Oba of Benin places curse on sex trafficking gangs
NIGERIA: In the world of African witchcraft, he is a god incarnate, a real-life king of magic whose every word is law. For more than 800 years, the Oba of Benin, whose monarchy once practised human sacrifice, has reigned as one of west Africa’s most powerful juju authorities.
Now, the throne’s latest ascendant has turned his powers to the temporal realm and placed a curse on trafficking gangs that send women to Europe.
Oba Ewuare II, whose kingdom lies in what is today southern Nigeria, has stepped in after concerns that his capital, Benin City, has become west Africa’s biggest hub for prostitutes trafficked to Europe.
Key to the trade are groups of local witch doctors, who frighten trafficked women into compliance by making them swear oaths to juju gods.
Last month, at the behest of Nigerian police, the Oba agreed to fight fire with fire, summoning more than 500 juju priests to his palace and warning of divine vengeance if they carried on involvement in sex trafficking.
‘‘Whoever does it from today will face the wrath of our ancestors,’’ he declared, as redrobed courtiers at his palace carried out sacrifices to enforce his curse. ‘‘Your power is to fight for the progress of Benin kingdom, and not to be used for the destruction of our young people.’’
The Oba’s intervention – a witchcraft equivalent of a papal decree – makes him an unlikely ally of British Prime Minister Theresa May, who has made fighting transnational sex slavery a personal crusade. In 2016, she earmarked £35 million of Britain’s aid budget to tackle the problem, with £5m earmarked for Nigeria.
Benin City, in southern Nigeria, has long been the centre of the trade. Britain’s Anti-slavery Commission estimates that up to 90 per cent of the 30,000 African women trafficked to work in brothels in Europe over the past two decades come from Benin City or the surrounding Edo state. Most travel across the Sahara Desert to Libya, then over the Mediterranean Sea in people-smuggling boats.
Trafficked women are typically duped in advance into thinking they will work in a shop or hair salon in Europe, and that to pay for their passage they must swear an oath of obedience at a local juju shrine.
When they are told, upon arrival in Europe, that they will be working in a brothel, they are warned that if they try to run away, they will evoke a deadly curse. With belief in witchcraft widespread in Benin City, the threat is as effective as employing a pimp to watch their every move.
While most trafficked women from Edo state end up in Italy, some have surfaced in Britain. In 2013, a Benin City girl who ended up in a brothel in Birmingham told investigators that before her journey, she was bathed in goat blood, and was warned that if she ever spoke of the ritual, a thunderbolt would strike her dead.
Nduka Nwawennee, the Benin City commander for Nigeria’s National Agency for the Prohibition of Trafficking in Persons, welcomed the Oba’s intervention.
He said Benin City’s links to the sex trade began in the late 1980s, when a group of women went as traders to Italy and found they could make more money as prostitutes. When they came back prosperous, others followed.
Today, the city has a large redlight area of its own, and according to some local estimates, one in three women there have been approached by sex traffickers.
A 29-year-old girl who accepted their offer told how the traffickers took her to a shrine to swear an oath. They told her that if she did not pay back the money loaned to her, the juju god Shango would inflict a fatal sickness on her. Once in Italy, she was forced to work in a brothel until she was able to flee with the help of a local pastor.
Now back in Benin City, the woman said: ‘‘The Oba’s curse is a good idea. It will scare the juju priests from working with the traffickers, and stop other girls being tricked.’’
Nwawennee added: ‘‘The Oba has pronounced that any juju priest that sees the face of the Sun or walks on the ground will face punishment by the ancestors if they continue to administer oaths. We are already seeing the benefits: a lot of the juju priests are scared.’’
– Telegraph Group