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Documented on the original SlaveryMap (2008–2016). We don’t have a verifiable source on file yet. Know one?
What happened
The practice of ritual or customary servitude was outlawed in Ghana in 1998, but the practical implementation of the law has fallen largely to NGO's who have facilitated the shrines in ending the practice. The NGO Every Child Ministries Ghana and negotiated with the Sovigbenor shrine and educated them as to the issues over a span of over a year, finally winning the approval of the shrine for the liberation of all 126 of its trokosi slaves on December 9, 2005. The liberation was a public event in which the shrine freed the slaves and agreed to end the practice of ritual servitude in that place. In this case a 37 year old woman was liberated who had been born in bondage to a trokosi. The practice of replacement demands that if a trokosi slave dies or runs away, she must be replaced by another girl from her family, so this child replaced her mother upon her death. Her story came out in the course of the liberation process. She was one of 126 women liberated from the Sovigbenor shrine.
Response and intervention
CHRAJ (Commission on Human Rights & Administrative Justice) cooperated in the liberation and spoke against the practice of trokosi at the liberation ceremony. No shrine community has yet been prosecuted in Ghana under the 1998 law, law enforcement officers preferring to let shrines reach agreements with NGO's to end the practice. This method of operation meets with greater support and less resistance from the traditional community. The 126 victims were emancipated in a public and culturally appropriate ceremony. They received certificates of liberation and received immediate and ongoing counseling and aid in starting small business, as well as direct aid such as clothing and blankets as needed. Every Child Ministries (ECM) Ghana One of the main focus points of Every Child Ministries is an anti-slavery/anti-trafficking initiative on behalf of African children. The organization has conducted extensive research into the issue of ritual servitude and follows all the shrines of the area that still hold trokosi slaves. This liberation was one of the fruits of that initiative.