President Obama urged young African leaders Monday to reject “foolish traditions” such as sorcery involving the body parts of albinos and female genital mutilation, saying new generations must bring about change.
At a town-hall style summit in Washington, a woman with albinism asked Mr. Obama what he could do to prevent the sale of body parts of albinos. Attacks against people born without pigment in their skin have increased in east Africa, according to the United Nations, partly due to the belief that their body parts bring good luck to others.
The president said youth need to change such harmful traditions and “old ways of doing business that are based in ignorance.”
“The notion that any African would discriminate against somebody because of the color of their skin, after what black people around the world have gone through, is crazy,” Mr. Obama said. “It’s infuriating. And I have no patience for it.”
He compared it to female genital mutilation.
“You don’t do violence to young girls. … There’s no reason for it other than to suppress women,” the president told the group of more than 500 young Africans. “I don’t care that [it] used to be how things were done. Societies evolve based on new understandings. You have to challenge it. You can’t accept excuses for it.”
Mr. Obama said he might never have been elected president if traditions in the U.S. had not evolved.
“Old people get stuck in their ways,” he said. “That’s true here in the United States. When I started running for president, everybody said, ’A black guy named Barack Obama is not going to win the presidency of the United States.’
“But I was banking on” young people changing attitudes, he said. “Young people, you can lead the way and set a good example.
• Dave Boyer can be reached at dboyer@washingtontimes.com.
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