Voodoo Curse Helps Keep Women in Prostitution

"'The girl is taken to a shrine or a cemetery in the middle of the night, her finger nails are cut off, her pubic hair is shaved, a menstrual pad containing her blood is taken away, and then a piece of her clothing is removed,' he said"

Sounds like the beginning of a horror story, worthy of a Stephen King novel, doesn't it? It isn't. In Madrid Spain, police broke up a smuggling ring of human traffickers during the last week in May, 2009. As the result of a sting operation, prompted by a complaint by a woman in Seville, 23 arrests were made. This is not the first time arrests of this sort have occurred. The woman in Seville made the initial complaint, about her victimization in February, 2009.

The horrid 'voodoo curse' continues, if you reveal the captors names, your "soul will be destroyed and you will go crazy". These are some of the statements that coerced Nigerian girls into prostitution. If their families were living, additional threats were made.

In some cases, the human traffickers lured their victims in with traps with promises of a better life in Europe; other girls were kidnapped or "loving" families assisted in this "recruitment". In the end, they are brought before a voodoo priest prior to their departure.

Scared, handled roughly, stripped naked and traumatized into submission on the grave of their ancestors, the girl's last vestiges of hope and freedom are shredded. Packed into boats, as the slaves from Africa have been in the past, they are summarily sent to Europe and forced into prostitution. Once in Spain the girls are total that they must repay the debt for their inhospitable travel conditions of approximately $68,000 dollars or the curses of the voodoo spirits will befall them or their family.

Since the New York Times broke the story, rocks have been thrown at the religion, voodoo. There is criticism of various governments involved in the incident, the ignorance of Nigerians, and the victims. There is a You Tube Video of The Young Turk on this subject. Perhaps you should watch it to form your own opinion on the subject.

Although not a practitioner of voodoo (juju), nor claiming to fully understand it, the religion is not at fault. The priest threatening the curse is the guilty party, as guilty as priests in our country, who turn the other way when fellow priests molest.

The assumption that is made in the video, shown on You Tube, is that it is only the Voodoo curse that hold these women (and are persons of this age women?) in captivity. Orakwue Arinze, a spokesman for the Nigerian National Agency for Prohibition of Traffic in Persons (NAPTIP) alludes in her opinion in an interview with the BBC it is the strength of the ritual that helps keep the girls in the brothels.

The curse is but a small part of the bigger picture. It is easy to point at the curse as the convenient answer, which keep the girls from running. It is easier to look there, then it is to look at the larger global issue of sexual abuse.
Who wants to look at the deeper issues, to the damage done to the psyches of victims of sexual abuse. Once abused, survivors of abuse will never look at the world or themselves in the same way; their world views are forever altered.

Young unsuspecting naïve girls fall prey to these traffickers. The kids in Nigeria get caught in a web of deceit; just as in the US, kids become victims of internet stalkers. The age ranges are basically the same, ages 12 -18. It is the promise of something new and exciting that may lure the unsuspecting victims. In Nigeria or the US, it's still the same. These kids didn't ask for this; they were tricked; once caught they didn't know how best to escape.

Imagine your child in the situation of having been kidnapped, already sexually assaulted, in a foreign land, not having full grasp of the language, not knowing who to trust, dependent on others for food, clothing, shelter, and illegally the country. Add to this the stigma of being a prostitute, an outcast of society. Add to this the fact that your child thinks that they deserve it because they gave their consent under duress, for if they did not "something bad would happen to your family". Most teens in this country, when treated this way, would have been hard pressed to escape when given the chance.

Now picture the young Nigerian in a similar situation. Add the ritual abuse, with the religious aspect. Being stripped, the shaving of the pubic hair, the use of the menstrual pad, these items were used in a religious ritual with the girls to invoke shame. Shame is a powerful imprisoning tool in the hands of a captor.

The issue of not escaping had more to do with being sexually abused than it did with the religious curse. Yes, the religious aspect adds to the mind control. Yes, what happened to those girls was a form of ritual and religious abuse.

Education is needed. It is needed in large measure. Education is needed across the globe in order that each individual is free from sexual abuse. Education is needed before another person is enslaved. Perhaps before another person spews forth information concerning sexual abuse and human trafficking of persons, they themselves become educated on the devastating toll this takes and what it took for these people to make it through each day. They also need to know what happens to a victim when they are in the hands of a kidnapper.

Education isn't enough; "The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing." What have you done today?

This is the first in a series of articles (number yet to be determined) on sexual abuse.

Source:

Edmund Burke's famed quote (1729-1797)
http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/low/europe/8063205.stm