Albino Model @ Africa Fashion Week in Joburg

Last week was the Mercedes-Benz Africa Fashion Week here in Joburg. Some of my students got to go and they said it was fantastic. But that's not what I'm going to talk about today. An over-looked aspect of modeling here in Africa is--skin color. It's true that the models in Europe are often those thin white waifs, and yes here on the continent it's often those thin black waifs. But a special model was here in Joburg last week: Diandra Forrest, an African-American albino model.

Diandra Forrest, US albino model

Some people say that being born short, or being born short-sighted is tough, and yes it certainly is. But nothing really tops the suckiness of being born albino in Africa. In Tanzania, albinos are so reviled that albino children are often kidnapped and chopped up, with their body parts sold for potions. Albinos are considered curses from God, sub-human beings, or signs that the woman was cheating, so the birth of an albino child often breaks up a household. In Zimbabwe a few years ago, there was a widespread belief that a man could be cured of HIV by having sex with an albino woman, which resulted in a lot of rapes, and, surprise surprise, more HIV transmission. In KwaZulu-Natal, a province just six hours from Joburg, an albino boy has been missing for over a year, and his family is pretty sure the kidnapping is linked to witchcraft.

One in 17,000 people are born with albinism, a genetic disorder, which means the person has no pigment in their skin or hair. Albinos in Africa look like regular Africans in every way except that one thing--color.

Random Kate Thoughts: Hopefully Diandra's presence at the Fashion Week challenged some assumptions of beauty, but also gave some albinos hope. It's bad enough having poor eyesight (tied to albinism) and being exposed to skin cancer (that's something I can empathize with), albinos should not have to live with such horrible social stigma and threats to their lives. Albinos are people too!