In celebration of International Albinism Awareness Day (June 13, 2021), the Tanzania Albinism Collective has released a new single titled “Albinism Unity” (We Are Still Living in a Troubled World).
Individuals living with albinism in East Africa are persecuted and literally hunted, based on the belief that their body parts can transmit magical powers and that they are in some way “demonic”. Because of this prejudice and hate they are regularly dismembered — often while still alive— or killed, which has led most to understandably live in fear. Estimates are that over one-hundred Tanzanians with albinism have been murdered in the past decade, many of them children. The murder and mutilation of six children this past week in Tanzania is another sad and grisly reminder of this.
The Tanzania Albinism Collective performs genre defying, Do-It-Yourself experimental and psychedelic street-level music. The StandingVoice.org NGO staff have worked with the members of the collective for over a decade.
All but one of the Tanzania Albinism Collective were previously non-musicians. In fact, the majority had been actively discouraged from singing, even in church. In spite of this, they have gone on to release two albums and their story and music have been covered around the world.
Producer Ian Brennan states: “The greatest triumph, though, is that by their own initiative the collective continues to gather and meet two nights a week on the island, with no goal other than the sheer joy of making music together.”
Buy Albinism Unity
(headline image: Tanzania Albinism Collective – Photo by Marilena Umuhoza Delli)