Albinos
He was barely one year old when his
parents neglected him and parted ways after a serious fight, simply
because he was an albino, a rare breed that was contrary to what they
had both expected.
Forty years after, Mr. Abdullahi Obafemi,
has yet to recover from the painful knowledge that his parents
abandoned him. They tossed him between each other until his grandmother,
who was living in northern Nigeria, took over his custody.
Obafemi is still haunted by his history, the humiliation and rejection he continues to suffer from the public daily.
“I am my parents’ only child. I learnt
their marriage ended abruptly the moment my mother gave birth to me as
an albino. In fact, I learnt my mother screamed, Eh! Afin ni mo bi (Ha, I gave birth to an albino) when she saw me.
“While they were busy denying me and
fighting over who would take care of me, my grandmother took me away
from them,” Obafemi said with a note of sadness.
Growing up was also not easy for Obafemi as he helplessly endured the constant discrimination meted against people like him.
Although albinos are no strange beings as
they only lack the pigment that gives colouration to the skin and body
parts, called melanin, they are usually discriminated against.
Apart from their skin and brown hair,
many albinos suffer from short sight vision, thus, they usually have
challenge with seeing objects, whether far or near.
Obafemi recalled his tough experience in
school. His bad sight affected his learning in school even when he sat
in front of the class.
He said, “I wasn’t seeing things clearly
and I couldn’t afford to buy reading glasses. I had to rely on my
classmates so I could copy from their notes but they often treated me
with disdain. Nobody wanted to move close to an albino.
“Thank God I was brilliant, it was when
they saw that I was very good that they came close to me, not because
they liked me but they knew I would always solve questions for them so
they could pass.”
Despite the resilience and hard work that
saw Obafemi through school, getting a good job has remained an elusive
desire. He was rejected, abused and humiliated everywhere he looked for
job because of his albinism.
Obafemi studied Building Technology at the Yaba College of Technology, Lagos.
“The pains, humiliation and rejection I
went through before I could graduate are things I don’t like to
remember. It is now more painful that nobody wants to employ me because
of my skin and some employers even make jest of me.
“There was a time I applied for a job,
and having seen my application, I was invited to write a test. When I
got there, one of the interview panel members said, ‘So you are an
albino, don’t worry; we will invite you some other time.’
“When I later got a job as a civil
servant, I had to learn painting to augment my meagre income and even
when people want to give me job, some people would say I wouldn’t see
very well because of my eyes. They say I would paint green instead of
blue. I lost many jobs because of that too but I got few on
compassionate grounds.
“There was a day I went to apply for a
security job, I was asked by the company officials how I would see
people coming in and I told them I was not blind. But they told me that I
was the one who needed security instead, not for me to be a security
man.”
Obafemi has had to combat rejection in many ways, including relationship with women.
“Thankfully, I have a nine-year-old son
now, who is not an albino, but the family of his mother didn’t allow me
to marry her because I was an albino and they said I wasn’t rich enough.
However, I am happy I have one already, but I wish I was not an albino,
because life would have been easier for me, like others,” he added.
Peculiar troubles
Obafemi’s situation underscores the
challenge being faced by people affected by albinism. Inasmuch as they
are also humans, many of them have dreams of what to become in life but a
number of them have had their hope of a better life replaced by
frustration and utter dislike for themselves.
Tola Banjoko is another albino. She
suffers from bad sight, and that alone has cost her the desire to go to
school as she had to drop out of school.
Born into a family of 10, and as the only albino in the family, life dealt cruelly with her. She told Saturday Punch
that not even the idea of sitting in front of the class would help her
situation and since her mother could not buy the recommended glasses to
aid her vision, she had to stop going to school and opted to run a
kiosk.
She said, “When I complained to my mother
that I didn’t see things on the board, she didn’t really know what to
do. My mother went to plead with my teacher to allow me to sit in front
but that didn’t solve the problem.
“I was able to finish primary school
because one of my teachers would sit beside me and read the questions to
me during exams, but there was no such help when I got to a public
secondary school that my parents could afford.
