Racquel ‘Kelly’ Smith, 35, was last week found guilty of kidnapping and trafficking her daughter and will spend the rest of her life in prison.
The court heard how Little Joshlin, who had a fair complexion and striking turquoise eyes, was sought out by the ‘healer’ for her ‘light eyes and skin’.
She disappeared in February 2024 and is widely believed to have been killed for her body parts and organs after a months-long search operation failed to locate her.
But Joshlin is far from the only child to have met this bleak fate simply because of their appearance.
Human trafficking and murder for body parts and organs are rife in some parts of Africa, and no one is more at risk of becoming a victim than people with albinism (PWAs).
The continent’s albinos – sometimes referred to as ‘the invisibles’ – have historically suffered appalling treatment. Not long ago, albino babies were routinely killed at birth, thought by their parents to be bad omens or curses.
Today, infanticide has largely declined, but many PWAs are born with a price tag on their head as those who believe in black magic and traditional medicine claim their fair skin and eyes can bring good fortune and cure afflictions.
There are hundreds of recorded cases across East and Central African nations of albino children and adults alike being butchered – sometimes by their own relatives – and their remains used in macabre concoctions.
Bones are ground down and buried in the earth by miners, who believe they will be transformed into diamonds. The genitals are made into treatments to bolster sexual potency, and their hair is woven into fishermen’s nets.
Little Joshlin Smith, who has a fair complexion and turquoise eyes, disappeared last February after vanishing outside her home in Saldanha Bay, near Cape Town
The shocking trial has captivated South Africa for the last few months with Joshlin still missing despite a major search operation
Baraka Costas, a child with albinism in Malawi, is seen with a severed hand after he was maimed
Undated image of Asimwe Novath, a two-and-a-half-year-old child with albinism who was abducted and murdered for her organs in Tanzania last year
Albinos are sometimes targeted due to the belief that their body parts can be used in magic rituals (file image of a boy with albinism in Kenya)
Albinism is a condition caused by a genetic mutation that strips the skin, hair and eyes of pigment created by melanin, a substance that also acts as a shield against the sun’s harmful ultraviolet light.
The lack of protective melanin comes with heightened risks of skin cancer and vision loss for those exposed to the sun.
Those born with it can generally live long, healthy lives provided they are appropriately looked after as children and have the provisions to protect themselves as adults.
Unfortunately, this is not often the case in large parts of Africa.
More than 90% of people with albinism on the continent, where roughly one out of every 5,000 people is born with the condition, die before they reach the age of 40 due to health complications brought on by sun exposure.
However, white skin from albinism can be a death sentence for a very different reason, especially in Tanzania where roughly one in 1,400 people are born with albinism – the highest incidence of the condition anywhere in the world.
In rural areas, PWAs are sometimes banned from working or going to school and are isolated by their communities – a move that makes them all the more vulnerable to bounty hunters, traffickers, witch doctors and impoverished citizens with nowhere else to turn.
One of the most dangerous myths is that having sex with an albino can cure HIV. That belief has driven an epidemic of sexual violence against albino women, many of whom contract the virus as a result.
Then there are the killings.
PWAs are hunted, murdered, and dismembered. Children are kidnapped from their families, or in some cases sold off by willing parents desperate for money.
Even in death, they are not safe. Grave robbers are known to desecrate the graves of PWAs to steal their bones.
In May 2024, Tanzania’s Kagera region witnessed the horrific abduction and murder of Asimwe Novath, a two-and-a-half-year-old child with albinism.
On May 30, reports emerged that Asimwe had been abducted after a unknown group attacked her mother and tore her away, according to The Citizen.
On June 17, 2024, Asimwe’s mutilated body was discovered. Her limbs, tongue and eyes had been removed, and what remained of her corpse was dumped by a roadside in a sack.
Asimwe’s own father was among nine people charged in connection with the murder.
The Tanzanian government has found it necessary to set up special centres to protect people with albinism who have had to flee their villages
People in Cameroon are seen protesting against the government and a lack of prosecutions for attacks on PWAs
The lack of support has seen PWAs and families of those with albinism launch their own charitable organisations and activist groups to protect members of their communities and raise awareness
As attacks on PWAs became more widely reported after the turn of the century, governments and judiciaries have taken some steps to reduce the violence.
