Ritual servitude

Ritual servitude is a practice in Ghana, Togo, and Benin where traditional religious shrines (popularly called fetish shrines in Ghana) take human beings, usually young virgin girls, in payment for services or in religious atonement for alleged misdeeds of a family member. In Ghana and in Togo, it is practiced by the Ewe tribe in the Volta region, and in Benin it is practiced by the Fon.

These shrine slaves serve the priests, elders and owners of a traditional religious shrine without remuneration and without their consent, although the consent of the family or clan may be involved. Those who practice ritual servitude usually feel that the girl is serving the god or gods of the shrine and is married to the gods of the shrine.

If a girl runs away or dies, she must be replaced by another girl from the family. Some girls in ritual servitude are the third or fourth girl in their family suffering for the same crime, sometimes for something as minor as the loss of trivial property. It is still practiced in the Volta region in Ghana, in spite of being outlawed in 1998, and despite carrying a minimum three-year prison sentence for conviction. Among the Ewes who practice the ritual in Ghana, variations of the practice are also called trokosi, fiashidi, and woryokwe, with "trokosi" being the most common of those terms. In Togo and Benin it is called voodoosi or vudusi. Victims are commonly known in Ghana as fetish slaves because the gods of African Traditional Religion are popularly referred to as fetishes and the priests who serve them as fetish priests.

Trokosi: the general name by which it is called in Ghana by both proponents and opponents of the practice

Ritual or customary servitude: designations by which it is called in Ghana law forbidding the practice

Fiashidi: another name used by some districts in Ghana

Woryokwe: another name used by some districts in Ghana

Vudusi (also voodoosi, voudousi, vaudounsi, voudounsi, etc.): the general name by which it is called in French-speaking countries such as Togo and Benin

Shrine slavery: a designation often used by NGOs to describe the practice

Fetish slavery: a popular designation used in Ghana, where "fetish" refers to the deity of the shrine

Hierodulic slavery: a designation used by anti-slavery groups meaning sacred or religious slavery

Human rights organizations and other NGO's commonly use the words "servitude", "slaves," and "slavery" as non-technical, popularly understood terms that describe the reality of this practice. They point out that the practice meets all the commonly accepted definitions of slavery. Shrine slaves perform services which are not voluntary and are not paid. Their lives are totally controlled by the shrines, who in a sense become their owners.

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