Every Child Ministries - Modern Day Slavery- Trokosi

You can join Every Child Ministries in the fight against Modern-Day Slavery, Child Slavery Today—

Modern-Day Slavery--
"Trokosi" Slave Children in Africa

More children are in slavery today than ever before in history. Just imagine how good it would feel to help them--how satisfying to know that YOU freed a slave!

Since 2000, Every Child Ministries has been spearheading initiatives to liberate & rehabilitate slaves known as trokosi. These little girls are given as living human sacrifices in idol shrines of West Africa. They are victims of a malicious practice known as ritual servitude. Yes, there really is SLAVERY TODAY. Grab a tissue to dry your tears and read on to find out how you can make a difference. Thank you from trokosi child slaves liberated from ritual servitude in idol shrines. (Photo property of Every Child Ministries) In the southern Volta Region of Ghana, and in southern Togo and Benin, thousands of young girls of the Ewe (say Ay-vay) tribe are held as slaves in unspeakable conditions, victims of a vicious form of modern-day slavery--ritual abuse in idol shrines. Every Child Ministries is fighting against this form of child slavery which is ruining the lives of Ghana's youth. ECM is partnering with national Ghanian efforts to liberate the trokosi girls. In this initiative, ECM works to negotiate community-wide settlements to end slavery in those areas, as well as to help the former trokosi slavegirls rebuild their broken lives afterwards.

(Please note: This practice is called by several different names, the most common of which is Trokosi, an Ewe word that has come into common usage in Ghanaian English. In Ghana, the Anlo people call the practice of ritual servitude Fiashidi. The Ada people call it Woryokwe. In Togo and Benin it is commonly called Voodoosi or vudusi or Vodounsi (the latter is the French spelling, which is used in Togo and Benin). Each of these words means either "slaves of the gods" or "wives of the gods." Trokosi is nothing short of modern-day slavery. It is child slavery today, hiding under the mask of traditional religion. It may be called shrine slavery, since it is centered in shrines of African traditional religion. Ghana law calls it ritual servitude or customary servitude and condemns it. Trokosi is one of the worst forms of child slavery and a flagrant abuse of child labor.

This initiative against child slavery is one of the most amazing opportunities we at ECM have ever faced—the opportunity to bring freedom, to show the value of every human life, to help girls who are in immense suffering, and to bring the blessings of religious liberty to those who have been forced against their will into a horrendous web of bondage.

Why Modern-Day Slavery Exists

Slavery today. Sadly, it still plagues us. The trokosi girls are victims of a form of child slavery known as ritual servitude, held in idol shrines (called fetish shrines in Ghana) as living human sacrifices. Many of them are taken just prior to adolescence, but many also are taken in early childhood—as young as four years old. Although the time they are supposed to serve in the shrine is sometimes defined in years, the price of exit is placed so high that in practicality most remain slaves all their lives, or until the priest no longer finds them desirable. The girls are called "trokosi" or "wives of the gods," a term that shows the sexual side of the practice. (Traditional Ewe spelling is troxovi, and they are also called fiashidi.) They are shrine slaves or slaves of the gods.

Wives of the gods--or Slaves of the Priest? Or human sacrifices? Yes.
Felicia remembers years of misery as a trokosi slave (Photo property of Every Child Ministries).jpg Why do we call trokosi child slavery? Why do we insist that it must be labeled modern-day slavery? In practical terms, trokosi are slaves of the priests who serve the idol gods of the shrines—working long hours without pay and often without having their simplest life needs met, serving him sexually in any way he demands, and being deprived of all normal human affection. They are said to be "wives" of the gods, although one must observe that these gods certainly do not treat their "wives" with any affection, respect or even human decency. This is a dehumanizing form of ritual abuse. We call them slaves, even though some traditionalists do not like the term, because we have seen and verified these facts. We call them slaves because that is what the girls involved insist that they were.

Causes of Child Slavery
There are many causes of child slavery in the world today. The form of child slavery known as trokosi is caused basically by fear--fear of being cursed by the gods. Many holding to traditional religious views (views of African Traditional Religion) believe that when the priest speaks through divination or trances, he is the mouthpiece of the gods. When he asks for a virgin daughter to become a slave, they insist that their whole family will be cursed and die if the demand is not met.

