Cynthia MaiWa Sitei

- a great curiosity (Ongoing)

In the Summer of 1796 Henry Moss begun exhibiting himself in Philadelphia taverns revealing the outcomes of a skin-transformation which was shocking to the public. Moss was an African American farmer from Virginia who according to contemporary records that retold his testimony, for over two years, was suffering from Vitiligo, had been progressively turning white. The first image which you have seen (was printed in white but the colour slightly manipulated by me) is a rare piece of printed ephemera marking Moss’s story of a Philadelphia handbill advertising his daily 12-hour exhibition at one Mr. Leech’s Tavern.

Headed with the title, “A Great Curiosity” in large type and with no images to heighten the suspense, the handbill gives general details and context for his display. It explains that “a man who was once born entirely black” now had a body marked by whiteness, noting:

His face attains more of a natural colour than any other parts; his wool also is coming off his head, legs, and arms, and in its place is growing straight hair, similar to that of a white person. The sight is really worthy the attention of the curious and opens a wide field of amusement for the philosophical genius. (Anon, “A Great Curiosity; Odumosu, 2014).

On the same handbill includes what seems almost like a reference letter or better yet a letter of certification written in 1794 by a captain Joseph Holt who had previously served with Moss as a soldier during the revolutionary war. Holt not only names the man as Henry Moss but also authenticates his prior “dark complexion”, and also states that he was “free born”. The handbill’s advertisement of Moss certainly had its impact, for writers and notables including George Washington came to witness the spectacle face to face, and for a mere 25 cents fee.

If This Is A Human: a great curiosity


For more than two hundred years, philosophers, scientists and showmen have exhibited the bodies of Africans and African Americans with white or gradually whitening skin in taverns, dime museums and circus sideshows. The term ‘White Negro’ has served to describe individuals born with albinism as well as vitiligo, a disorder that robs the skin of its pigment in ever-growing patches.

Witness the exhibition staged before millions for the pleasures of philosophers and princes, literati and statesmen. For so long the white Negro body has presented a fantasy of racial transformation, a belief that, under the right conditions, black skin could turn white and the African would become indistinguishable from the European.

"When the child was born, his skin was whiter than snow and redder than rose, all his hair were white as white snow, curly and magnificent"

Description of Noah, Book of Enoch, Old Testament.

A condition of Empire: Encounters of Unusually White people


The first recorded sighting occurred in Africa between 1590-1610 when English explorer, Andrew Battell met ‘white children’ born from black parents in Loango. According to Battell’s account of his travels, the ‘dondos’ are ‘white children…as white as any white man’. The term ‘dondos’ was an indigenous name, not an invention by the English explorer.

Olfert Dapper, a Dutch compiler, offered a more substantial account of the ‘dondos’ in Loango. Dapper corroborated Battell’s account of unusually white people, although, he added a highly descriptive passage:

"Have not a lively colour, but white, like the Skin of a dead corps (Sic), and their Eyes as it were fixed in their heads, like people that lie a dying: the sight they have is but weak and dim, turning the eye like such as look asquint, but at night they see strongly, especially by Moon-Shine.

We then saw an expedition to Japan in 1667 by the Swedish explorer, Nils Matsson Kjöping where he encountered with ‘a peculiar kind of people…called ‘Kakurlacko’ on Tharnado an island off Indonesia. Kjöping describes the ‘Kakurlacko’ as ‘Snow-white, both skin and hair’ and contrasts with the inhabitants (who) are black’. According to Kjöping, the ‘Kakurlacko’ were ‘regarded as vermin and killed at sight by the inhabitants…

For a few months in May 1681, Lionel Wafer, a Welsh Surgeon and Privateer lived with a ‘People’ with a ‘complexion so singular’ on the Isthmus of Darien in Central America. He judged their complexion to be, ‘Milk-white, lighter than the colour of any Europeans, and much like that of a white horse.’ Wafer observed they are, ‘not a distinct Race by themselves (as) now and then one is bred of a copper-color’d Mother and Father…(though) how these came to be white…I leave to judge of.’ (Wafer – A New Voyage and Descriptions of the Isthmus of America, 1699).

Wafer’s accounts formed a pivotal point of reference for almost every author who wrote on the subject about unusually white people. Naturalists, philosophers and medical practitioners accepted Wafer’s descriptions of ‘white Indians’ as a trustworthy source.

