Ghana: Finally the terrible tradition of "trokosi" is challenged - Reports From Around the World: Africa - Brief Article

WIN News, Spring, 2002

FROM AFRICA RECOVERY', UNITED NATIONS DEPARTMENT OF PUBLIC INFORMATION UNITED NATIONS

Room S-931, New York, NY 10017

fax: (212) 963-4556

"Hundreds of families and guests came to Adidome, Ghana, last November to celebrate with 128 women freed from years of forced labor in the service of local 'priests'.

The women were graduating from a vocational center run by a local non-governmental organisation "International Needs Ghana" (ING) which helps women reclaim normal lives in their communities.

The women who were graduating from the vocational centre had all been taken as children to serve as trokosi, literally 'wife of the gods' in the local language.

According to the customary practice in Ghana's Volta region, which has lasted some 300 years, if someone commits a serious crime or social infraction, traditional leaders order that a young girl from that family be sent to the shrine as a form of atonement. She is expected to serve the priest for three to five years, after which the family might redeem her.

The practice, however, has resulted in exploitation and sexual abuse of the young girls. Ms. Dora Galley, now 22 years old spent seven years in such confinement. She says she was compelled by the 'priest' to work on the shrine's farm from morning until evening without any payment or food. 'I had to cut down trees and uproot tree stumps to burn into charcoal to sell and make some money to take care of myself,' she says.

'I did not have the right to take crops from the farm unless the 'priest' allowed me to. Occasionally my parents sent me some food, but that was kept in the priest's room and I had to request it any time I needed some. I was forced to have sex with the priest as one of the rituals in the shrine, but luckily I did not get pregnant.'

Ms. Patience Akope, now 31, tells a similar story. She spent 21 years at a shrine and has one 15year-old child. 'The priest did not allow me to visit the clinic for prenatal care or go to the hospital,' she explains. 'Throughout the pregnancy, I had to fend for myself.'

Trokosi is also practiced in Benin, Nigeria and Togo, but most information on it comes from Ghana. Since its inception the International Needs Ghana (ING) has liberated and rehabilitated 2,800 trokosi women and children, although thousands more are thought to exist.

All the graduates all former 'trokosi' in Adidome, Ghana spent between 6 months and 3 years in the ING's vocational centre. They were taught skills such as batik, tie dyeing, soap making, hairdressing and baking, which will be valuable as they try to build a new, independent life.

'TROKOSI IS A CRIME'

In June 2001, the ING received $50,000 from the UN Development Fund for Women (UNIFEM) to improve its anti-trokosi programmes, including vocational centres, psychological counselling, schools for trokosi children, and campaigns to educate people on laws and activities aimed at changing trokosi practices.

Ms. Florence Butegwa, UNIFEM's regional programme coordinator in Lagos, Nigeria, notes that Trokosi is just one kind of abuse against women...

The practice of trokosi is a crime and it should be stopped completely. Human beings are not animals to be sacrificed. The government should move quickly to arrest and jail those who are still perpetuating this evil and dehumanizing practice of keeping and abusing young innocent girls confined in these 'shrines.'

LAWS ARE NOT ENOUGH

Members of the ING and other activists in Ghana have influenced the government to outlaw the trokosi practice.

In 1998, the Ghanaian parliament passed a law banning all forms of ritualized forced labour. In early 2001, President John Agyekum Kufuor, commenting on the practice of trokosi, declared, 'Girls should go to school, not to a shrine.' He pledged to enforce the law. So far, however, no priest or family member has been jailed for continuing the practice...

'In October 2001, the ING held a seminar for police officers in the Volta region. A majority of participants said they were not familiar with trokosi and were not aware of the law against it.

Some local groups have accused the ING of trying to destroy traditional culture. 'We are not against our culture,' Ms. Mensah explains. 'We are against servitude, slavery and child labour.'

'If you have a religion, a belief system or a traditional practice that enslaves people, puts them in servitude and reduces their dignity, then you violate our national constitution.'"