These children become trokosi slaves for one of several reasons:

Some are taken because not they, but someone, almost always a male, in their family committed or was accused of some kind of offense, real or alleged.
Some are second and third generation "human sacrifices," because the offenses require a fresh virgin from each generation in order to "atone" for a sin of some ancestor.
Other girls are given into trokosi slavery by their families in payment for the services of the priest, seeking the favor of the gods in order to assure a good crop or success in an exam.
A common reason for becoming a trokosi slave is to break a real or suspected curse resulting in deaths of several family members.
Sometimes people go to shrines for healing from sickness or to end fertility problems and allow them to become pregnant. The person healed or the child born as a result owes his life to the shrine and must serve the shrine god, doing whatever the god asks for the rest of his life. If he does not, the healing will end or the child will die, according to shrine beliefs. This practice is prevalent in some shrines near the Togo border.

In each case, the priest consults the spirit of the idol through divination, and the oft-demanded payment is the perpetual servitude of a virgin daughter of the family. Families go along with the priest's unspeakable demands out of fear that if they do not, they and their families will be cursed and die.

Why is there still slavery today? You mean slavery is illegal but still goes on?

That's right. The modern-day slavery practice called trokosi was made a criminal offense by the Ghanaian government in 1998. In the law it is called customary or ritual servitude. It carries a substantial penalty, too--a mandatory term of three years in prison--but the law has not been enforced. The reason is simple—too many fear the curse of the priests, which they believe has power to kill. One Ghanaian explained to us their relationship with their idol gods. "They (the idols) were brought here as war gods. Their basic function is to kill," he said.

There are many who are speaking up against the practice of trokosi, especially Christians. It is realizing that Jesus Christ has power greater than any other that gives the courage to speak up against the practice, or to seek freedom for the trokosi slaves and their children. It is natural for Every Child Ministries to be anti-slavery and interested in human rights, since it is God who endues human beings with dignity and honor by creating them in His image.

Trokosi A Life of Horrendous Suffering

ECM workers have interviewed many, many girls who were held in trokosi slavery for years. They ALL describe a life of horrendous suffering and hopelessness. At puberty and sometimes before, there is an occult sexual initiation by the priest. He then calls for their services whenever and however he pleases, without ever showing any affection whatsoever for either the girls or the children they bear to him because of their life of constant rape. It is believed that the priests sexual organs are dedicated to the god of the shrine, so to have sex with him is to copulate with the god of the shrine.

These child slaves (trokosi) are forced to chant praises to the idol gods and offer sacrifices, in violation of the Ghanaian Constitution's guarantee of freedom of religion. They are also forced to do heavy manual labor in the priest's fields all day without any compensation, while strictly forbidden to eat even a morsel of the grain they raise. Most trokosi slaves live with constant hunger, and some of them are refused all food. In such cases they have no alternative but begging or scrounging in garbage discarded by others.

The Child Slaves' Only "Choice"

When these modern-day slaves refuse anything commanded by the priest, when they do not make their work quota, or when they displease him in any way, they are given a choice. It is the only choice they ever face. Many of them tell of two items being laid in front of them. One is a whip. The other is broken glass. Shrine slaves can be whipped long and hard while others hold them down, or they can kneel for hours on large shards of broken glass, with no medical care afterwards.

Children of the Slaves
An average of four children are born to each trokosi slave girl through being raped repeatedly by the priest. Yet the priest never takes any interest in or responsibility for the children he fathered, and never owns them or shows affection towards them. The law of the shrine is that the woman is solely responsible for the care of the children. Thus the mother struggles to provide for children, even while eeking out an existence for herself. Because her own nutritional level is so low, she often gives birth to malnourished and unhealthy children. While the children are not technically classified as trokosi "wives of the gods," they all—boys and girls alike— serve the priest and all live in the shrine without affection, without a father figure (since the priest treats them as a master would his slaves), without adequate food, without medical care, and without education. Where are human rights in the slave shrines?

