Tanzania's people with albinism targeted by superstition-driven trafficking

A person with albinism in Tanzania risks being killed not for who they are, but for what others believe their body parts can do. That belief — that limbs, skin, and hair carry magical properties — drives a trafficking economy that ENACT Africa has documented in a detailed investigation.

ENACT Africa, a programme that tracks organised crime across the continent, reports that the trade in body parts from people with albinism is not random violence. It is structured. Buyers commission attacks. Intermediaries transport remains. Witch doctors, known locally as waganga, are often the end point of the supply chain, selling prepared materials to clients who believe they will bring wealth, luck, or political power.

A market built on myth

The false belief that albinism confers supernatural power is the engine of this trade, according to ENACT Africa. The same report notes that people with albinism have been buried alive in some cases — their presence at a burial site understood by perpetrators as a ritual act that transfers fortune to the deceased's family.

ENACT Africa found that Tanzania carries the highest documented burden of these attacks, though cases have been recorded across the region, including in Malawi, Mozambique, and Burundi. The Under The Same Sun organisation has counted more than 500 attacks on people with albinism across sub-Saharan Africa since 2006, a figure cited in related advocacy literature.

Law enforcement responses have been inconsistent, the report notes. Prosecutions are rare. Witnesses face pressure not to testify. In communities where the beliefs underpinning this trade are widely held, reporting an attack can expose survivors and families to further risk.

The people at the centre

Behind the documented cases are individuals navigating daily life under the threat of violence. ENACT Africa's reporting includes accounts of families who have moved repeatedly to avoid being found, and parents who keep children with albinism home from school to reduce their visibility.

Albinism affects melanin production in skin, hair, and eyes. It is a genetic condition. It confers no powers. That clarification should be unnecessary — and yet, ENACT Africa's report exists precisely because it remains necessary in communities where these beliefs persist and where state protection has not kept pace with documented need.

Advocacy organisations including the Tanzania Albinism Society have worked for years to shift public understanding and press for stronger legal protection. Their efforts have produced some policy movement, but ENACT Africa's findings suggest enforcement remains the critical gap.

The report is a reminder that organised crime does not require borders or sophisticated logistics to cause sustained harm. Sometimes it requires only a market, a myth, and the absence of accountability.