Trokosi (Child Slavery) in Ghana: A Policy Approach

Abstract

GHANA STUDIES / Volume 1 ISSN 1536-5514 / E-ISSN 2333-7168© 1998 by the Board of Regents of the University of Wisconsin System 35 TROKOSI (CHILD SLAVERY) IN GHANA A Policy Approach1 ROBERT KWAME AMEH But let us not rush into the error of condemning genital mutilations as uncivilized and sanguinary practices. One must beware of describing what is merely an aspect of difference in culture as barbarous. In traditional Africa, sexual mutilations evolved out of a coherent system, with its own values, beliefs, cultural and ritual conduct. These practices, however, raise a problem today because our societies are in a process of major transformation and are coming up against new socio -cultural dynamic forces in which such practices have no place or appear to be relics of the past. What is therefore needed are measures to quicken their demise. The main part of this struggle will be waged by education rather than by anathema and from the inside rather than from the outside. I hope that this struggle will make women free and “disalienated,” personifying respect for the eminent dignity of life. —Abdoul Diouf, President of the Republic of Senegal, 19852 Introduction The practice of trokosi has been in existence since the Ewes settled in Ghana around the seventeenth century.3 However, it was only in the first half of the 1990s that it became a national social problem. Several individuals and groups have called on the Ghanaian government and Parliament to abolish the practice,4 and even though Parliament debated the issue at length, it was 1. This paper is result of a larger research project (doctoral dissertation) in progress on controversial cultural practices in Ghana. 2. Quoted in Sanderson 1986: 71 (emphasis added). President Diouf made these remarks with respect to female genital mutilation; however, I believe they apply equally to the issue of trokosi in Ghana. 3. It is not known when exactly the Ewes settled in Ghana. Scholars have given dates ranging from the eleventh to the eighteenth century. See Asamoa 1986 and Amenumey 1986. 4. Several speakers and participants at the First National Workshop on Trokosi System in Ghana, organized by International Needs Ghana and held on 6–7 July 1995, made such a call. 36 Ghana Studies • volume 1 • 1998 only in June 1998 that Parliament passed a law making the practice of trokosi a criminal offence.5 Nevertheless, several hundred slave girls have been set free6 and there is already talk of “success” in eradicating the trokosi problem.7 Thisessayisanattempttoaccountfortherelativesuccessthathasbeenmade in dealing with the trokosi problem. The general context of analysis is how to effectively address traditional practices which endanger the health of people or which violate their human rights in order to make change acceptable to both the opponents and supporters of such practices. The concern here is with the development of implementable policies on the issue, that is, policies which enjoy the ardentsupportofthosemostdeeplyandpersonallyaffectedbythechange ,whether they are the child slaves or slave owners/keepers. The paper adopts the position that the process of eradicating certain traditional African practices, such as child slavery, which violate fundamental human rights, must be sensitive to the cultural norms and values of the practitioners in order to make change acceptable. International Human Rights Standards and Local Cultural Sensibilities The concerns of this study are reminiscent of the universalism versus relativism debate in the literature on international human rights. There is a perceptionamongsomescholarsthatinternationalhumanrights norms,considered to be “Western” in origin, are not sensitive to cultural values and norms which Similar calls have also been made in the media. See articles in Progressive Utilization Magazine (PUM)1994:1;1995:1.TheJune1994issueofTheMirror(aGhanaianweeklynewspaperpublishedinAccra )carriedthestoryofatrokosislaveappealingtoPresidentJ.J.Rawlingsforhelp. 5. Pimpong 1998b. 6. A Reuters report published on the Internet, filed from Mepe, Ghana, on 1 April 1997, put the number of female slaves released in the second half of 1996 at 344. Reports indicate that in the first half of 1997, well over 100 shrine slaves had been released; see Ghana Review International (GRI) Newsreel, 29 July 1997 (website: www.ghanareview.com); Ghanaian Times report of 27 July 1997 and Reuters report of 1 April 1997. Pimpong (1997: 2) puts the number of liberated slaves at 672 as of December 1997...