The Executive Director of International Needs Ghana, Reverend Walter Pimpong says said the female ritual servitude popularly known as Trokosi or Fishidi remains a reality in the country.
Ghanaians who care about the problem to rise up and speak against the practice, he said.
Pimpong said several young women are still serving under untold hardships in rural communities in southern Ghana.
Speaking at an international workshop in Accra he said, \"Some give untold reasons why we should continue to pretend the practice does not exist, to them it is an affront on our national, ethnic, or in some cases religious pride.\"
The workshop was held in collaboration with Anti Slavery International based in the United Kingdom.
Rev. Pimpong asked Ghanaians not to turn a blind eye to the abuse of the fundamental human rights of women in the country. \"Let those who care rise up and speak on behalf of those innocent, helpless, and abused women whose worlds are invaded by men,\" he said, \"Let us echo their mournful cries from the remote and hidden villages.\"
It is estimated that there are over 2,000 women still languishing in trokosi shrines as ritual slaves because shrine elders have refused to give up on the practice. Trokosi, which is practised in parts of the Volta and Greater Accra Regions, Togo and Benin, is a system where young maidens are condemned to fetish shrines as reparation to deities for crimes committed by their relatives.
According to International Needs, over two billion cedis have been spent in the last five years to liberate and rehabilitate 2,800 victims. Giving a background of the fight against the practice Rev. Pimpong said the practice was so shrouded in secrecy and fear that very few people knew or talked about it in public.
A research carried out in 1995 by the head of the religions department, University of Ghana. Dr. Elom Dovlo revealed that the women were incarcerated and abused.
The second research according to Rev. Pimpong was conducted in 1997 to determine the geographical spread of the practice in southern Ghana. \"A total of 51 major shrines and over 200 minor shrines were identified in the southern sector, with the Volta region accounting for 84 percent of the total number of shrines.
The 1997 findings also revealed that over 5,000 women were in Bondage at that time.
The Commissioner For Human Rights and Administrative Justice Emile Short said despite the enactment of the 1998 law making the practice of trokosi a criminal offense there has been little progress in enforcing the law.
He said steps would be taken to encourage the police to prosecute perpetrators of the crime.
\"It is unfortunate that we in Africa have to spend so much time and part of our resources in discussing ways of eliminating ritual servitude from our respective societies.\"
Short said the establishment of the Women\'s Ministry is a step in the right direction. He hoped that the ministry would develop policies which would discourage such practices. \"Too many of our people are steeped in superstitions and ignorance both of which are the causes for most of the customary or traditional practices in Africa.
Meanwhile Osofo Kofi Ameve, leader of the Afrikania Mission, which has been opposed to activities of NGOs to liberate women being held in shrines as slaves, has repeated his claim that the Trokosi liberation campaign is a fraudulent money making venture.
Osofo Ameve, called on the government to \"genuinely probe\" the activities of the NGOs. Trokosi as defined by them as a shrine that enslaves women in Ghana does not exist.\" he said.