Wafer achieved widespread credibility by partly eschewing myths and traditions present in medieval…of human hybrid monsters residing in distant regions of the world.

Theories of Albinism in black people during Enlightenment

Scholars at the time stated the key role that maternal emotion had on a child’s development. That a black woman giving birth to a child with white skin must have been troubled or had desires for a white man.

Voltaire described unusually white people as a ‘feeble race, in small numbers, below the negroes and above the monkeys’.

Being described as monsters wasn’t enough, they associated albinism with the disease of leprosy – describing their bodies as mortified, livid, pale and contagious. Furthermore, they told pregnant women to split after seeing a ‘white Negro’ or unusually white person to remove the source of infection so it won’t contaminate the unborn baby.

Thus, unusually ‘white Negroes’ were brought from Africa and South America on the pretext of scholars’ debates about the deviant function and form of Man. These theories of monstrosity evolved into the physical display and examination of unusually white people.

The experimental subject

This discordant whiteness raised the curiosity of European thinkers, to a marked midcentury intensity. They wanted to see and touch these unusually white people in the flesh…and they did. Brought by owners to scientific exhibitions, unusually white people were part of an Enlightenment project to categorise and classify humanity, race and disease. These scientific exhibitions marked the emergence of private examinations of unusually white people during the second half of the eighteenth century.

Both the Royal Society of London, founded in 1662 and the Paris Academy established in 1666, hosted exhibitions of unusually white people.

The first exhibition of a ‘white Negro’ took place in France. Maupertius (1746), wrote that the boy was a ‘child, four or five years old…a white Negro…(who had) all the traits of a Negro…with very white and pale skin (that) only enhances his ugliness’. He further claimed that he would ‘willingly…forget the phenomenon’ but he felt compelled to ‘relate the history of a little freak’. After judging the ‘white Negro’ boy’s age and external appearance, Maupertius examined the child’s ‘large and misshapen’ hands that according to him resembled more an animal’s paws than the hands of a man.

Voltaire (1775) described the boy as a ‘little white animal’. It seems, Maupertius and Voltaire could not decide whether the ‘white Negro’ boy was animal, human or a blend of both…

…those on display did not recount their histories, choose their own costumes and backdrops nor speak for themselves on most occasions. The carnival announcer served as the mediating voice, offering ballyhoo and blather. The nineteenth century white Negro suffered these indignities in silence.

According to Robert Bogdan, the presentation on the stage is what marked them out as a freak. “Showmen” he wrote, “fabricated freaks backgrounds, the nature of their conditions, the circumstances of their current lives and other personal characteristics”. The presenters concocted “true life histories” and dressed them to exoticise and aggrandise their physical condition.

While researching this project in South Korea, I enjoyed talking to people about the subject, especially my students. I taught English to adults for almost a year so they were my main research participants. One woman told me, “I wish I had their skin colour, its so white unlike mine” I explained to her about albinism and she went quiet for a while, then gave an apologetic look.

Another in a group said, “we don’t have those people in South Korea” and seeing that she had just embarrassed herself in front of a number of people, she corrected herself, “have you met anyone who is an albino here?”

In fact, I did come across a man with albinism in passing. I was rushing to catch my bus, and believe it or not, I remember that day vividly because I had asked the universe for a sign that my project should make sense as I was hitting roadblocks with my research, nothing was making sense.

It was five minutes away from my home in Incheon, Bupyeong. I was waiting for the lights to turn green and there he was in front of me looking in my direction. I guess he was just as interested in me, a black woman in Korea as I, unbeknownst to him, was interested in him. I rarely regret my actions, but I hated myself for not speaking to him at the time.

And that’s when I remembered and understood what Leslie Fiedler meant when he observed, ‘Nobody can write about freaks without somehow exploiting them for his own ends.’

South Korea has an interesting obsession to fair and white skin. I remember walking into Body Shop to buy my usual face wash and the sales lady being welcoming and kind started showing me around. I knew exactly what I wanted but she was not going to let me go and not wanting to be rude, I allowed it – I was probably the first foreigner to walk in during her shift and I thought she wanted to practice her English because that happens. I was wrong.

