Songs from Tanzania's island of albinos

By Thomas Page, CNN

Updated 0920 GMT (1720 HKT) June 13, 2017

Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria has become a a safe haven for a community of Tanzanians living with albinism. Many albinos face threats from organ and limb harvesters, and wider ostracism is also a problem.
Photos: Life on Ukerewe Island
Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria has become a a safe haven for a community of Tanzanians living with albinism. Many albinos face threats from organ and limb harvesters, and wider ostracism is also a problem.
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An albino man on Ukerewe has his eyes tested at a clinic run by non-governmental organization Standing Voice. The genetic condition, which results in a lack of melanin pigment, creates medical difficulties including poor eyesight and an increased risk of skin cancer.
Photos: Life on Ukerewe Island
An albino man on Ukerewe has his eyes tested at a clinic run by non-governmental organization Standing Voice. The genetic condition, which results in a lack of melanin pigment, creates medical difficulties including poor eyesight and an increased risk of skin cancer.
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An albino boy queues for a lunch break at a clinic run by an NGO. Many of the first albinos to live on Ukerewe were taken there and abandoned by their families as children or fled from violence they had faced on the mainland. Ukerewe island is now seen as a safer place for albinos to live and integrate.
Photos: Life on Ukerewe Island
An albino boy queues for a lunch break at a clinic run by an NGO. Many of the first albinos to live on Ukerewe were taken there and abandoned by their families as children or fled from violence they had faced on the mainland. Ukerewe island is now seen as a safer place for albinos to live and integrate.
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Albino singer King Shube plays a guitar on Ukerewe, 2016. King Shube is an exception among the island's albino community. Many were actively discouraged from singing or banned according to music producer Ian Brennan, who visited the island and recorded sessions with locals in summer last year.
Photos: Life on Ukerewe Island
Albino singer King Shube plays a guitar on Ukerewe, 2016. King Shube is an exception among the island's albino community. Many were actively discouraged from singing or banned according to music producer Ian Brennan, who visited the island and recorded sessions with locals in summer last year.
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The result of those sessions, "White African Power" by the "Tanzania Albinism Collective," has been released prior to the United Nation's third International Albinism Awareness Day. Among the artists featured is Thereza Phinias (pictured), who contributed three songs including the upbeat album closer "Happiness."
Photos: Life on Ukerewe Island
The result of those sessions, "White African Power" by the "Tanzania Albinism Collective," has been released prior to the United Nation's third International Albinism Awareness Day. Among the artists featured is Thereza Phinias (pictured), who contributed three songs including the upbeat album closer "Happiness."
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Two young sisters with albinism sit on a motorbike on Ukerewe. The island's reputation as a community in which those with albinism are greater integrated with those without it, has led some parents to relocate with their children.
Photos: Life on Ukerewe Island
Two young sisters with albinism sit on a motorbike on Ukerewe. The island's reputation as a community in which those with albinism are greater integrated with those without it, has led some parents to relocate with their children.
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Neema Kajanja moulding a pot from clay at her grandmother's home in Ukerewe. "(I'm) very guarded about what popular culture can do," Brennan says about the album. "Things change based on process not events, but I see this as an opportunity to drop one more grain of sand on the right side of the scales."
Photos: Life on Ukerewe Island
Neema Kajanja moulding a pot from clay at her grandmother's home in Ukerewe. "(I'm) very guarded about what popular culture can do," Brennan says about the album. "Things change based on process not events, but I see this as an opportunity to drop one more grain of sand on the right side of the scales."
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Story highlights

  • Ukerewe Island in Lake Victoria has become a safe haven for a community of Tanzanians with albinism
  • Albinos face medical dangers, but also the threat of violent attacks from people wishing to harvest organs and bones