Here's how Every Child Ministries' anti-slavery initiative works to help modern-day slave Children

Christopher, ECM Director for Volta Region, getting final approval on liberation document from shrine owners. The next day, all the trokosi slaves were liberated! (Photo property of Every Child Ministries).jpg Every Child Ministries has unequivocally declared itself as anti-slavery! We are working in partnership with Ghanaian national efforts and other freedom-loving organizations to liberate the slaves, negotiate community-wide agreements to end slavery in as many places as possible. As of April 2008, Every Child Ministries has been instrumental in organizing three liberations which ended the practice of slavery in five shrines and freed 500 slaves and 2,000 of their children.

ECM helps those freed to rebuild their broken lives by helping the freed slaves obtain vocational training or start a small business. ECM sponsors two counselor/Bible teachers--Sister Mary and Sister Judith, who regularly ride or walk up and down the muddy, bumpy roads, helping those who have been liberated work through the many hurts resulting from their ordeal. Mary and Judith also bring the good news of Jesus Christ, the true Liberator of our souls. ECM works to provide educational opportunities for former slaves and their children, and works to strengthen the churches of the area and help them to develop Christian teaching opportunities for children.

Trokosi is seriously child slavery! Trokosi is one of the worst forms of child labor, one of the worst forms of child abuse! Trokosi is a terrible form of modern-day slavery!

Ghanaian officials, speaking at liberation ceremonies for the trokosi slaves, have observed that the tradition of trokosi is the very worst form of child labor. Children are torn from school and family and forced into long, strenuous labor with inadequate food, no health care, and no moral support. They are stripped of dignity, humanity, and hope, as they are forced to labor in the priest's fields from morning till night with no recompense, thanks, encouragement, or recognition. It is difficult to think of a more cruel form of child labor, of a more devastating form of child abuse. Trokosi is a heinous abuse of Africa's youth. If indeed Africa's children are her greatest natural resource, we must conclude that the practice of trokosi slavery is the deliberate spoilage of her greatest resource.

The Morality of Child Slavery--or the Immorality
Child slavery is a moral issue. Christians (and many other faiths as well) believe that we must "do unto others as you would have them do unto you". We have not yet found a person who would want his or her child to be forced into a life of slavery. We have not yet found a mother who desired her daughter to be given as a concubine to an old man, as many young girls are given to old priests in the trokosi system. We have not yet met a father whose goal for his daughter was that she labor long hours in someone else's field without ever enjoying any of the fruits of her labors. Trokosi does not exist as a volunteer system, because there would be no volunteers. No one would choose that life. It is immoral, then, to force it on others.

Liberating the Slave Children--ECM's Anti-Slavery Initiative

With the exposing of the practice of modern-day slavery known as trokosi to public view and the rise of public opinion against it, some shrine owners are willing to free the trokosi they hold as slaves. In order to bring this about, compensation is necessary, for the trokosi provide free labor and thus are a source of income for the priest. The shrine receives only a small amount of the total cost of liberating the children, however. The remainder of the average cost of $200 goes toward the costs of the negotiation team, the public ceremony which helps the community accept them back into society, counseling, and programs to help the girls and their children after liberation. All the girls' children go free with her, so the cost of $200 actually frees an average of five people!

Rebuilding Broken Lives of Slave Children

After liberation, other missions of the area offer vocational training to the girls. Options include dressmaking, tie-dying and batik, weaving of traditional kente cloth, hairdressing, soap making, baking, and catering. Basic materials for getting started in their own small business are supplied on graduation, through the generosity of partners who support the work. Many former trokosi slaves now operate businesses that are flourishing. (If you are planning to visit Ghana, contact ECM and we will arrange for you to visit some of them.)

ECM offers continued counseling after liberation to help survivors heal emotionally, socially, and spiritually. Our counselors go to the women in their homes and communities, offering friendship, acceptance, hope and healing with every visit.

You Can Help Free These Slave Children. You Can Help End Child Slavery!

Your donation of $200 can provide the funds necessary to free one trokosi slave girl and all her children. That averages out to only $40 per person! What an amazing opportunity to impact present and future generations! The liberation also ends slavery forever in that place.

