November 1, 2003 A centuries-old practice of ritual slavery was the focus of my recent trip to Ghana. Trokosi, literally "wife of the gods" or "slave of the gods," is a penalty imposed on families whose members have committed crimes or which have been hit by a series of unfortunate events. These families must offer their adolescent or preadolescent daughters to serve for priests to atone their sins. Girls are separated from their families and live with priests at shrines. In addition to various kinds of backbreaking labor forced upon them, one of their main duties is to perform sexual services for the priests. In the 1980s, the International Needs Ghana (ING), an NGO, started a campaign to end Trokosi, calling attention to the human rights abuse against socially vulnerable women in Ghana and the misery caused by the horrible tradition. In 1997, about 600 Trokosi women nationwide were liberated from the servitude as a result. There are signs, however, that the indigenous belief in Trokosi is still alive. Kebeni in Adidome , Volta Region, is a village about 100 kilometers east of the capital city of Accra. At a glance, there is nothing extraordinary about this African village. Standing in its residential area, however, are statues shaped like male and female sex organs, and there are two priests still living this tradition. One of the priests, a 97-year-old man with two wives, believes he was "called by God to become a priest." The other, 42-year-old priest is concerned about the negative perception of Trokosi. "Please don't think of it as a vice," he pleads. Their cooperative attitudes toward our interviews may reflect their willingness to adjust to modern society while preserving the old custom. There is an ING-sponsored vocational school nearby where women learn sewing, haircutting, cake making, soap making and dyeing over a few months for free. Medical checkups are also provided to the women. Of the school's 103 students, seven women were actually rescued from Trokosi slavery. A 50-year-old woman said she was taken to a priest at the age between 8 and 10 and forced to work on fields for 5 years. Sexual services were also demanded. "I couldn't even see my parents. Those were unhappy days." (Published in EMERGENCY NURSING, November 2003 issue)