She asked, “아프리카 사람? Aprican salam, where in Aprica do you come from?” I know some people frown upon this especially if they’re not from Africa and don’t like it when some Koreans assume, but luckily, I’m a proud Kenyan so I said “Kenya”. She then took my hand and rubbed the top of it saying “You know, if you use this (pointing at the lotion), your skin, will become lighter and not too black”

“Haha Ohh really? I didn’t know that! That’s amazing but I happen to like my colour” I replied, and I don’t know if she was confused or didn’t understand my answer, but she said “really” and then said many okay okay okay in Korean. I bought my face wash, smiled, bowed and said my 감사합니다 안녕히 계세요 (thank you and goodbye) and left.

The Sun - a silent killer (II)


With the significant increase in temperatures, People with Albinism face a far greater threat just by spending time outdoors. - a great curiosity on it's second phase highlights the urgent issues that are affecting PWA across Taita Taveta County. 

In the Summer of 1796 Henry Moss begun exhibiting himself in Philadelphia taverns revealing the outcomes of a skin-transformation which was shocking to the public. Moss was an African American farmer from Virginia who according to contemporary records that retold his testimony, for over two years, was suffering from Vitiligo, had been progressively turning white. The first image which you have seen (was printed in white but the colour slightly manipulated by me) is a rare piece of printed ephemera marking Moss’s story of a Philadelphia handbill advertising his daily 12-hour exhibition at one Mr. Leech’s Tavern.

Headed with the title, “A Great Curiosity” in large type and with no images to heighten the suspense, the handbill gives general details and context for his display. It explains that “a man who was once born entirely black” now had a body marked by whiteness, noting:

His face attains more of a natural colour than any other parts; his wool also is coming off his head, legs, and arms, and in its place is growing straight hair, similar to that of a white person. The sight is really worthy the attention of the curious and opens a wide field of amusement for the philosophical genius. (Anon, “A Great Curiosity; Odumosu, 2014).

On the same handbill includes what seems almost like a reference letter or better yet a letter of certification written in 1794 by a captain Joseph Holt who had previously served with Moss as a soldier during the revolutionary war. Holt not only names the man as Henry Moss but also authenticates his prior “dark complexion”, and also states that he was “free born”. The handbill’s advertisement of Moss certainly had its impact, for writers and notables including George Washington came to witness the spectacle face to face, and for a mere 25 cents fee.

If This Is A Human: a great curiosity


For more than two hundred years, philosophers, scientists and showmen have exhibited the bodies of Africans and African Americans with white or gradually whitening skin in taverns, dime museums and circus sideshows. The term ‘White Negro’ has served to describe individuals born with albinism as well as vitiligo, a disorder that robs the skin of its pigment in ever-growing patches.

Witness the exhibition staged before millions for the pleasures of philosophers and princes, literati and statesmen. For so long the white Negro body has presented a fantasy of racial transformation, a belief that, under the right conditions, black skin could turn white and the African would become indistinguishable from the European.

"When the child was born, his skin was whiter than snow and redder than rose, all his hair were white as white snow, curly and magnificent"

Description of Noah, Book of Enoch, Old Testament.

A condition of Empire: Encounters of Unusually White people


The first recorded sighting occurred in Africa between 1590-1610 when English explorer, Andrew Battell met ‘white children’ born from black parents in Loango. According to Battell’s account of his travels, the ‘dondos’ are ‘white children…as white as any white man’. The term ‘dondos’ was an indigenous name, not an invention by the English explorer.

Olfert Dapper, a Dutch compiler, offered a more substantial account of the ‘dondos’ in Loango. Dapper corroborated Battell’s account of unusually white people, although, he added a highly descriptive passage:

"Have not a lively colour, but white, like the Skin of a dead corps (Sic), and their Eyes as it were fixed in their heads, like people that lie a dying: the sight they have is but weak and dim, turning the eye like such as look asquint, but at night they see strongly, especially by Moon-Shine.

We then saw an expedition to Japan in 1667 by the Swedish explorer, Nils Matsson Kjöping where he encountered with ‘a peculiar kind of people…called ‘Kakurlacko’ on Tharnado an island off Indonesia. Kjöping describes the ‘Kakurlacko’ as ‘Snow-white, both skin and hair’ and contrasts with the inhabitants (who) are black’. According to Kjöping, the ‘Kakurlacko’ were ‘regarded as vermin and killed at sight by the inhabitants…

For a few months in May 1681, Lionel Wafer, a Welsh Surgeon and Privateer lived with a ‘People’ with a ‘complexion so singular’ on the Isthmus of Darien in Central America. He judged their complexion to be, ‘Milk-white, lighter than the colour of any Europeans, and much like that of a white horse.’ Wafer observed they are, ‘not a distinct Race by themselves (as) now and then one is bred of a copper-color’d Mother and Father…(though) how these came to be white…I leave to judge of.’ (Wafer – A New Voyage and Descriptions of the Isthmus of America, 1699).

