What does trokosi mean?
Trokosi comes from the tribal Ewe (say Ay-vay) language and means “wives of the gods.” The girls are considered to be wives of the idol god who is venerated at the shrine. In practical terms they are concubines and slaves of the priests of those shrines. Are trokosi called by other names? Many! The most common are fiashidi, fetish slaves, or shrine slaves. Ghanaian law refers to the practice as “ritual or customary servitude.” The Anti-Slavery Society refers to trokosi as “hierodulic” slaves because they combine the roles of an agricultural slave, domestic, temple and sex slaves. In French-speaking West African countries the practice is called “vaudounsi” with a variety of spellings–voodoosi, voudounsi, vudusi, vodounsi, vudusi,etc. The differences in spelling represent different attempts of English speakers to approximate French sounds in their language. The word “vodoun” means an idol “god” in the Fon language of Benin, the birthplace of the voodoo religion. That is, vodoun speaks o
