Slave Girls Find Redemption

More than 1,200 fetish shrine slave girls in Ghana have been freed in the past three years, thanks primarily to the negotiating ingenuity of the Lynden, Washington–based International Needs (IN).

Although Ghana’s constitution bans servitude, the fetish slave practice is entrenched in African traditional religion (CT, Aug. 16, 1993, p. 54). In the southern part of Ghana’s Volta region, there are 166 shrines of fetish priests, who are viewed as intermediaries to tribal deities.

The priests obtain the girls to pay for crimes by family members who want to appease gods and avert disaster caused by a curse on the entire household. Thus, they willingly hand over a daughter to be come property of the priest.

The girls, as young as four, must cook and farm. At age thirteen, they also become sex slaves to the priest.

But IN has been able to break the pattern. Typically by swapping cows and cash, IN persuades a priest to free a girl. “By signing a binding document, the priest guarantees that the girl won’t be in bondage again,” says Walter Pimpong, 50, executive director of IN Ghana.

Once the females are freed, IN rehabilitates them. Older girls receive vocational training that includes dressmaking and mat weaving. Younger ones learn how to read and write—using the Bible as a textbook. In addition, children of the slaves are educated at an IN-operated kindergarten next to the vocational center.

Ghana last year criminalized ritual servitude, but the law is hard to en force. “Religious beliefs won’t die out without education and an advocacy campaign,” Pimpong says.

Copyright © 1999 Christianity Today. Click for reprint information.

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The Triumph of the Praise Songs: As praise bands and worship teams replace organs and choirs, the boomer tastes that reshaped our society are ruling our worship as well.

In Brief: July 12, 1999

New Song, Familiar Tune

New & Noteworthy: Biography

Karon’s Agenda

Writing the Trinity

Christian Coalition Loses Exepmt Status

Praying for Movers and Shakers

Wiccans Practice on U.S Bases

Voucher Plan Draws Mixed Reviews

God Speaks to Commuters

Classic & Contemporary Excerpts from July 12, 1999

Religious Liberty Bill's Passage Uncertain

Bountiful Believers in the Bayou

Fidelity Urged to Fight AIDS

In Brief: July 12, 1999

Evangelicals Resent Abandonment

Anglicans Recognize Papacy as 'Gift'

Christians Held As Hostages

The Triumph of the Praise Songs

Letters

Pain Relief

Truth-Telling on Trial

The Ministry of Safe Play

Indianapolis: Graham Touts Muscular Christianity

Southern Baptists: City-Focused Evangelism Launched

The Biotech Temptation

Editorial

There Is Room in the Inn

Balkanized by Music

The Profits of Praise

We Are What We Sing

One Church, Two Faiths

Integrating Mars and Venus

Coming to a Neighborhood Near You

Stuck on the Road to Emmaus

Escape from Fantasy Island

A Cracked Code

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