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Factbook on Global Sexual
Exploitation
Ghana
Prositution
In Accra alone, there are 125 brothels where young
girls are forced into prostitution. Girls, mostly from poverty-stricken families in rural
areas, posed for nude pictures following monetary offers to them by some local contact
men. Each was reportedly given US$300. A twelve-year-old girl from a rural area in central
Ghana told police that she was convinced to enter prostitution after realizing that it was
the only way for her to survive the harsh realities of city life. (Women’s
Organizations Monthly Meetings of Ghana, Samuel Sarpong, "Women take initiative to
better their lot: Human Rights," AfricaNews, June1998)
Organized and
Institutionalized Sexual Exploitation and Violence
Thousands of virgin girls are given to priests to appease the gods for
crimes committed by relatives of the family in the Trokosi tradition in Ghana. The
initiation rituals signify marriage to a god and its proxy, the priest. The girl becomes
the priest’s property and enslaved for three to five years, or sometimes, for life.
If the girl dies, or if the priests "tires" of her, the family must replace her.
For serious crimes families enslave generations of daughters in a system of perpetual
atonement. Girls who are released remain married to god for life. Many cannot marry, and
remain indebted to the priest. If the priest dies, his Trokosi are passed to his
successor. When the Trokosi girl begins to menstruate she becomes the sexual property of
the priest. It is common that a Trokosi woman has ten to fifteen children. The Trokosi are
denied access to education and other training. Their families supply their food and
clothing. The Trokosi practice continues despite the fact that it violates the Ghanian
constitution. ("Slavery in Ghana: The Trokosi Tradition," Equality Now,
http://www.equalitynow.org/action_eng_14_1. html, Women’s Action 14.1, March 1998)
Policy and Law
A bill was introduced in January 1998 to punish anyone involved in the
enslavement of others, which would include the priests involved in the Trokosi tradition.
Punishment will be imprisonment for no less than three years. Ten shrines have given up
the Trokosi practice. ("Slavery in Ghana: The Trokosi Tradition," Equality Now,
http://www.equalitynow.org/action_eng_14_1.html, Women’s Action 14.1, March 1998)
Case
At the age of 12, Abla Kotor was given to a local priest in atonement
for the rape that resulted in her birth, the rape of her mother by her mother's uncle. As
soon as Abla Kotor has completed three menstrual cycles, the priest to whom she was given,
will rape her. She works his fields and farmlands, cleans his home and cooks his meals.
("Slavery in Ghana: The Trokosi Tradition," Equality Now,
http://www.equalitynow.org/action_eng_14_1.html, Women’s Action 14.1, March 1998)
Work of NGOs
436 women and girls have been freed from Trokosi slavery in Ghana, as a
result of a seven-year campaign involving several human rights groups. ("Slavery in
Ghana: The Trokosi Tradition," Equality Now,
http://www.equalitynow.org/action_eng_14_1.html, Women’s Action 14.1, March 1998)
Factbook Table of Contents
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Coalition Against Trafficking in Women
Factbook on Global Sexual Exploitation
Donna M. Hughes, Laura Joy Sporcic and Nadine Z. Mendelsohn
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