Photo Journal Monday: Ana Palacios
Epafroida is always in a good mood. She takes pride in her appearance, loves fashion and wants to save some money so she can set up her own textile business in the market at Kasulu, the nearest village to Kabanga. © Ana Palacios
Images and text by Ana Palacios
Photo Edited by Lucia Luzzani
Albino
The documentary project "Albino" immerses us in the daily life of Kabanga, a shelter for people with albinism. It reveals the difficulty of living with this genetic condition in Tanzania, the country with the highest prevalence of albinism in the world.
Widespread ignorance of the causes of albinism fuels stigmatization, marginalization and prejudice, compounded by the fear of falling victim to sorcerers who concoct elixirs of good fortune from the limbs of people with albinism.
The Tanzanian government has found it necessary to set up special centres to protect people with albinism who have had to flee their villages for fear of being butchered by traffickers in human bodies selling their limbs and organs to witch doctors to prepare their 'prized' good luck potions. © Ana Palacios
Behind these problems lies the worst danger threatening them: skin cancer. This disease, which has a very high cure rate in the West, reduces the life expectancy of albinos in Africa to less than thirty years.
As a visual journalist, I committed to make visible underrepresented stories, and in this case, my gaze falls on the harsh reality of people with albinism on the African continent. In addition to the medical complications associated with this genetic condition and the already difficult economic circumstances of their context, there is also the social discrimination they suffer, which makes the work of protection, care and attention to this community especially necessary.
Aisha Adam is one of the lucky children at Kabanga because she lives with her mother and her three brothers. It's one of the few cases of some kind of family group living at the centre.
© Ana Palacios
Zawia, wearing green clogs, and her friends finish school at five in the afternoon and go straight back to Kabanga, where they feel safer playing before a government cook serves dinner for everyone at six o-clock sharp in the communal dining-room. © Ana Palacios
This project claims to dissolve the line that separates art and social value of photography. An image as an aesthetic construction and image as an element of communication, are basically false dichotomies. An aesthetic intention in the narrative of social issues is revealed in Albino.
*Albino is a documentary project carried out by photojournalist Ana Palacios for 4 years and it is now a book and a photo exhibition.
The shortage of water at Kabanga is particularly alarming. When rainwater supplies run out they have to go to the hospital well to fetch water, with the black women taking turns so the albino girls don't have to go out and risk being taunted or kidnapped. © Ana Palacios
At Kabanga Center a hundred albinos live alongside another hundred people with a range of functional limitations such as visual and hearing impairment and mental problems. © Ana Palacios
Tanzania is a country of forty million people belonging to more than a hundred different tribes and speaking a hundred and twenty seven languages. The largest albino community in Africa is concentrated on the slopes of Kilimanjaro. © Ana Palacios
