On October 23, 2018, I addressed a stakeholders meeting, the Academy of Nations ,
in Munich in Germany . This meeting brought
together representatives of the police and the regional government, social
workers, religious organisations, and other governmental and nongovernmental
agencies. They discussed the issue of human trafficking and forced prostitution
in the region. Some of the victims were Nigerian women. I made a ten-minute
speech that included a short video.
And here is what I said:
Thank you Georg Falterbaum and Mattarei Norma
for the invitation to address this important meeting on human trafficking. And
thank you, the Bavarian government for the commitment to tackling the problem
of human trafficking and forced prostitution. Trafficking in human beings has
been described as a form of modern-day slavery in our contemporary world. So,
it is important to use occasions such as this to have an open and frank
discussion on this issue and to explore ways of eradicating it.
At this point I played a short CNN video clip,
The Paris park where trafficked women sell their bodies. The report highlighted
the case of Nigerian women who were trafficked and forced into prostitution in “Imagine you taking an oath, you lie down insider a casket or coffin”, Nadesh said. “Which means if you break the rules, you will now come back to this coffin”. “It is so powerful”. She added. The report further noted that the women were physically branded with scars that were used to identify them back in
After the CNN report, I continued with my
presentation:
I come from Nigeria . And as you can see, my
country is internationally linked to the problem of human trafficking and
forced prostitution in Europe . According to a
CNN report, the number of Nigerian women who arrive in Italy through
the desert and end up in forced prostitution has continued to increase. The
number has risen from 1,317
in 2011 to 11, 009 in 2018. In Nigeria, the issue of human
trafficking has worried and embarrassed the government at all levels especially
when reports and documentaries are published revealing the horrific abuses of
victims, tracing the routes of human trafficking to states and cities in Nigeria.
I have contributed to local debates and efforts to understand the issue of
human trafficking and forced prostitution especially the alleged link to local
religious and occult beliefs. If we must get to the root of this problem, some
urgent questions need to be asked and be properly addressed. First, what kind
of document do trafficked women use to enter Europe ?
Do they all come in through the Sahara desert?
Even if they do, who stamps them in and as what? Do some of them arrive as
visitors, tourists or refugees? If yes, who issues them visas and for what
purpose? When do these women become victims of human trafficking and forced
prostitution? Is it at the point of entry? Or when they are caught by the
police? Since commercial sex work is allowed by law, at least in Germany , is the
problem linked to the lack of documents to legally work in the sex industry?
There have been several reports that have
associated forced prostitution by Nigerian women with the traditional belief in
juju. I told the audience in very clear terms that, from my own point of view
as a Nigerian, this much-publicized connection was baseless, senseless and
absurd.
As a women’s rights activist fromNorthern Nigeria
rightly noted: “There is no juju. The people who are trafficked know that too.
Many of them want to travel to Europe and
willingly partake in prostitution”.
As a women’s rights activist from
Unfortunately, many western individuals and
organizations that are working and campaigning to combat human trafficking and
forced prostitution do not agree with this. They seem to be fascinated by the
juju scare narrative. They find it useful not only because it fits into the
stereotypic notion of Africans as childish in thinking, fetish and magically
minded, it gives them a special job of managing this ‘people’ and their
peculiar problems.
Some European anti-human trafficking campaigners have continued to peddle and valorize the Nigerian juju connection as if that is the main reason why Nigerian women are trapped in forced prostitution. They have refused to pay critical attention to the underlying socioeconomic reasons that force Nigerian women to travel thousands of miles to prostitute inEurope . Indeed some western campaigners think that it is
insensitive not to acknowledge the powerful hold of the juju fears on the minds
of these women.
Some European anti-human trafficking campaigners have continued to peddle and valorize the Nigerian juju connection as if that is the main reason why Nigerian women are trapped in forced prostitution. They have refused to pay critical attention to the underlying socioeconomic reasons that force Nigerian women to travel thousands of miles to prostitute in
Definitely, the role of the Nigerian juju
narrative in human trafficking must be acknowledged for what it is - a useful
device to secure asylum and support that would otherwise, have been denied.
Many Nigerian prostitutes come into Europe as
illegal immigrants and they live in constant fear of deportation.
So Nigerian women who fear returning to Nigeria have
other reasons than the juju or the oath that they claimed to have taken.
Look, no one denies the fact that human traffickers deceive and promise their
victims a better life in Europe . Again, it is
not disputed that those who are trafficked are exploited, raped and sold into
sexual slavery or that victims of human trafficking and forced prostitution
need support and assistance. But to attribute their unfortunate situation,
their entrapment in forced prostitution to fear of powerful Nigerian juju is
pure hogwash.
Senior, most often than not, those involved in this shameful act know what they are getting into. In fact, some of them have been in it at amateur level before being spotted by or connected to scouts.
ReplyDeleteIn the course of preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ and interacting with people who have direct dealings with Prostitutes in the streets of Ghana, I submit that greed (or covetousness) rather than the fear of juju is to blame. Other factors to be quickly pointed at are illiteracy and poverty, both of which are linked to bad governance.
For two days now, the Police in Tarkwa (in the Western part of Ghana) has been rounding Nigerian prostitutes up. Within this period, about 50 Nigerians aged 14-55 were whisked away from a popular hideout. Those familiar with the area said this figure is a quarter of the estimated number of Nigerians in that concentration. I saw about 8 others scampering through indegenes as they fled from the Police without the items they had acquired through devaluing their lives. Similar incidents have been recorded in some other parts of Ghana and the matter is worst at the nation's Capital, Accra.