Professor John Makumbe was almost killed at birth by a shocked mid-wife in a mission hospital in rural eastern Zimbabwe. "Looking at how white I was, she assumed that my mother had been misbehaving with one of the white missionaries at the school where she taught," said an amused Makumbe, 57, who for the past 20 years has been a lecturer at the University of Zimbabwe. It was only after his mother explained to the mid-wife that the child had inherited a genetic disorder that the mid-wife relented. Makumbe went on to form the Zimbabwe Albino Association (ZIMAS) in 1996. Tens of thousand southern Africans living with albinism have faced discrimination and abuse all their lives. They are often regarded as "unnatural" and even "cursed".