“The Talisman” – Albinism in Tanzania
They are totally white, yet they are African. Pure Mama Africa’s children. Their organism does not produce the melanin enzyme that colour skin and in turn protects it from UV rays. In recent years they became the victims of a macabre ‘black market’. Albino hands or legs are sold from five to twenty thousand dollars to be used as a talisman. Since December 2006, 56 people have lost their lives and thousands of others have been mutilated. I lunged deep into the centre of these crimes and have been living with the albinos of Victoria Lake. People go from hut to hut, trying to hide and to protect their white children. A few days ago, in the middle of the night, unknown criminals forced their way into a hut, cutting off the child’s leg and leaving, thereafter the child died. Now, all of the villagers guard the albino’s sister of the same family.
The most dangerous threat to albinos is the sun. They always have to wear sunscreen and hats. Unfortunately, sunscreen is a luxury most families do not have. There is not enough money to buy necessities such as rice or milk for their children, let alone for sunscreen. The second threat to albinos is poverty and lack of education and thirdly, cancer also puts many lives at risk. “In the late ‘70s, only 2% of albinos lived past the age of 40. Today, the percentage has increased to 13% due to the hard work of the Albino Association and the Ocean Road Cancer Hospital informing and educating albinos”, says Dr. Jeff Luante, the oncologist at this hospital. But the last threat to the albino people is the most horrific; criminal acts slaughtering or mutilating them for their limbs purely to serve as a talisman. Desperate fishermen and gold-diggers want to bring money and good fortune into their lives, they will not stop from murdering these innocent victims; their healers advice them to do so. Even the prime minister has a healer; their counsel is taken very seriously.
Maro Kouri
I make photographs for peace, justice, humanity. I exhibit in the townships of the world and in fashionable galleries of big cities.
I attended Kostantinos Manos workshop “The magic moment” and Ed Kashi’s workshop.
I have finished my studies in photography, visual perception, history of art and history of photography in the Focus school of Athens. For the last 19 years and I am still learning photojournalism in the streets. I finished my degree in Agriculture at the University of Barcelona in winemaking.
I live and work as a freelancer photojournalist and travel around the world, mostly in Asia and Africa.
I collaborate with the US Polaris Images agency. I publish pictures and texts in the Greek and International press.
I received honorable awards, by UNESCO in 2003 at the 2nd Art Mediterranean Forum in Beirut, in 1999, at Primavera Fotografica of Barcelona and in 1998 at the 1st Greek-South African Art festival of Johannesburg.
In 2009, I won the 1st Prize at the International Competition of Photojournalism SCOOP, in France with the feature “Talisman” (Albinos in Tanzania).
In 2010, I received an honorable mention from the Greek Federation of Photojournalists. I teach photography as a volunteer to the imprisoned women of Eleona Prison, Greece, in a Therapeutic Program for drug detoxication through Art collaborated with KE.THE.A. One of my shots from the demonstrations against the austerity measures in Athens, Οctober 10, 2011 was selected by LIFE Magazine as one of the “Best Pictures of 2011”.
My exhibition “Female Universe’’ was in a bazaar in Athens, in the hotel Kazarma of Lake Plastira, in the public school of Volissos of the island Chios. My photographs from the greek-turkish borders Evros were exhibited in Photometria Festival 2012 in Ioannina with the title “Evros: the Door to Europe”
I believe that happiness nourishes the body and the spirit.