“In JSS1, one of my teachers would always
tell me to go and sit at the back because she said I was too tall to
sit in front. Even when I tried to explain why I needed to sit there,
she wouldn’t listen. And my own sight was so bad that I could put number
one in two sometimes. When I became so disturbed about everything, I
stopped schooling, more so that I couldn’t afford the pair of glasses
that would have aided my sight.”
Banjoko told Saturday PUNCH that
after she dropped out of school, her skin began to change for the worst
when she had to defy the golden rule for albinos not to roam in the
sun, to look for a job until she couldn’t get any and had to settle for
running a small kiosk on the street where she earns a living.
“While I was going out to look for job,
it was like fire was burning my skin each time I was in the sun until I
was forced to start selling things. I still want to go to school and I
don’t want to lose hope, but I feel very bad that I am an albino because
my education has suffered for it and that is a huge loss for me. I wish
I was not an albino but what can I do?” she lamented.
Lamentation, a shared currency
While Banjoko had to drop out of school
because of her sight, Chiamaka Chikwem, 26, managed to go to school but
has not had much to show for it, even though she finished with a Second
Class Upper Division.
She told Saturday PUNCH that she
feels so unlucky and unfortunate being an albino because of the
disappointments, marginalisation and discrimination she has had to live
with.
Chikwem, a graduate of Microbiology from
Michael Okpara University, Umudike, Abia State lamented that she had
been so frustrated to the extent of considering suicide when it seemed
the doors of favour had been shut against her.
“Even when I know I am qualified for a
job, I don’t get it and some even say it to my face that an albino
cannot do their kind of work. Albinism does not affect our intelligence,
we are not blind, it is just the skin colour and our sight. I believe
in myself and I know I will make it because I won’t give up,” she
lamented.
I will never marry an albino
Chikwem said even though God created her
for a purpose, she would never marry a fellow albino. She said, “I feel
unlucky and unfortunate being an albino and I will never marry an albino
or someone with the gene because that would be double tragedy. It is
not because there is something wrong with albinos, I am an albino, but
the discrimination has made it a problem.
“I am at the moment an office secretary
somewhere and I do another free job because some don’t even want me in
the first place, so I forced myself to be there so I could be actively
engaged even if I am not being paid. I like to practise what I studied,
but nobody wants to give albinos a chance. But I won’t stop searching in
spite of the frustration.
“If I struggled to go to school with my
short sightedness and graduated with a Second Class Upper division and I
still do not get a job because of my colour, that is not a thing of
joy. I am sad. Now I want to do my Master’s programme if that would
help, but I don’t have the money.”
As she continues to look for job, Chikwem
is not thinking about being in a relationship even at 26, because she
rarely gets passes from men. She said, “That I’m an albino may be a
factor, but I don’t want to think that way. I don’t even like to think
about it so that it doesn’t compound my problem, and the reason why you
don’t see many albinos at the top is because of the adversities that we
face. Those who are not strong-willed tend to lose hope and withdraw
their efforts.
“I once considered suicide when the
adversities and rejection became so severe; but I chose to face it
headlong. When one is pushed beyond some limit, a reaction like suicide
could flash through the mind.”
Unrealisable dreams
Forty-three-year-old Lukman Desmond is
one of the over six million people living with albinism in Nigeria.
Currently unemployed, his dream was to be an officer in the military but
he has since let go of that dream due to his albinism. He said he
didn’t bother to obtain the form because he knew he would not be
considered.
Lukman is trying to manage his fears that
his Ordinary Level qualification may not take him anywhere in the midst
of over 20 million black-skinned Nigerian youths that are currently
unemployed, with the country’s 24 per cent unemployment rate.
He said, “Presently, I have O’ level and I
have been looking for a job to support myself to further my education
but I have been turned down everywhere I go, even if it is a menial job.
It’s frustrating. My father does not have enough to support me to study
to a higher level, so I want to help myself and supplement whatever
they give to me but people don’t want to employ an albino.
“Because of the rejections here and
there, I do ask myself if they don’t want us to live. Even women
discriminate against us. By the time you don’t have a job, everybody
avoids you and nothing seems to be working in your favour, what is there
to live for.”
