Malawi’s general of police has authorized a new policy in hopes of combating violence against albinos who are very target in not only Malawi but also Tanzania. This policy called for the police of Malawi to shoot anyone who is caught abducting someone with albinism. This followed the discovery of the head of a nine year old child who had albinism. Amnesty International has called on the Malawi government to do more to protect this vulnerable group. People capture and kill people with albinism in Africa because of the supposed mystical power of their bones. This has lead to a large market for bones of people with a albinism; a set of limbs can sell for as much as seventy-five thousand on the black market. This has led to an increase of people becoming “albino hunters,” people who capture and kill people with albinism and sell their body parts.
To hear how exploited a group of people can be is truly terrible to hear and it honestly shocks me that this type of stuff still goes on in the world. This are human beings we are talking about and they are having to live in constant fear of being killed and captured and having the bones sold for thousands of dollars. Some may say well it is Africa but it doesn’t make these people any less human or their suffering any less painful. I know that this is just a small issue on the global scale but I feel like global superpowers and NGO’s need to do more to combat the current state of Africa. It is one thing to make a discovery about a problem that is going on but it is another to actually combat the problem.
I think superpowers need to stop looking to Africa as a place where they can gain more power but rather look at it as a place that is in dire need of help from around the world. Africa will inevitably one day turn into a developed country but that could take a while. I think it is in the best interest of the international community to put funds towards speeding up the development of Africa. This will allow Africa to be able to fend for itself on the global scale and support its own people on a regional scale. Not only would the development of Africa be beneficial to the global community but it would break the continually series of poverty that many people in Africa face, many of these people being unknown by the international world.