Story: Jasmine Afari-Mintah
The President of the National House of Chiefs, Odeneho Gyapong Ababio II, has called for the enforcement of the law that makes it illegal to practise Trokosi in the country.
He has, therefore, urged security agencies in the country to strictly enforce the Criminal Code (Amendment) Act 1998 (Act 554) that abolishes the cultural practice.
Odeneho Ababio II made the appeal at a national dissemination workshop on findings on the practice of “Trokosi” in Accra.
The Parliament of Ghana in 1998 enacted the Children’s Act 1998, Act 560/LI 1705 and the Criminal Code Amendment Act 1998 Act 554 (CCAA) to make ritual servitude a criminal offence.
But after 10 years, the practice still persists in some parts of the country.
An estimated 278 women remain subjects directly under the “Trokosi” system in the practising communities, about 53 per cent of whom are still kept in captivity in the Ketu District where most of the shrines are located.
The North Tongu District accounts for 20.5 per cent, with the South Tongu, Akatsi and the Dangme West and East districts recording smaller figures.
“Trokosi” is a traditional practice where young virgin girls are confined to shrines as reparation to deities for wrongs purported to have been committed by a member of the victim’s family.
Odeneho Ababio described its practise as an abuse of human rights and called on concerned citizens to rise up against it.
Prof. Sosthenes K. Kufogbe, a senior lecturer at the Department of Geography and Resource Development of the University of Ghana, who presented his research findings, said the offences for incarceration ranged from trivial issues such as stealing tubers of cassava and the use of abusive language to more grievous ones like murder.
He said the CCAA needed to be reviewed to prevent child rights violations, adding that its promulgation pushed the practice of Trokosi underground.
Prof. Kufogbe said the concept of Trokosi had not changed within the practising communities.
As a result, he said “it is difficult for some sections of the society to see it as a human rights violation, since they see it as a quick way of maintaining social justice in comparison to the formal judicial system”.
The acting Commissioner for Human Rights and Administrative Justice, Ms Anna Bossman, in a speech read on her behalf said the practice was a barrier to the attainment of the dreams of its victims and that they were reduced to labourers in the practising communities.
She noted that children under such practices were inadequately catered for.
The Deputy Minister of Women and Children’s Affairs, Mr Daniel Dugan, noted that it was important to intensify the campaign to completely eradicate Trokosi from the Ghanaian society.
He said the government was doing all it could but added that the battle against cultural practices was not easy.
“When a society decides to protect wrongdoers, it becomes very difficult for the law to get at them,” he remarked.
Mr Dugan questioned the system where there was no law to protect whistleblowers from perpetrators of crime.
The workshop was attended by various participants including traditional leaders, officials of district assemblies and other stakeholders.
