Ritual servitude
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Ritual servitude is practiced in Ghana, Togo, and Benin where traditional religious shrines take young girls in payment for services, or in religious atonement for alleged misdeeds of a family member —almost always a female. In Ghana, it is practiced by a small tribe called Ewe in the Volta region. The girls are sexually abused, serve at hard labor without compensation, suffer harsh punishment, and are denied education and human affection. If a girl runs away or dies, she must be replaced by another girl from the family. Some girls in ritual servitude are the third or fourth girl in their family suffering for the same crime, sometimes for something as trite as the loss of trivial property. It is still practiced in the Volta region in Ghana, in spite of being outlawed in 1998, and despite carrying a minimum three year prison sentence for conviction. Among the Ewes who practice the ritual in Ghana, the practice is also called trokosi or fiashidi. In Togo and Benin it is called voodoosi.
Christian NGO's and other Human rights organizations are fighting the practice. Some have openly labeled it slavery, although this term is disliked by traditional advocates of the practice. The NGO's use of the term slaves comes from former trokosi who have been liberated. These groups have actively sought to liberate girls held in ritual servitude.
When Ghana (then Gold Coast) was under colonial rule, a few citizens complained about the practice, but the colonial masters turned their heads. The practice was drawn into the national spotlight in 1980 when Mark Wisdom, a Baptist pastor, responded to what he says was a vision from God, and challenged the system in the national media. Organizations that have been most active in liberating ritual slaves are FESLIM (Fetish Slaves Liberation Movement), founded by Mark Wisdom, International Needs, and Every Child Ministries. The practice was outlawed in Ghana in 1998, but continues, due to fear and the reluctance of the government to interfere with traditional practices. Christian NGO's and human rights organizations have been fighting it--working to end the practice and to win liberation for the shrine slaves.
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[edit] Trokosi
Trokosi is a traditional practice of sexual slavery in some parts of Ghana, Togo, and Benin. In Ghana, it is practised by the Ewes in the Volta region and by their counterparts in Togo and Benin. In this practice, young girls, usually under the age of 10 and sometimes as young as three, are given to village fetish shrine priests as sexual/domestic slaves or "wives of the gods" in compensation for offenses allegedly committed, or debts incurred, by a member of the girl's family, or as payment for favours sought from the shrine. In Togo and Benin the slaves are called Voodoosi (French spelling "voudounsi"). The Anlo people of Ghana call the practice fiashidi.
The practice continues in Ghana despite a 1998 law against "ritual or customary servitude" mandating a three-year prison sentence on conviction. No one has yet been prosecuted under the law. Women's groups, human rights groups and Christian NGOs continue to strive to end the practice, and have won the liberation of over 2000 trokosi slaves by negotiating agreements with individual shrine communities to end the practice in those places.
The word trokosi comes from the Ewe words "tro", meaning deity or fetish, and "kosi", meaning female slave. The "tro" deity is not, according to African traditional religion, the Creator or what might be called the "High" or Ultimate God. "Tro" refers to what African Traditional Religion calls the "small gods" or "lesser deities"--spirits of nature, etc. which are venerated in traditional religion. The term trokosi is commonly used in English in Ghana, as a loanword.
[edit] Categories of Tro Adherents
- Those who join the Tro of their own volition (extremely rare) and those who were born to women associated with the Tro and initiated as children (Trovivo);
- Those thought to have been born through the intervention of the Tro (Dorflevivo) and thus incur a lifetime obligation to the tro;
- Those called by the tro to serve as priest and priestesses of the shrine (Tronua);
- Those who were forced to become Trokosi to repay the Tro because their family supposedly benefited from it.
- Those Trokosi who are sent by families, often against the will of the girl involved, out of fear that if they do not do so, further calamities may afflict them through the anger of the shrine deities. This last group consists of those vestal virgins who are sent into servitude at the shrines of the Troxovi due to crimes allegedly committed by their senior or elder family members, almost always males like fathers, grandfathers, and uncles. The trokosi is sort of a "living sacrifice," who by her suffering is thought to save the family from trouble. This latter group comprises the greatest number by far of trokosi.
Opponents of the practice claim that all except those who joined of their own volition are virtually slaves in every normal sense of the word.
NGO's point out that practices in traditional shrines vary, but trokosi are usually denied education, suffer a life of hardship, and are a lonely lot, stigmatized by society.
[edit] Slavery or not? Abuse or not?
On the question of whether trokosi is a form of slavery and whether sexual abuse is involved the answers are polarized into two camps. Some traditionalists defend the system saying that it is simply a cultural practice of certain shrines and as such should be protected. These defenders claim that while instances of sexual abuse may occur, there is no evidence that sexual or physical abuse is an ingrained or systematic part of the practice. According to them, the practice explicitly forbids a Trokosi to engage in sexual activity or contact. The other camp is represented by NGO's working with the trokosi. These opponents of the practice have recorded testimony of many former (now liberated) trokosi who say that sexual abuse was a regular part of their time at the shrine, claiming the number of children born to them by the priest and shrine elders is a witness.
In shrines where the period of slavery is limited, after a ritual and sometimes after months or years in the shrine, the Trokosi returns to her family, but her life is still controlled by the shrine for the rest of her life. Traditionalists claim that in the vast majority of cases, there is no particular stigma attached to one's status as a former Trokosi shrine participant. This claim, however, is refuted by virtually every NGO working with the trokosi, and by the testimony of many of the trokosi themselves.
[edit] Other Countries
- Devdasi in India
- Sexual Slavery
[edit] References
- ^ Field Findings on the System of Slavery Commonly Known as Trokosi, L W Rouster,M.R.E., ECMAfrica Publications, 2005, p. 4.
- ^ The Trokosi System, Mark Wisdom, FESLIM, 2001, p. 4
- ^ Wisdom, p 3.
- ^ The Criminal Code of Ghana, Act. 1998 Act. 554.
- ^ Wisdom, p 3.
- Information on Trokosi--Specialized Dictionary of Trokosi Terms, Commission for Truth on Trokosi, p.3.
- Report on Trokosi Institution, Researched and Written by Dr. Elom Dovlo, University of Ghana, Legon, 1995.
- "Trokosi--Should This Practice Be Allowed to Continue?", Progressive Utilization, Vol. 2. No. 1, PO Box C267 Cantonments Communication Centre, Accra, Ghana, 1995.
