Juliana Dogbadzi is a Ghanaian human rights activist who has received the Reebok Human Rights Award.

Dogbadzi is a former victim of Trokosi who now campaigns against this secular practice that sends young women into forced labor, redeem the sins of their relatives.[1][2][3]

Juliana Dogbadzi was held for 17 years in Trokosi in Ghana and was physically, mentally and sexually abused until she escaped from the camp at the age of 23.[4]

She established a non-profit organization, International Needs Ghana, that works for the release of Trokosi victims. [5][6][7]

Biography

When Dogbadzi was seven years old, her parents abandoned her at a Trokosi shrine[8] to pay for the theft committed by her grandfather. The Trokosi followers told her that her involuntary servitude would stop a string of misfortunes from befalling her family. Dogbadzi served under conditions of slavery for about 17 years. During this time, she was starved, overworked, beaten and prevented from attending school. Around age 12, she was raped by the 90-year-old fetish priest who was the father of her first child.[9][10]

At age 25, Dogbadzi escaped Trokosi and started a campaign to fight against them, spurring a national debate in Ghana.[11]

Dogbadzi established International Needs Ghana, which has freed over 1,000 women from Trokosi custody[12] at 15 shrines.[10]

In 1999, she received the Reebok Human Rights Award.[13]

One of the girls her charity helped to be released was Brigitte Sossou Perenyi who was adopted by an American and went on to also campaign and to be named one of the BBC's 100 Women in 2018.[14]

References

  1. ↑ Gorce, Tammy La (2014-09-19). "The Gandhis and Kings of Our Time". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 2019-10-03.
  2. ↑ "A Time for Heroes". PEOPLE. Retrieved 2019-10-03.
  3. ↑ "Camera Works: Truth to Power". Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-10-03.
  4. ↑ "Juliana Dogbadzi | Speak Truth to Power". Retrieved 2022-03-25.
  5. ↑ "Religious Sex Slavery Endures in West African Nations, Associated Press, carried in Arizona Daily Star, Arizona Daily Star [Ghana], July 1, 2007". bishop-accountability. Retrieved 2019-10-03.
  6. ↑ "Speak Truth to Power". Washington Post. Retrieved 2019-10-03.
  7. ↑ "Juliana Honorary Planetary Citizen of the Month". gccalliance.org. Archived from the original on 2019-10-03. Retrieved 2019-10-03.
  8. ↑ "'Wife of the Gods' Stirs Up Ghana". Los Angeles Times. 24 June 1999. Retrieved 2019-10-03.
  9. ↑ Namibian, The. "Former shrine slave fights entrenched traditional practice". The Namibian. Retrieved 2019-10-03.
  10. 1 2 "UDHR - Heroes". universalrights. Retrieved 2019-10-03.
  11. ↑ Simmons, Ann M.; Times, Los Angeles (1999-07-10). "Ghana Fights to End Child Slavery Practice / A girl is given to a priest as 'wife of the gods'". SFGate. Retrieved 2019-10-03.
  12. ↑ EDT, Newsweek Staff On 4/4/99 at 8:00 PM (4 April 1999). "After A Life Of Slavery". Newsweek. Retrieved 2019-10-03.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: numeric names: authors list (link)
  13. ↑ Staff, C. C. P. "Some Cultural Factors for Nondisclosure of Child Sexual Abuse in Ghana – CCP". Archived from the original on 2019-10-03. Retrieved 2019-10-03.
  14. ↑ kata. "Brigitte Sossou Perenyi". The Forgiveness Project. Retrieved 2022-12-11.
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