Wafer’s accounts formed a pivotal point of reference for almost every author who wrote on the subject about unusually white people. Naturalists, philosophers and medical practitioners accepted Wafer’s descriptions of ‘white Indians’ as a trustworthy source.

Wafer achieved widespread credibility by partly eschewing myths and traditions present in medieval…of human hybrid monsters residing in distant regions of the world.

Theories of Albinism in black people during Enlightenment

When Lionel Wafer, the Welsh surgeon and Privateer met the Telecuna (White Indians), he offered no theories as to why some of the Indians should be born white, but contents himself by repeating the local lore that it was due to the mother gazing at the moon at the time of conception. (Wafer, 1699).

Scholars at the time stated the key role that maternal emotion had on a child’s development. That a black woman giving birth to a child with white skin must have been troubled or had desires for a white man.

Voltaire described unusually white people as a ‘feeble race, in small numbers, below the negroes and above the monkeys’.

Being described as monsters wasn’t enough, they associated albinism with the disease of leprosy – describing their bodies as mortified, livid, pale and contagious. Furthermore, they told pregnant women to split after seeing a ‘white Negro’ or unusually white person to remove the source of infection so it won’t contaminate the unborn baby.

Thus, unusually ‘white Negroes’ were brought from Africa and South America on the pretext of scholars’ debates about the deviant function and form of Man. These theories of monstrosity evolved into the physical display and examination of unusually white people.

The experimental subject

This discordant whiteness raised the curiosity of European thinkers, to a marked midcentury intensity. They wanted to see and touch these unusually white people in the flesh…and they did. Brought by owners to scientific exhibitions, unusually white people were part of an Enlightenment project to categorise and classify humanity, race and disease. These scientific exhibitions marked the emergence of private examinations of unusually white people during the second half of the eighteenth century.

Both the Royal Society of London, founded in 1662 and the Paris Academy established in 1666, hosted exhibitions of unusually white people.

The first exhibition of a ‘white Negro’ took place in France. Maupertius (1746), wrote that the boy was a ‘child, four or five years old…a white Negro…(who had) all the traits of a Negro…with very white and pale skin (that) only enhances his ugliness’. He further claimed that he would ‘willingly…forget the phenomenon’ but he felt compelled to ‘relate the history of a little freak’. After judging the ‘white Negro’ boy’s age and external appearance, Maupertius examined the child’s ‘large and misshapen’ hands that according to him resembled more an animal’s paws than the hands of a man.

Voltaire (1775) described the boy as a ‘little white animal’. It seems, Maupertius and Voltaire could not decide whether the ‘white Negro’ boy was animal, human or a blend of both…

…those on display did not recount their histories, choose their own costumes and backdrops nor speak for themselves on most occasions. The carnival announcer served as the mediating voice, offering ballyhoo and blather. The nineteenth century white Negro suffered these indignities in silence.

According to Robert Bogdan, the presentation on the stage is what marked them out as a freak. “Showmen” he wrote, “fabricated freaks backgrounds, the nature of their conditions, the circumstances of their current lives and other personal characteristics”. The presenters concocted “true life histories” and dressed them to exoticise and aggrandise their physical condition.

"and they say People with Albinism see in pink" some of the misconceptions still circling around the world. 

While researching this project in South Korea, I enjoyed talking to people about the subject, especially my students. I taught English to adults for almost a year so they were my main research participants. One woman told me, “I wish I had their skin colour, its so white unlike mine” I explained to her about albinism and she went quiet for a while, then gave an apologetic look.

Another in a group said, “we don’t have those people in South Korea” and seeing that she had just embarrassed herself in front of a number of people, she corrected herself, “have you met anyone who is an albino here?”

In fact, I did come across a man with albinism in passing. I was rushing to catch my bus, and believe it or not, I remember that day vividly because I had asked the universe for a sign that my project should make sense as I was hitting roadblocks with my research, nothing was making sense.

