Families give their daughters to priests to appease the gods.
According to the Trokosi custom, practised in south-eastern Ghana, a family must offer a daughter to the priest as a way of appeasing the gods for a relative's transgression, past or present. The tradition, which has been part of the Ewe culture for centuries, requires a girl to spend the rest of her life in a shrine, as a 'wife of the gods'. When a Trokosi dies, her family is expected to replace her with another young girl, thus perpetuating the bondage to the fetish shrine from generation to generation. About 1,800 women have been released through the efforts of local charitable organisations, such as International Needs Ghana, but it is estimated that there are still 5,000 women and girls in Trokosi shrines. Angela Robson reports from the village of Kebanu in the Volta region of Ghana.
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