“At 44 now, I don’t have a girlfriend
because they don’t want to come close to me. I was dating a lady
sometime ago, but the moment the mother saw me, the instant disapproval
on her face was too obvious that I didn’t even wait for her to say it.
But I will keep trying until I have a job and married.
Troubled marriage
Apart from those who were born as
albinos, another thing that seems to have torn some families apart is
albinism. For the dearth of an accurate way of ascertaining who has the
albinism gene, it appears Mrs. Linda Mustapha would have others to tell
her own kind of bitter story.
Mustapha was barely 16 when she was
forced into marriage with a man she had never met by a relative, shortly
after her grandfather who had been her guardian.
As a young girl bubbling with life and
strong desire for education, all her dreams of a better future soon hit
the rocks, an experience that replaced her once joyous life with one
full of regrets and frustration, when she married without her consent,
to a man that was 15 years older than her.
Fair skinned and very beautiful, when she
got to Lagos from the village, and was slowly reconciling herself with
the trauma that had flooded her small world, she committed the
unexpected crime: She gave birth to albinos — a phenomenon that runs
contrary to the culture in her husband’s village.
She had hope of continuing her education
someday even though the possibility was not very bright initially when
she had her first son, a male with black complexion, but when the second
and third children came and they were albinos, hell was let loose by
the husband’s family, who not only made sure she was divorced, but also
subjected the children to utter discomfort and trouble.
Mustapha recalled that she never knew
what love or relationship meant before the arranged marriage, and even
when she followed the husband to Lagos, but that life became hellish
when she had the two albinos. Since then, she has been enduring a
torturous life of abject poverty.
Her case fits in perfectly into the common rhetoric, ‘When the fruit of the womb becomes a disadvantage.’
She said, “I was 10 when I lost my mum
and my dad died when I was 14. I was about registering for junior WASSCE
when my grandfather died and that is why I don’t have my Junior School
Certificate till date because I wrote the exam on credit. Instead of
these relatives to help with my exam fees, they were in a hurry to give
me out in marriage, and they did.”
She disclosed that to prove how desperate
her larger family members were to get rid of her, when her husband
could not pay the N600 dowry, someone in her family lent him the money!
She said, “There was no love between us,
he never proposed to me and I never knew him. I was a virgin when I was
given to him and I never knew anything about sex or relationship before
then, so the pains I went through still haunt me till today.
“He handled me as if I was
inconsequential, while I became pregnant a year after we arrived Lagos. I
was only 17. I wanted to go to school, but he deceived me and told me
that I would be kidnapped if I did, and because of the magnitude of the
fear he had implanted in me, I could not summon enough courage to run
away. I wish I had, even if I was going to die, because now I live in
regret and poverty.”
Her marital problems assumed a terrifying
dimension when she gave birth to two albinos—a boy and a girl, as the
situation pitched her against her husband’s extended family. Even her
husband could not forgive her for these births. Eventually, she was sent
packing and told never return to the man.
“They told me that it was forbidden to
have an albino in their tradition, and when I had mine, his family
members accused me of bringing an albino, a forbidden genre of people in
their culture, to their home.
Mustapha’s experience underscores the
evils of child marriage and its attendant implications. As a fair
skinned beautiful lady, she recalled that the husband would come to
where she was selling some things to beat and embarrass her, and even
accuse her of sleeping around even when she was almost enslaved and was
not allowed to go out at will.
“Eventually, he threw my things out, he
didn’t allow me to sleep in the house, and I had to sleep in the kitchen
every night. As if that was not enough, he locked me out and took the
children to his village where his family members made him swear to an
oath that he would never allow me to step into his house again. When he
was returning to Lagos, they organised another woman for him. The woman
left when she couldn’t cope with his attitude.
“My husband threatened to bathe me with acid if he sees me around, all because I gave birth to albinos.”
Life of regrets
Now 37, Mustapha’s torturous experience
has shaped her life and confined her into a corner of abundant regrets.
Having been out of job for a long time and residing in a church
somewhere in Apapa area of Lagos State, she struggles to get money to
feed herself, her three children and the husband, who is now sick, on a
weekly basis.