In 2009, a Tanzanian court handed out death sentences to three men who were convicted of abducting and butchering 14-year-old albino boy Matatizo Dunia – the first time capital punishment was handed out for such a crime.
The attackers broke into Dunia’s home and dragged him out of his bed before hacking him to pieces.
One was reportedly found holding his severed leg while the boy’s dismembered corpse was discovered dumped in scrubland.
But there are thought to be dozens if not hundreds of cases of attacks on PWAs that go uninvestigated or unreported altogether, and critics say many governments – including that of Tanzania – are doing little to change the violent trend.
In February, the African Court on Human and Peoples’ Rights (ACHPR) delivered a landmark judgment against the Tanzanian government after civil rights groups successfully argued officials were committing human rights violations by failing to prosecute attacks against PWAs.
The ruling decreed that the government must launch a years-long public awareness campaign, criminalise attacks against PWAs and increase healthcare provisions for albinos those with skin and eye problems.
It came after the UN last year condemned Tanzanian authorities for their failure to condemn and investigate attacks against PWAs after examining multiple cases of mutilation which were either not investigated, or had prosecutions withdrawn.
It remains to be seen whether the ACHPR’s ruling will have any effect on the Tanzanian government’s policies, given that there is no official method to enforce the court’s decisions.
Tanzania is just one of several nations where violence against PWAs is rife.
The past two decades have seen dozens of cases of PWA mutilations and killings in neighbouring Kenya, Malawi and the Democratic Republic of the Congo (DRC), among others.
One particularly depraved case in Malawi saw a Catholic priest slapped with a 30-year prison sentence for killing a 22-year-old man with albinism before trying to sell his body parts.
Judge Dorothy NyaKaunda Kamanga said priest Thomas Muhosha had planned to traffic 22-year-old MacDonald Masambuka’s tissue.
Masambuka was violently killed in February 2018 after he was lured to a secluded spot on the pretence that friends had found him a potential wife.
He was reported missing and his mutilated corpse was discovered a month later missing all of its limbs.
Five people, including Muhosha and the victim’s own brother, received jail sentences for their role in the murder.
The killing occurred at the height of a spree that saw over 40 people with albinism murdered and scores of others assaulted in a matter of months.
‘The convicts took advantage of the deceased’s psychological need for love,’ the judge said.
‘They lured him into believing that they had found a prospective wife for him and that they should go and meet her – that ended up being his death trap.’
A group protest against the discrimination faced by people with albinism in Cameroon
Chairperson for Machinga Association of Persons with Albinism Abdul Byson, right, talks during a meeting with members of the association in Machinga, Malawi
People supported by Cameroon’s Association for the Welfare of Albinos (AWA) pose with bottles of suncream
The lack of support has seen PWAs and families of those with albinism launch their own charitable organisations and activist groups to protect members of their communities and raise awareness.
Madame Ngom Maceline, founder and executive director of Cameroon’s Association for the Welfare of Albinos (AWA), is one such charity that works to educate and empower people with albinism.
The organisation raises funds to provide PWAs with suncream, appropriate clothing and other provisions, and works to protect them from vile attacks by fellow villagers.
It also seeks to promote understanding in communities, as it takes on the mammoth task of changing people’s attitudes and safeguard people with albinism in doing so.
‘Persons with albinism are not considered ‘normal’,’ said Maceline, who has the condition herself.
‘In that way, they are always left behind. They don’t have any belongings, they don’t receive direct support from the government.’
‘You have people that use their hair for wealth,’ Maceline said. ‘They say that when you have the hairs of a person with albinism, especially women’s, it empowers you to get riches.’
Her campaigning has seen her speak to government ministers and work with the UN in the hope of changing attitudes towards albino people across Cameroon.
Meanwhile in Tanzania, specialist centres have been set up to protect PWAs, effectively operating as communes or sanctuaries, but they are often woefully underfunded.
