Black Man Turns White Then Dies

His appearance, rumored to be the result of witchcraft, shocked and repulsed other people.

Windhoek,Namibia - “People fear me. They don’t want to greet or eat with me. I need help.” These were the last words spoken by Betwalt Kamushambe in an interview last year, before dying as a result of a rare skin condition.

For two years, Kamushambe suffered from a painful skin condition that appeared to eat away at his skin pigmentation until it became white. His condition caused painful “skin burns” and caused him to live as “an outcast” in a shack in the Kilimanjaro slums of Okuryangava.

Image: Betwalt Kamushambe was the victim of a rare disease

Just six months after he spoke to the press, Kamushambe, age 32, died in October 2008 his family confirmed. He was buried at Thikanduko village, 150 kilometres from Rundu.

According to doctors, Kamushambe had been living with Vitiligo, a rare and incurable skin disease caused by a pigmentation disorder in which ‘melanocytes’ - the cells that produce skin pigment - are destroyed.

Kamushambe’s melanocytes had stopped producing pigment. The discoloration began to show in small spots on his forehead and later appeared in patches on his hands and eventually his entire body.

At the time of his death, Kamushambe’s skin had turned completely white and he was forced to avoid the sun, or risk painful sunburn.

In 2005, his increasingly mottled appearance began to shock and repulse other people, so much so that the father of two felt it necessary to resign from his job as a pool attendant at a Walvis Bay Resort, in 2006.

Prior to his death, Kamushambe told local news that in his native village of Thikanduko in the Kavango region, members of his family and friends had treated him like an outcast, believing his skin condition was the result of witchcraft.

Towards the end of his life, Kamushambe slid into isolation and depression and chose to spend most of his days inside his uncles’ one-roomed shack at the informal Kilimanjaro settlement in Okuryangava.

“People fear me; they think that whatever I have might be contagious. They don’t want to greet or eat with me. It’s like those years when the first victims of HIV/Aids were seen,” he confided his last interview.

Few people outside the medical profession had heard of the disease, Vitiligo, until US pop star Michael Jackson revealed in the early 90s that the disorder had caused the change in his skin color.


Author: Elvis Mboya

Source - http://www.informante.web.na/