"No more killing albinos for good luck!" warns Swazi king

Even though it's been "liberated" from the "civilization" imposed by the evil white settlers, Darkest Africa remains a continent where old and barbaric notions and practices still inform daily life. One of the most powerful is witchcraft.

Witchcraft is used throughout sub-Saharan Africa to ensure sexual satisfaction, good fortune in business, and "fix" things like the results of soccer games and elections. Yes, elections, and they do have them, even in autocratic states like the tiny kingdom of Swaziland.

In fact, elections are expected later this year, and King Mswati III has already warned politicians against committing murder and other "acts of magic" to get elected. Ritual killings are common in Swaziland, and elsewhere in Africa, with practitioners of “muti” – a catch-all for traditional medicine and witchcraft – using limbs or body parts as amulets.

The king's stern admonition has not gone far enough to satisfy Swaziland's albino community. They are calling on the government for protection fearing their body parts will be harvested by candidates seeking good luck.

The Pretoria (South Africa) Daily News quotes Skhumbuzo Mndvoti, a leader of the community in the southern town of Nhlangano as saying, "Those in authority must make sure our safety is guaranteed. I can warn adults and parents of albino children to take extra care during these election days."

In the past albinos as well as epileptics have been specifically targeted. Another community leader said such albino killings regularly took place, but in the past were masked by rumours about albino behaviour. "People were told that when an albino dies, he would go and die far away where he or she would not be found. I think they were killed.", he said.

Mr. Mndvoti blamed witchdoctors who mislead people into believing that using human body parts will help them win seats to parliament or prosper in business. But the President of the Traditional Healers of Swaziland said those who misled people to use ritual murder to win elections or wealth were witches and wizards and not traditional healers.

"A witch is born and never trained but a traditional healer undergoes intensive training to heal people through traditional means," Nhlavana Maseko told the press. "We have a problem here in Swaziland of the colonial law called the Witchcraft Act which does not make a difference between a traditional healer and a witch or wizard."

Yes, obviously the wicked British colonizers didn't understand. Or couldn't understand. It's an African thing.

Note from Ed.: I couldn't find a picture of a Swazi albino to go with this piece, so hope this photo of some other Swazis will do. And we do have a video, currently sitting at the top of the WWW list of most-watched videos.