The sunscreen industry in Tanzania, however, is growing to protect its albino population, which is greater than in most other parts of the continent. The continent’s largely black population has less need for protection because dark skin – which has more melanin – doesn’t burn as quickly. Most sunscreens in Africa are imported or donated. Soto Valdes says a bottle giving the kind of protection people with albinism need can be as much as $20. That’s for a bottle of normal consumer sunscreen that lasts two months. “And the cost of sunscreen is around $10, $15.” "In Tanzania we’re talking about a country where 80% of the population lives with less than $1.50 a day,” says Soto Valdes. That’s like a “tequila shot” of sunscreen for the exposed parts of the body says Glashofer, who thinks SPF 30+ is the minimum needed to protect people with albinism in Africa.īut using so much sunscreen so often is beyond the means of most people. It has an SPF (sun protection factor) of 30+, and the pharmacist says people with albinism need to put two milligrams per square inch of skin, twice a day. Wiping some of the cream on her hand, Soto Valdes explains how Kilisun is thicker than normal consumer products while also being more resistant to water and heat. The Kilimanjaro Sunscreen Production Unit, based in Moshi on the lower slopes of Kilimanjaro, produced 15,000 jars of Kilisun last year, says Mafalda Soto Valdes, the Spanish pharmacist who developed Kilisun with Tanzania’s Regional Dermatology Training Centre. However, getting it to the right people – and encouraging them to use it – is far from straightforward. Kilimanjaro Suncare, or “Kilisun”, is a sunscreen that has been specially designed for people with albinism. Without melanin to protect them, they have a much higher risk of getting skin cancer.īut in the shadow of Africa’s highest mountain, there is an attempt to give a lifeline to people like Mdeka. They face a slower death from a disease known as the “silent killer”. The UN estimates around 80 people with albinism in Tanzania have been murdered since 2000.īut these brutal attacks are not the greatest threat to people with albinism in Africa. Victims can be kidnapped and then dismembered by hired killers, or even sold by unscrupulous family members, with body parts fetching up to $75,000 (£60,000). Witch doctors hunt those suffering from the condition for their body parts, which are used in potions to bring good luck and wealth. Tanzania has a dark relationship with albinism. It is a genetic disorder inherited from parents who both carry a faulty gene that prevents the skin from making melanin properly. Mdeka has albinism – his skin, hair and eyes lack melanin, the pigment that gives skin its colour and helps to protect it from damage by ultraviolet light from the Sun. He is a successful reggae singer in his homeland of Tanzania, yet despite his fame, he is haunted by another name – East Africa Yellow Man. On stage, Sixmond Mdeka goes by the name Ras Six.
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