Climbing for Independence: Mount Kilimanjaro as a Symbolic Site of Albinism Performance

This chapter seeks to understand the kind(s) of use albinism activists make of Mount Kilimanjaro’s rich symbolic potential in their endeavors to climb for independence. At the core of this chapter, the author attempts to unravel the intertwinement of independence and collectivity informing this peculiar type of dis/ability performance on different levels: (1) as individuals the albinism mountaineers represent a larger collective, the (African) albinism community; what they achieve on their climb is thus meant to be symbolically achieved for every other person with albinism in Africa; (2) as members of society they belong to social collectives on different scales – family, neighborhood, village or town, nation – most of whose members have in common that they treat people with albinism as different and often have negative and disabling attitudes against them; (3) however, in the very act of putting themselves into the spotlight on Uhuru Peak, this powerful attempt at social inclusion goes hand in hand with singling themselves out. What seems at first to be paradoxical is a typical and necessary feature of dis/ability activism and of social movements more generally. Fighting for equality and attempting to erase difference calls for performative interventions that will necessarily draw attention to that difference in the first place. Moreover, as albinism affects eyes and skin, those who live with the condition also need to raise awareness in the wider society about their impairment.

Krings, Matthias (2026): Climbing for Independence: Mount Kilimanjaro as a Symbolic Site of Albinism Performance. S.33-53 in: Backhausen, E./Kreuser, M./Wihstutz, B. (Hg.): Independence and Collectivity. Configurations of Dis/ability Performance. London/New York: Routledge. https://doi.org/10.4324/9781003617990-4