Having been at the mercy of friends and
relatives since she lost her job as a cleaner, she is currently living
from hands to mouth to feed the family of five and buy the necessary
protective items for her albino children.
“The children are with him because I
don’t have a house. I sleep in a church at the moment. I only go to see
them on weekends to give them food that can last them for a week.
“I am not an albino. I didn’t grow up to
see any albino in my family, we are only fair skinned, which is not even
close to albinism, but they have an albino in their lineage. They have
shifted the entire blame on me. I wish my parents didn’t die that early,
because all these wouldn’t have happened if they had been alive.”
She said at a point, her in-laws even transferred the anger they felt towards her to her children.
“On a particular occasion after I was
sent out of the house leaving my children behind, my husband’s sister
came around. One day, she dipped my first son’s buttocks in hot water
because they accused him of stealing a belt, leaving his buttocks
severely burnt. When he managed to call me and I got there, I took off
his trousers to see the extent of the damage. What I saw was shocking!
My son’s flesh was gummed to the trousers and it peeled as I tried to
remove the trousers. I had to take him to the hospital where the
trousers were removed.
“As if that was not enough, the woman
also gave pepper and hot water to my first albino child to swallow, and
stood on him, all in a bid to torment him. I regret everything that has
happened to me. I would have been able to escape if not for my children
but now I’m stuck, all because I gave birth to albinos.
It’s not all gloom for the albinos
The coordinator of the albino group in
Lagos State, Mrs. Josephine Yejide, who is also a nurse, said it is
important for people to know that albinism deals with gene and that it
goes beyond facial calculation.
She recalled that she had always lived a
freedom-spiced life as a young woman and that she never allowed anybody
to look down on her, which was why she was able to make progress in her
education and career.
She said even though she had male friends
who liked her and wanted her for a relationship, they would always run
away when it was time to discuss about marriage or meet with their
parents.
She said, “I never entertained
inferiority complex and I mixed with everybody, attended parties and
even joined the Kegites Club in school, and I was committed to my work,
so there was no way anybody would malign me. I always dress well because
I understand the perception of people about my skin colour, so if I
dress well, people would respect me. There is already a minus for us, so
looking bad makes it worse.”
While clarifying some of the
controversies trailing albinism, she said contrary to the idea that only
an albino could give birth to an albino child, two people with black
skin who are carriers of the gene would likely have an albino child. She
added that if an albino marries someone who is not an albino and does
not have the gene at all, they will not have albino as a child.
She said, “I am an albino but my husband
is dark and my children are not albinos because my husband does not have
the gene. They are only fair and their fair complexion is not
excessive. It is not about being fair, it is about being a carrier of
the gene.
“We tell parents of albinos to go to the
children’s school and talk to the teachers to enable the albino child to
sit infront of the class and we encourage albinos who are students to
study twice as much as others because of their sight.”
Josephine added that living with albinism could be very challenging but the main challenges lie with their skin and sight.
Another albino, Dr. Douglas Anele, who is
a senior lecturer in the Department of Philosophy, University of Lagos,
is one of the albinos who have carved a niche for themselves. He is a
prolific writer, with many of his scholarly works published in
international journals.
How albinos are treated across the world
Albinism is said to affect about one in
every 20,000 people across the world and this population is distributed
across some countries. In China, the world most populous country, one
out of every 18,000 people is affected, out of its over 1.3 billion
people. In the United States, one out of every 37,000 people is
affected, out of its over 319 million people. Also, in the United
Kingdom, one of every 17,000 people is said to be affected, out of its
over 64 million people.
With over six million albinos in Nigeria,
the country is rated to have one of the highest albinism prevalent
rates in the world while children constitute about 40 per cent of the
population. In many African countries with black people like Nigeria,
anyone with a deviant colour stands to be treated as an outcast.
While albinism has been proven to be a
genetic condition caused by the absent of melanin in the skin of those
affected, many African children are at the risk of deep rejection,
discrimination and even death, the latter being occasioned by the myth
that they have potency for black magic ritual, fortune, wealth and good
health.
