Examples Of Myths Surrounding Albinism

This article is about witchcraft and its different varieties of practices in different cultures. This article explains how witchcraft exists and plays an essential part in structural and functional aspects of a society. It also sheds the light on the journey of witchcraft from being profane and wicked to acceptable part of a culture.

Adam Ashforth’s Madumo, a Man Bewitched presents a personal ethnographic account of witchcraft, religion, and culture among the Soweto people in South Africa. In the book, Ashforth recounts his adventures with his Sowetan friend, Madumo, who, after a series of misfortunes, believes he has been cursed by witchcraft and is in search of a cure. Madumo seeks the aid of both a traditional healer (inyanga) and the Zion Christian Church (ZCC), formed form the syncretism of African and evangelical beliefs. Madumo’s quest for healing presents the reader with an intimate glimpse into the psychological and sociological factors that influence religion in Soweto. From Ashforth’s account, us westerners can begin to understand the nature and causation of

Imagine, you are a seven year old boy living in an Chinese orphanage where there are nearly a thousand other children, and you were found on the side of the road wrapped in a yellow blanket. Out of all of the children you are the only albino. Your skin and hair are white as snow, and your eyes are red or lavender depending on the light. It is impossible to fit in because albinism is feared in the Chinese culture. One day someone tells you that you are moving. No explanation why or where you are moving, and with the clothes on your back you are dropped off at an office, waiting for the start of a new life.

In his article, “Children of Interracial Parents Face Special Difficulties”, Frank A. Jones argues that biracial children, especially black males, face difficulties due to their parents raising them based on white parenting standards without considering the way modern society will treat them. Jones describes how biracial children think they are different, which builds up the fear of getting judged and leads to racism. Frank emphasizes the need of not just love and affection in raising a child or more specifically a biracial child but “guidance, discipline, self-perception, and survival perspective” and also the importance of education being a must and not an option. Biracial

Marcus Garvey, a ‘proponent of Black Nationalism and Pan-Africanism movements” (), once stated that “a people without knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.” (Good Reads Quotes) He was in fact very much so right. Most people in this world care about where they come from, who they descended from and where the backbone of their identity lies. Have you ever wondered why almost most orphans tend to look for their family lines or go out in search of where they belong? It is with this very essence my quest to look for answers and investigate about two very distinct yet similar groups. The groups I examine throughout this paper are Africans and African-Americans. What I seek to find out is why two very ‘distinct’ yet similar groups of people fail to see eye to eye, judging from the fact that Africans and African-Americans look alike, originated from Africa and their histories and culture somehow intertwine with each other. The main question here really is: what are the factors that hinder the relationship between Africans and African-American people.

First and foremost, it is important to differentiate the perception of black and white race mixing in both the United States and Brazil. In the United States, the offspring produced between blacks and whites are considered black. However, the status of a child produced by a white mother is typically reflected by the status of the mother. Degler revealed that, “From this perspective, the most feared combination in unions between blacks and whites was the one in which the white women married a black men”. This is because during slavery, when a slave owner would impregnate his female slaves, the children of the slave would also become a slave, but if the mother is white, it is very unlikely that the child would become a slave. Consequently in Brazil, due to larger acceptance range of race mixing, the descendants of an African and European relation

When viewing Lamanda through Freud’s perspective, one may find that fixation is playing a role in the issues she exhibits. Fixation results when part of a person’s personality is stuck at an earlier stage of development, because they were either over or under indulged at that stage. If this occurs, the individual will seek pleasure through that defined erogenous zone (Faber, Personality 3). In Lamanda’s case, she lacked progress in the phallic stage. During this stage, females may reject their mothers, and with that idea comes the assumption that Lamanda’s distant relationship with her mother is due to her rejecting her mother’s ethnicity. She admits to attempting to conceal her African American heritage, and has a tendency to take her “big problems” to her father, possibly because she subconsciously blames

When viewing Lamanda through Freud’s perspective, one may find that fixation is playing a role in the issues she exhibits. Fixation results when part of a person’s personality is stuck at an earlier stage of development, because they were either over or under indulged at that stage. If this occurs, the individual will seek pleasure through that defined erogenous zone (Faber, Personality 3). In Lamanda’s case, she lacked progress in the phallic stage. During this stage, females may reject their mothers, and with that idea comes the assumption that Lamanda’s distant relationship with her mother is due to her rejecting her mother’s ethnicity. She admits to attempting to conceal her African American heritage, and has a tendency to take her “big problems” to her father, possibly because she subconsciously blames

