Podcast: The dark side of living with albinism

Sadly, people living with albinism in South Africa still face a tough time. And why? Because members of society would rather just assume things than try and make an effort to be well-informed. Kgethang Morimoholo elaborates

On this week’s podcast, we chat with Kgethang Morimoholo, a young and driven pageant model, high fashion model and speaker. He sheds light on the experience of living with albinism in South Africa and the broader phenomenon of colourism that is prevalent in our society today. Through these two terms, we also explore themes of self-identity, self-worth and love and social trends.

Morimoholo is an ambassador and top model for Mr and Miss Albinism 2021 and is also the co-founder of Sleek Mode Magazine.

He highlights that as a result of looking different, there is sometimes self-inflicted doubt and defensiveness, as you always have to justify yourself as a human being and the space that you take up.

Morimoholo also shares some misinformed questions that he has been asked by people and says that it is better to ask rather than to assume. We can only bust myths and debunk false information if we are well-informed.

Jo-Ann Prinsloo, the host of Health For Mzansi’s weekly podcast. Photo: Supplied — Jo-Ann Prinsloo, host of Health For Mzansi’s podcast. Photo: Supplied

Even though people with albinism can be healthy and live normal lives, there are health implications that might impact their day-to-day living. Albinism is caused by the condition of having less melanin in the body than usual. This is why they have very light skin, hair and eyes; thus have difficulty with eyesight and cannot be in direct contact with the sun.

Morimoholo also speaks of the broader phenomena of colourism, which can be defined as the discrimination against people with a darker skin tone from lighter skin tone people, within the same racial or ethnic group.

In the podcast, Morimoholo discusses:

The term “light girl/boy privilege”;
Self-acceptance and self-love, which in turn will take away the power of the bully or perpetrator of discrimination.