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What happened
Gborble traditional shrine priestess and shrine owners enslaved young virgin girls in a practice commonly called trokosi. The government of Ghana calls it ritual or customary servitude. The practice involves both sexual abuse and manual labor and the movement of the girls was strictly controlled by the shrine. The Gborble shrine priest and owners liberated their trokosi slaves on January 31, 2009 and signed a public agreement that the practice of slavery was ended in that place and that they would take in no more slaves. The shrine is located in a group of mud and thatch houses, where the girls were kept in crowded quarters with nothing but a floor to lie on. In this case a 25 year old woman was liberated who had been enslaved by the Gborble shrine since she was six years old—a total of 19 years. She later learned she was there because her grandfather had quarreled over a piece of land and the other party cursed the family at the shrine. When family members later died, it was blamed on this curse. The only way to lift the curse, it was thought, was to give a virgin girl of the family to serve as a shrine slave. At the shrine, she had to keep a big clay waterpot full by carrying water from the river. If it was ever found not full, she would receive no food that day. The victim was very lonely since her family never visited her. She had to work even when she was sick, and felt that no one cared about her. She says it is such a joy to be able to make her own choices now that she has come out of such a cruel system.
Response and intervention
No one has ever been prosecuted in Ghana under the 1998 law. However, local law enforcement oficers in Ghana as well as CHRAJ (Commission on Human Rights & Administrative Justice) and various government officials cooperated in the liberation and spoke against the practice of trokosi at the liberation ceremony. The practice of ritual or customary servitude was outlawed in Ghana in 1998, but no one has ever been prosecuted under the law. Rather, the practical implementation of the law has fallen largely to NGO's who have facilitated the shrines in ending the practice. Two NGO's, Every Child Ministries Ghana and International Needs Ghana negotiated with the Gborble 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 its trokosi slaves on January 31, 2003. 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. A total of 264 slaves and their children from three shrines in close proximity in the Agave area of the Volta Region of Ghana (S Tongu district) were freed that day. The victims were emancipated in a public and culturally appropriate ceremony. This victim was one of 264 from three shrines who were liberated in a joint ceremony that day along with their children. Afterwards they received direct aid, family reunification intervention where possible, vocational training and counseling both immediate and long term. This victim received training in designing and making batik cloth, which enabled her to set up a small business to support herself and her two children. Every Child Ministries (ECM) Ghana and International Needs Ghana www.ecmafrica.org http://www.ecmafrica.org/36289.ihtml One of the main focus points of these NGO’s is an anti-slavery/anti-trafficking initiative on behalf of African children. The organizations have conducted extensive research into the issue of ritual servitude and follow all the shrines of the area that still hold trokosi slaves with the goal of gradually eradicating the practice and rehabilitating its victims. This liberation was one of the fruits of that initiative.