Trokosi is a traditional system where virgin girls, some as young as six years old, are sent into Troxovi shrines (shrines for gods) as slaves to make amends for wrongs committed by a member of the virgin girl’s family.
It’s not sure when Trokosi systems began, but it’s an ancient practice. The word Trokosi comes from the Ewe language, Ewe communities found in Benin, Togo and Ghana. It’s a combination of two Ewe words “tro” and “kosi.” “Tro” means god or deity, and “kosi” means slave. Trokosi therefore means “slave of God.”
Most of the people that live in the southern Volta Region of Ghana, southern Togo, and southern Benin believe and practice the Trokosi system.
Until the Trokosi system came to the attention of the general public in the 1990s, girls sent to the shrines stayed for life.
After the 90’s some of the priests and elders were willing to let the girls go back home after a few years, for a few months, but had to return whenever they were sent for. When they die, the family must replace her with another virgin girl.
This means that the family will pay reparation, of one girl, forever.
The Trokosi system is based on the belief that gods have the power to search for wrongdoers and punish them. People who feel an injustice has been committed against them, go to the shrine and place a curse on the offender so that they will be punished by the gods.
These curses take several forms, strange sicknesses, unexplained deaths, incurable diseases or successive deaths within a family.
When the virgin girls are sent to the shrines, they become the “wives of the gods” and are sexually exploited by the priests and shrine elders.
In certain parts of Ghana, Benin and Togo, the Trokosi tradition still holds relevance. They dedicate these young girls to the shrines becoming properties of the chief priest in charge of the shrine. They become the “wives of the gods” and are s*xually exploited by the priests and shrine elders.
Once dedicated, they bear the tag Trokosi. These girls fulfil his s*xual desires, cook and work in the farms. Once the gods reveal that a family has committed an atrocity or need to pay for the sins of their forefathers, they are required to send a girl to the priest for pacification.
The tradition implies that they give girls to the chief priest to continue with the family’s atonement every generation. He is free to send her away when she no longer appeals to him.
If there are children born out of the relationship with them, they become the responsibility of the virgin girls’ family.
The Trokosi girls live in constant hunger, deprivation, and poverty.
In an attempt to abolish the practice, the Ghanaian government in 1998 passed a law criminalising the Trokosi practice.
Despite this, it continued because governmental agencies responsible for enforcing the law didn’t have the courage to arrest the family members, priests or shrine owners.
The system invokes fear in the hearts of most people including the law enforcement personnel.
Trokosi practising communities strongly believe in the power of gods to cause calamities to families. Trokosi priests ensure they are reminded of this by issuing warnings that they must send their virgin girls as objects of reparation.
The practice also thrives because there’s a group of traditionalists, mostly male, who strongly believe that Trokosi is part of the Ewe’s cultural heritage and must be preserved. They therefore oppose every attempt to stop the practice.