Are you a praying person? Get our e-mail prayer updates about shrine slavery.

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Can You Believe There Is Opposition to Liberating Modern-Day Slaves?
After the suffering Africa experienced due to Western slavery, one would think that every African would be absolutely anti-slavery. One would think that every religious group in Ghana would be fully devoted to human rights. Yet, unbelievable as it may seem, there has been opposition in recent years to the release of the trokosi slaves.

Since when were queens ever treated like this Some well-funded traditionalists are working day and night to strengthen traditional devotion to the idol gods and to oppose release of the trokosi slaves. The most pitiable of their claims is that the girls are not really slaves but are treated more like queens. We have asked many former trokosi about this claim. Not many of them feel they were in any way treated like queens. Many of them have told us bluntly that they were nothing but slaves. We have asked many of them what the good points were of their time as trokosi. We have yet to find one girl who could think of one single good point about it. This claim reminds us, in fact, of Hitler's naming of his vans for gassing people to death as "Charitable Transport for the Sick." You can call something anything you want, even something that is totally contradictory to what it really is. But think twice. What queen is forced to go barefoot? What queen is refused decent clothing? What queen is forced to go without the necessities of life? What queen is denied education, family, the warmth of human affection?

The other claim the opposition makes is that the trokosi slave system should be preserved simply because it is the tradition of their people. It is interesting to note, however, that some of the very same people who make this claim at the same time condemn slavery in the West and even demand reparations! They didn't like slavery when it was done to them, so why do they defend doing it to others? We agree that western slavery was a horrendous sin and an awful mistake, a terrible blot on our history. We feel horrified, revolted, and ashamed by it. So why don't we do away with it entirely, permanently, and everywhere?

Rep from Dept of National Culture with priests at a Liberation Ceremony. He said that culture is not static, but dynamic. Photo property Every Child Ministries Some Americans once defended slavery as a part of their tradition, too, in fact, using many of the very same arguments. We suspect, however, that today most Americans are immensely glad they got rid of that wicked system. The culture of ANY people contains some errors. Surely we are not condemned to continually repeat all the mistakes of our ancestors, just because they are traditions! That kind of thinking can only impede progress by causing us to continue eternally every mistake our ancestors ever made. We seriously doubt that our ancestors would be pleased with their children's lack of progress. Since they are now able to view things from an eternal perspective, we are sure that they are rather cheering us on for the total abolition of slavery in every form. The battle to abolish the trokosi system is a way of honoring our ancestors!

The truth is, we are in a desperate spiritual battle
for the precious, eternal souls of people.

Battling Propaganda and False Information
Well-heeled traditionalists are financing propaganda ads on radio and television defending and promoting the trokosi slave system as a good thing that should be preserved. Pray with us that these ads will have the opposite effect as intended—that they will serve rather to awaken public awareness and embolden those who know the truth to speak up. At every opportunity, the opposition writes letters to the editor and articles for local newspapers. Pray with us that God will raise up those who know the truth about the despicable practice of trokosi, and embolden them to speak the truth in love, even more boldly and more frequently than the proponents of traditional slavery. Pray with us that God's people will receive special wisdom from Him that will enable them to effectively influence public opinion.

Battling Occult Curses of Idol gods

We know how this works, so we know that there are undoubtedly those who are cursing individuals and organizations who dare to come to the aid of these poor slave children. Pray that their curses may be so ineffectual and may have such an opposite effect to that which they intended, that they may come to recognize that they are dealing with a greater power—the God who created the Universe simply by commanding it into existence. Pray that God's people may live in peace, covered by His mighty protective hand.

Battling for Precious Souls

Pray that those who oppose this good work of liberation will themselves be overcome by the love and grace of God bringing them to salvation. Pray that key leaders of the shrines, the priests, and the intellectual leaders of the opposition movement may come to repentance and salvation.

A Strategic Move of God

At some point in their history, many African tribes became tied to idolatry. People of the slave area tell us their ancestors sought the help of idol gods in winning battles relating to land rights. When they moved to their present day homelands, they brought those idols with them, enshrining them in little mud huts and engaging priests to try to assuage their anger and control their evil killing power. Their descendants became "shrine owners" by inheritance.