JulieAnn - I think that whitewashing the myths do take away from there true morals. So I think children would not be terrified by there true stories. As children we adapt and understand that bad people do bad things. Like the wicked witch trying to kill Snow White, however we never depict a persons redemption. I think it would be good lesson for children that we are not always defined by our low moments

Dark Girls Valery Briceno Dark Girls offered a powerful insight into the inner demons and emotional struggles of being born with a black skin tone. Much of the issue in the black community begins with the physiological effects of being born into a white superior society. A simple notion as daylight being seen as peaceful, serene, and welcoming compared to nightfall being seen as a sinister, darkness shows how embedded society has become in justifying skin color. Black culture and people throughout time have constantly been oppressed. In the slavery period, negative waves of energy were sent through black culture.

By definition, an albino is a person with a pale skin, eyes and hair as a result of genetic condition that impairs normal skin pigmentation (Dave-Odigie 69). In Tanzania, however, albinos have it a lot tougher than most of their kind (“For the colour of their skin” np). Albinism in Tanzania affects one in every 1,400 people, the most in any African country (Lapidos np). They go through their day fighting the sun with their fragile skin, trying to make friends without being made fun of or secluded, hiding from the witch doctors who believe their bones bring wealth, and are always on the lookout for men who believe having sex with an albino can cure AIDS (Dave-Odigie 69). It is evident that Tanzanian albinos

This paper applies interdisciplinary approaches namely sociological and genetic structural approach. By using sociological approach, the researcher is able to understand the common phenomenon and issues that are exposed by Ton Morrison in her novel The Bluest Eye. Since in creating her novels, Morrison was inspired by unjust society phenomenon, race discrimination, and gender, so that in writing The Bluest Eye, she demonstrated the suffering of the main character, Pecola Breedlove. She was alienated from black traditions Pecola rejected her own identity as black and desired white girl. Finally, she lost her inner self and the beauty of her own people's traditions.

     The black family is centered around the African ethos, a common guiding principle that filled African peoples lives. The African ethos, broken down into two categories, is the survival of the tribe and the oneness of being. “The knowledge of one’s tribal or family genealogy not only reflected and showed the importance of the interconnectedness of all elements of the family (tribe), it also was thought to impart the sense of sacred obligation to extend and continue one’s genealogical line.” In other words, existence is dependent not only on those alive, but those dead as well. Therefore in practice, the structure of traditional African families is based on union. African-based family systems can be thought of as a “Continual Flexibility in Circularity”. It is based on the continuity and union of people. African culture must be the basis for understanding black families. “African roots of black culture is the retention of an African attitude, an attitude based on a belief system which understood everything in the universe to be endowed with the Supreme Force.” In

There have been many documented tribes and villages who exile, murder, and rape any albinos born. One place in particular, Tanzania, as mentioned above as having one of the highest albinism rates around the world is also well known for their albino killings. Witch-doctors believe that the body parts of those with the mutation will bring good luck, success in love, business, and wealth. In March of 2015, thirty two of these witch-doctors were arrested for the ritual killings of at least seventy five albinos since the year 2000. The witch-doctors believe that having sexual intercourse with an albino will cure AIDS, so many albino women of all ages are raped. They also believe that those who are albino are cursed, and sent from the devil which is another reason for the killing of those with the mutation. Though it is not just in Tanzania that it occurs. In many small villages and tribes in Africa, and other places around the world those with the mutation are mistreated. The only person my family can think of that is also albino is my great great grandmother on my father’s side. She was full blooded Cherokee Indian, but because of the mutation she was exiled from the tribe, because they thought she was a bad omen, and would cause bad luck to the rest of the tribe.

The Enlightenment and the emerging of modern rationalism have paved the way to a worldview where the suspicion of witchcraft is not needed to explain the mysterious phenomena of this world. This is not the case in Africa. The belief in the existence of witches, evil persons who are able to harm others by using mystical powers, is part of the common cultural knowledge. Samuel Waje Kunhiyop states, “Almost all African societies believe in witchcraft in one form or another. Belief in witchcraft is the traditional way of explaining the ultimate cause of evil, misfortune or death.” The African worldview is holistic. In this perception, things do not just happen. What happens, either good or bad, is traced back to human action,