he might be kidnapped on the way to Ipiyana Primary School and we don’t want to take chances. We may become a laughing stock if the tragedy strikes again,” she said.

Just like that, the boy has spanned two months without going to school.

Presently, the Social Welfare office is exploring sending the boy to a boarding school where his education and security is guaranteed.

The boy is destined for Hope Orphanage in Mchinji, according to social welfare officer Heston Jaji.

He explained: “The boy is still traumatised with what happened and it might not be safe to send him back to an open primary school. We have discussed with the orphanage where US popstar Madonna adopted David Banda in 2006 to enrol him.”

Last month, the Jumas obtained a transfer letter from Ipiyana to facilitate the shift to the childcare centre in the western border district popularised by the celebrity singer.

According to Jaji, the social welfare office is exploring sustainable ways of keeping the boy in school.

“We are still banging heads on what the boy will need when he leaves for Mchinji and who will be responsible for his transportation to school and return trips when he comes to visit the parents. We don’t want to look like we are dumping the boy,” the official explained.

Morton’s story mirrors the plight of children with albinism amid the targeted attacks, says Massa.

The activist, who advocates rights of people without skin pigment, wants government to take drastic steps to arrest the wave of kidnappings and killings.

Looking back, Morton’s parents say they have been living in fear since the attacks of people with albinism were first reported on radio and Karonga’s proximity to Tanzania makes matters worse.

According to his mother, this is the third time Morton suffered an attack.

First, she says, a driver in their neighbourhood two years ago apprehended him, saying he was taking the boy to police alleging he had broken car windows. He was reportedly saved by villagers who insisted the driver informs the parents first.

Second, he was coming from school when he found himself being pursued by a motorist driving a car with Tanzanian registration plates. He was saved by a whisker, thanks to his heels.

Following the September 2 attack, the Jumas implore government to make security and penalties stiff.

In their struggle to safeguard Morton, the Jumas want government to act decisively to creat a safer world for nearly 7 000 Malawians with albinism–not petty promises, task forces and rhetoric. n