Eva Seraphim Tandoh Quansah

Trokosi is a customary practice that is predominant in the Volta Region of Ghana. Trokosi requires that virgin girls are sacrificed to atone for the crimes of their relatives, which are ‘deemed reprehensible by the gods’. Due to its seeming violation of human rights, aadvocacy groups continue to call for the abolishment of trokosi. Others also lobby for the liberation of such victims from various shrines. Liberating the victims is one step towards easing the woes of their predicament, i.e. servitude and oppression. What then appears to be less explored in trokosi narratives is the post-trokosi life of the victims. Therefore, drawing on data from fieldwork, I seek to tell the story of how trokosi victims experience life outside the walls of the shrine in order to demonstrate issues of stigmatization, trauma, rehabilitation, and reintegration in order to highlight the adverse impacts of trokosi on African societies.