An idol god of the Volta Region in Ghana. Fear of such idols controls the lives of many. Photo property of Every Child Ministries The idol gods not only killed members of their families and controlled their lives, they also impeded development throughout whole areas. It is not uncommon to see a priest walking long distances barefoot in the scorching sand, because his "god" forbade him to wear even sandals. It is not uncommon for priests and shrine owners to ""sign" papers with their thumbprints, because their "god" forbids them to learn to read and write. Thousands of young girls have been denied education, normal marriage, and useful lives because they had to be given to the "gods" as living sacrifices for somebody's transgressions. People have lived their lives paralyzed by fear, due to the trokosi slave system. We must work together to end this kind of ritual abuse.

Today God is moving to bring an end to the centuries of slavery. He is giving these people an opportunity to come into the light of salvation. Of course, no one is ever forced to become a Christian. Freedom of religion is far more than a Constitutional right. It is a precious right from God given to all people, a right that Every Child Ministries as a Christian organization must respect, even if African traditionalists do always not do so. Some choose to remain traditionalists, and some convert to Islam or other religions. Our services are just as open to them as they are to those who become Christians.

Yet, every girl who has been forced into the trokosi slave system has seen what idolatry is really all about. Once freed, do you think many of them want to have anything to do with that life? No way!

Many of these girls are wonderfully open to the Gospel. God has used their sufferings to open thier eyes to the truth, Boy rescued from idol shrine. His mother died as a trokosi slave in ritual servitude. (Photo property of Every Child Ministries) and many of them are becoming vibrant Christians. Helping them is a wonderful opportunity to cooperate with God's Spirit in building a new community of faith and freedom. These girls have deep scars and many barriers to overcome, but with the healing, restorative power of Jesus working in their lives, great things are possible. They are like seeds that will grow into a mighty tree. We believe God is breaking their chains so that He may liberate many more. Former trokosi slave girls will become the missionaries that will bring the truth and power of the Gospel to others yet in bondage. These girls are a seed that is the start of something new--a mighty move of God amongst former slave-holding tribes.

TOO MANY LIVES have been WASTED!

END TROKOSI SLAVERY NOW!

Here's what you can do:

Give a gift for the child slave (anti-slavery) project. Click Donate Now below.

Request a speaker on the subject of child slavery in Africa, click here.
(The speaker is free. You just pay travel expenses.)

Request a DVD report on the child slavery (anti-slavery) project. Send $10 U.S. or donate $11 on line and request DVD Report on Child Slavery. Click here.

Get answers to Frequently Asked Questions about Trokosi slavery. Click here.

It costs ECM about $200 on an average to free one shrine slave and all her children (average four children per girl). Could you give $200 to free one shrine slave family? Click the picture below to help and do whatever you can. Be sure to designate your gift for FREE A SLAVE PROJECT.

Note about terminology--Just in case you are wondering, the traditional Ewe spelling for trokosi is troxovi, and the girls are also sometimes called Fiashidi or Woryokwe. Please pray with Every Child Ministries that the sufferings of these girls in trokosi slavery will come to an end quickly. The system is deeply-entrenched and well supported by a few traditionalists who have been educated in the West and bought into the idea that all religions are equal, so they have returned to Africa to demand "equal rights" for African traditional religion with its worship of idols, even to the extent of supporting heinous practices associated with some of it, like trokosi. Yet, God is at work, and we affirm that He is abundantly able! In Him we put our trust that these girls may be freed to live useful lives and to know their true worth before the God who made them.

For further information, see these valuable links on child slavery and ritual servitude:

(Note: These links take you off ECM's site, but for those seriously researching the topic of child slavery, trokosi, or ritual servitude, these sites are very helpful. Note our web address, www.ecmafrica.org , before you leave, and come back to visit us again soon.)

Click here to enter dictionary of terms related to the trokosi or ritual servitude issue.

Click here to enter a site that evaluates and answers the most severe opposition to liberating the trokosi slaves.

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