International Albinism Awareness Day 2022

“The ache for home lives in all of us. The safe place we can go as we are and not be questioned.” – Maya Angelou

What happens when home is not safe? This is what I asked myself upon reading about a teenager in Mozambique whose life was cut short because of greed.  He trusted he was safe with his family, in his home. Yet his uncle, not much older than he, now sits in a cell having confessed to the killing and mutilation.  This atrocity sits heavy in the hearts of all of us committed to changing the narrative. Like my comrades I wonder when will we been truly seen for who we are?

#UnitedInMakingOurVoiceHeard is the theme for IAAD this year. And I am left to grieve the loss of another voice.  I ask myself when will I cease being horrified? I hope never.  

What would happen if someone with albinism was murdered and dismembered here in the US? There would be outcry. There would be GoFundMe campaigns. There would be media, hashtags, collective grief within the albinism community.  Yet for the family in Nampula Province what support exists?  What of the parents and siblings? How do they heal from familial betrayal? How do they reconnect to home now missing one of their own? How do they reconcile this loss?

The perpetrator, no longer beloved or trusted uncle will not collect his $100k, will not have his freedom. His deed has fractured his family, his village.