Tuesday, April 12, 2011
Sexual slavery in Edo State
This woman is almost certainly Nigerian, and just as certainly, she is likely to be from Edo State. She was photographed having sex just off the Ramblas in Barcelona. To most tourists who visit, the Ramblas is perhaps the most beautiful shopping street in Europe. To her, it is degrading servitude. As we know from the Channel 4 documentary Unreported World (see the previous post), she was probably forced to take a juju oath, which ensures she spends years and years as a prostitute in Europe paying off 50,000 Euros or more, in utter fear of the consequences of running away.It seems there is a conspiracy of silence around this contemporary form of slavery in Edo State. Its not hard to imagine why: the remittances keep flowing in, with 40,000 or more Bini prostitutes in Mali and perhaps the same number (or a lot more) again in Europe. We know this is going on. We know it is causing enormous suffering. A lot of the girls imagine that they will only have to be prostitutes for a few months, and persuade themselves that they will find other work as a hairdresser etc. It is only when they arrive in Europe and their Madam tells them the terms of the job that they realise their life is effectively over.
Its long since time that a full-on campaign to challenge sex trafficking in Edo State began with civil society groups joining forces with the Edo State government and NAPTIP. Their may need to be punitive state-specific legislation passed.
We are all allowing this to happen, by looking the other way and dismissing Benin women as promiscuous and enthusiastic to do the work anyway. We were in denial in Germany, 70 years ago, just as we are in denial today.
via naijablog.co.uk
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Reporter Jenny Kleeman and director James Jones travel from Italy to Africa to reveal how human traffickers are using black magic to coerce and trap Nigerian women into a life of prostitution in Europe.
Women are made to swear an oath of loyalty to their traffickers in an elaborate ritual that compels them to pay back extortionate sums of money. If they ever break free or report their traffickers, they believe they will be cursed.
The team begins their journey in northern Italy. As many as 20,000 Nigerian women work as prostitutes on Italy's streets.
They meet Rita, who tells Kleeman she sleeps with up to 10 men a day, seven days a week, for 20 euros a time. After five years of prostitution, Rita still hasn't paid off the 50,000 Euro debt she owes her traffickers. She is also forced to pay them 300 Euros a month in 'rent' to solicit from her particular patch of pavement beside a highway.
Rita says customers had beaten her badly in the past but she has no choice but to continue working on the streets. She tells Kleeman she has sworn to repay the debt to her traffickers in a traditional West African religious ritual which she calls 'juju'. She fears she and her family will die or go mad if she incurs the wrath of the spirits by breaking her oath.
The Unreported World team flies to the southern Nigerian state of Edo, where 80 per cent of Nigerians trafficked into Europe begin their journey. In the village of Ewhoini they learn that almost every family has a relative abroad.
Kleeman and Jones meet Elonel, who tells them that he earns money by helping traffic women from here to work for his sister in Italy. Elonel introduces Kleeman to a woman who's about to make the trip.
Vivian, 23, used to make her living selling tomatoes at the local market. She tells Kleeman that there are no jobs in her town so she has decided to go to Europe to earn money to take care of her brothers and sisters at home. She knows she will have to pay her traffickers back, and that she might have to work as a prostitute to do it at first, but has no idea how much they will ask for.
Vivian says that Elonel is her boyfriend. He's made all the travel plans for her and has booked her in to see a juju priest. She believes the juju ceremony will bring her luck, but she will also swear an oath of loyalty to Elonel and his sister during the ritual that will ensure they get paid whatever sum they ask of her.
Elonel tells Kleeman that he doesn't feel at all guilty about sending his girlfriend to a life of prostitution as he simply needs the money.
The team are given rare access to film the juju ceremony. The juju priest, 'Dr' Stanley, marks Vivian's body and makes her kneel at his shrine as she swears her oath. He claims he has the power to give women cancer if they break the promises they make before him.
For those like Vivian who believe in juju, there's no way of hiding from the spirits. Dr Stanley tells Kleeman that countless others have sworn oaths of loyalty to different traffickers at his shrine.
Getting women to give evidence against their traffickers is a serious challenge because of the conspiracy of silence created by the ritual. The team joins the government's anti-trafficking agency as they conduct a special juju ceremony to free a repatriated victim from her oath.
Before Vivian leaves Nigeria, Kleeman has a final opportunity to warn her about the reality of life on Italy's streets. When Kleeman tells her she'll be working for years as a prostitute to pay off an extortionate sum, Vivian doesn't believe her.
Her determination to improve her life has made it easy for traffickers to exploit her, and the juju oath has made it impossible for her to change her mind.
Watch now on 4oD