It has been suggested that this article or section be merged into ritual servitude. (Discuss)

Trokosi is a traditional practice of sexual slavery in some parts of Ghana, Togo, and Benin. In this practice, young girls, usually under the age of 10 and often as young as five, 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 for favors sought from the shrine. ^[1] In Togo and Benin the slaves are called Voodoosi (French spelling "voudounsi"). The Anlo people of Ghana call the practice fiashidi.^[2] Wikipedia does not have an article with this exact name. ... Ritual servitude is practiced in Ghana, Togo, and Benin where traditional religious shrines take young girls as slaves in payment for the services of a traditional religious shrine or as a sort of living sacrifice in an attempt to atone alleged misdeeds of a family member, almost always a male. ... Sexual slavery is a special case of slavery which includes various different practices: forced prostitution single-owner sexual slavery ritual slavery, sometimes associated with traditional religious practices slavery for primarily non-sexual purposes where sex is common or permissible In general, the nature of slavery means that the slave is... Ritual servitude is practiced in Ghana, Togo, and Benin where traditional religious shrines take young girls as slaves in payment for services, or in religious atonement for alleged misdeeds of a family member —almost always a male. ...

The practice continues in Ghana despite a 1998 law mandating a three year prison sentence on conviction.^[3] No one has yet been prosecuted under the law. Women's groups, human rights groups and Christian NGO's 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. 1998 (MCMXCVIII) was a common year starting on Thursday of the Gregorian calendar, and was designated the International Year of the Ocean. ...

The word trokosi comes from the Ewe words "tro", meaning deity or fetish, and "kosi", meaning female slave.^[4] However, the term is commonly used in English in Ghana, as a loanword. Ewe is a Kwa language spoken in Ghana and Togo by approximately three million people (Capo 1991). ... A loanword (or loan word) is a word directly taken into one language from another with little or no translation. ...

Categories of Tro Adherents:

1. Those who join the Tro on their own volition (extremely rare) and those who were born into the Tro and initiated as children (Trovivo);

2. Those thought to have been born through the intervention of the Tro (Dorflevivo);

3. Those divinely called to serve as priest and priestesses of the shrine (Tronua);

4. Those who join through promise made by a family who supposedly benefited from the Tro; and finally

5. 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 by far comprises the greatest number of trokosi.

Practices in traditional shrines vary, but trokosi are usually denied education, suffer a life of hardship, and are a lonely lot, stigmatized by society.

References

1. ↑  The Trokosi System, Mark Wisdom, FESLIM, 2001, p. 4
2. ↑  Wisdom, p 3.
3. ↑  The Criminal Code of Ghana, Act. 1998 Act. 554.
4. ↑  Wisdom, p 3.
5. Report on Trokosi Institution, Researched and Written by Dr. Elom Dovlo, University of Ghana, Legon, 1995.
6. "Trokosi--Should This Practice Be Allowed to Continue?", Progressive Utilization, Vol. 2. No. 1, PO Box C267 Cantonments Communication Centre, Accra, Ghana, 1995.

• Your research on the subject matter of Trokosi is not deep enough scientifically.

Trokosi as a practice of convenience was hand down by generations.This same pratice forced Jesus Christ to Jerusalem at 12. Think about that.

In all COCOA growing areas of Ghana there is this SLAVERY practice that have gone on undocumented and widely reported for decades.

The SLAVERY Iam talking about is called 'ABONO-BONO'OR whatever the name is-a situation where LANDOWNERS PREFER Sharing of cultivated COCOA CROP FARM TO SELLING the forest land before cultivation.

This is also SLAVERY AND a very serious CRIME AGAINST HUMANITY. MOST LANDOWNERS WOULD CONTRACT PEOPLE FROM MOSTLY THE 3 NORTHERN REGIONS DECEIVE THEM TO CULTIVATE THE LANDS FOR THEM ONLY TO BE EIGTH MURDERED OR BARNISHED FROM THE FARMS. THINK ABOUT THESE.

Trokosi is only practiced by the ewes in Ghana in the Volta region.

Organizations Fighting the Practice of Trokosi

• Every Child Ministries--Slave Children
• International Needs Ghana

Fetish Slaves Liberation Movement, P.O. Box 25, Adidome, Ghana