It was five minutes away from my home in Incheon, Bupyeong. I was waiting for the lights to turn green and there he was in front of me looking in my direction. I guess he was just as interested in me, a black woman in Korea as I, unbeknownst to him, was interested in him. I rarely regret my actions, but I hated myself for not speaking to him at the time.

And that’s when I remembered and understood what Leslie Fiedler meant when he observed, ‘Nobody can write about freaks without somehow exploiting them for his own ends.’

South Korea has an interesting obsession to fair and white skin. I remember walking into Body Shop to buy my usual face wash and the sales lady being welcoming and kind started showing me around. I knew exactly what I wanted but she was not going to let me go and not wanting to be rude, I allowed it – I was probably the first foreigner to walk in during her shift and I thought she wanted to practice her English because that happens. I was wrong.

She asked, “아프리카 사람? Aprican salam, where in Aprica do you come from?” I know some people frown upon this especially if they’re not from Africa and don’t like it when some Koreans assume, but luckily, I’m a proud Kenyan so I said “Kenya”. She then took my hand and rubbed the top of it saying “You know, if you use this (pointing at the lotion), your skin, will become lighter and not too black”

“Haha Ohh really? I didn’t know that! That’s amazing but I happen to like my colour” I replied, and I don’t know if she was confused or didn’t understand my answer, but she said “really” and then said many okay okay okay in Korean. I bought my face wash, smiled, bowed and said my 감사합니다 안녕히 계세요 (thank you and goodbye) and left.

The Sun - a silent killer (II)


With the significant increase in temperatures, People with Albinism face a far greater threat just by spending time outdoors. - a great curiosity on it's second phase highlights the urgent issues that are affecting PWA across Taita Taveta County. 

Mariamu is 69 years old and lives in Werugha. She is kind, caring and always smiling. She is also very proud of her farm. Firstly she was upset that we had to live her home without having a meal and so she insisted on showing us her farm. 

I was excited, Felicia not so much because it involved yet another long walk down and up a hill and the sun was always scorching hot in the afternoons. But we went anyway after some convincing. Her farm faces the Yala mountain and she has grown lettuce, spring onions, kales and loquats. She says they're so delicious when made in a salad, she gave us plenty to take with us. 

She says she has to farm everyday even in the heat to be able to provide for her family, otherwise they wouldn't have anything to eat. 

With Abo Wesley Mbogho who is 79 years old up in the forest of Wongonyi. Believe me when I say it was journey to get up here on a bodaboda (motorcycle) carrying three people and with basically no roads and climbing up a mountain. I have to say our bodaboda driver Tom, did a fantastic job getting Felicia and I to see both Abo Wesley and Daniel Mbogho who is 91 years old. 

And in the background, you can actually hear Tom on his bodaboda following us from behind. We had just come from spending a couple of hours with Abo Wesley and his family, he lives right at the top of Wongonyi Forest and up on a hill where you can see monkey's and baboons and through his stories we got to learn a lot folktales and secrets of the forest while he was growing up. 

Now we are heading down to see his older brother who also has albinism, Abo Daniel whom as I mentioned is 91. This was a fantastic weekend. 

Abo is a term of endearment and respect that young people use to call the elderly. Abo Wesley and his wife cooked for us, Felicia, Tom and I chicken with rice. When we arrived they served us chai which they had prepared using the fresh milk from their cows living in the stable outside of their house.  

The first thing Felicia said to me when we were back at her place in Mwatate thinking of our our journey and the wonderful people we had met, "Aki babu na nyanya Wesley walitupea heshima sana yaani" and I ask what do you mean? she continues, "aki walituchinjia kuku yao, hata siamini baado". Felicia said, grandfather and grandmother Wesley really respected us so much that they actually killed one of their own chicken to feed us, and she still couldn't believe it. Felicia by the way, loves chicken so much, she could live on chicken alone and I'm not even joking. 

When we arrived at Abo Daniel's place we were welcomed with hugs and wonderful greetings, his wife is bedridden and was sleeping in the sitting room, she was sweet and would also me everytime I looked at her, where I was from. 

Then Abo Daniel walked in looking very smartly dressed and he said, I heard visitors were coming, I was outside working and so I came quickly to shower and see you, I'm sorry to have kept you waiting. He was kind and hadn't keep us waiting

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