“I Will Tell Your Story” : Making and Using an Ethnographic Portrait of Tanzanians with Albinism

Abstract: This thesis is both an ethnographic story about people with albinism in Tanzania and a reflection on how that story may be used to generate understanding and support in the wider world. In much of sub-Saharan Africa people with albinism face discrimination and even violence at all levels of society. During seven months in 2021/2022 I lived in northern Tanzania and regularly spent time with a community of children with albinism and the woman who shelters them. I got to know these individuals through conversations, interviews, grocery shopping, cooking, and eating together and celebrating Christmas and other holidays. All the while, I also sought to be in solidarity with my hosts, by telling their story in various forms and raising funds for them in Sweden. A central research question of the thesis is how one tells a story about vulnerable individuals without diminishing their dignity or violating ethical standards of academia, journalism, and humanitarianism. I consider four types of public response to my various acts of ethnographic storytelling, and I reflect upon persistent dilemmas.