This series is made up of portraits of four Tanzanian child survivors of violent superstition-driven attacks and in their own words their testimonials. The children are among the nearly 7,000 Tanzanians with albinism, a hereditary condition that results in a lack of pigmentation in skin, hair, and eyes. In Tanzania, witchdoctors promote a belief in the potential magic and superstitious properties of albino body parts, and children with albinism are murdered so their skin, hair, and appendages can be used to make charms and potions believed to bring wealth, power, and good luck.
Matilde Simas is a Boston-based, award-winning photojournalist and visual storyteller whose work focuses on human rights, gender, social justice, and cultural preservation—both locally and across the Global South. Her imagery has been featured by the U.S. State Department and UN agencies including UNICEF, the International Organization for Migration, and the UN Office on Drugs and Crime. Exhibited internationally, her photographs have appeared at the Museo Nazionale Etrusco in Rome, the Kenyan National Archives, and during Paris Photo Week.
