TIME MAGAZINE : " An Ancient Curse Kept Nigerian Women Bound to Sex Slavery. Now it’s Being Reversed"
Oluwatoyin Vincent Adepoju
From: TIME <TI...@email.time.com>
Date: 22 April 2018 at 20:36
Subject: An ancient curse kept Nigerian women bound to sex slavery. Now it’s being reversed
To: toyin....@gmail.com
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Salimonu Kadiri
This is old wine in a new bottle. In its edition of 13 September 1993, the Time Magazine wrote, "The dusty roads around Naples have been dotted with Nigerian prostitutes who beckon to motorists from clumps of bushes." The American Magazine quoted an Italian restaurant owner, one Vincenzo Caterini, complaining that, These Africans have destroyed our town and our livelihood. They live surrounded by trash. Their settlements breed rats. Everyone knows the women are whores." Almost twenty-five years later, the magazine is regaling us with the story of Benin prostitutes in Europe known to have begun in 1980s. In 1999 when Erediauwa was Oba (king) of Benin, the front page headline of the Nigerian Magazine, NEWSWATCH of 26 July 1999 was: SEX EXPORT, The Nigerian-Italian Connection with pictures of 74 newly deported Benin prostitutes from Italy. It was a nine page article to which the chief priest of the Oba of Benin, Nosakhare Isekhure, contributed. As it is now being stated in the Times magazine, back in 1999 the News-watch stated that Benin prostitute aspirants were forced to take oath of allegiance to their procurers which was prepared with the pubic hair, underwear, toe and finger nails of the prostitute aspirants. News-watch reporter, Mudiaga Ofuoku, wrote that he was told at the time that an average home in Benin had a minimum of two girls in Italy. Prostituting Benin girls, then in Italy, were said to be mostly based in Palermo, Torino, Venezia, Rome, Napoli, Milan, Florence Genova, Genoa, Padova and Verona. The News-watch reporter asked the Chief Priest, Nosakhare Isekhure, if Oba Erediauwa was worried about Benin girls prostituting in Italy when he addressed a cross section of his subjects in his palace on the matter? Chief Priest Nosakhare Isekhure gave multiple answers containing the following excerpts, "Let me give a little historical background to much of what I will say later. I happened to have schooled in the Italian part of Switzerland in my younger days and also afforded the opportunities of travelling to Italy. Italy then was very poor and the Italians had no jobs. But it's a surprise now that over the past years the Italian economy seems to have improved considerably in such a manner that they are even able to sustain this kind of *jobs. (*Jobs, meaning prostitution). ...//... Now, the Oba spoke and gave us the liberty to proffer a solution. So what do we do as a matter of immediate and long term solution? The chiefs, the parents and all the persons there were able to pour there minds out and concluded that the remote cause of our people leaving for Italy and other places in Europe is because there are no jobs (in Nigeria). As for the immediate solution, we decided that we must embark on an intensive public enlightenment. The parents must be told precisely the hazard of having their daughters sent abroad without the slightest knowledge of what they are going there to do." After the News-watch reporter had reminded the Chief Priest that the Oba said the ancestors would be enlisted to bring an end to the embarrassing trade (prostitution), he then asked, "How? Will the girls be cursed by the ancestors if they continue the trade?" As Chief Priest Isekhure was dancing around the questions the reporter interrupted him, "The question is : how will they (the ancestors) help now?" Isekhure answered, "We are praying that the ancestors should touch the souls of the girls, .... We pray the ancestors to touch their souls..."
From the above excerpts, Nosakhare Isekhure was indicated to have been Western educated in the Italian part of Switzerland and from his experience when he was there Italy was very poor with mass unemployment. Thus in 1999, he wondered how the Italian economy could suddenly develop to the extent of sustaining massive importation of Benin girls as prostitutes into Italy. Although he blamed the exodus of Benin girls as prostitutes abroad on lack of jobs in Nigeria, he failed to observe that not only the Benins were affected by lack of jobs but similarly affected other Nigerians did not turn pimps and sex hawkers abroad. His immediate solution to end the engagement of Benin girls in prostitution abroad was to embark on an intensive public enlightenment in addition to the Oba's enlistment of the ancestors to touch the souls of Benin prostitutes to stop the trade. It may interest readers to know that Solomon Aisiokhuoba Igbinoghodua Akenzua was a Permanent Secretary in one of the Federal Ministries before he became Oba Erediauwa of Benin in 1979. He was also Western educated like his Chief Priest, Nosakhare Isekhure. Yet their prescriptions for solving massive unemployment problems for Benin people in Nigeria was prayers to their dead ancestors and voodooism.
When the surge of armed robbers and kidnappers in the Southeast and South-south enveloped Edo State in 2010, the online Nigerian Guardian and Vanguard reported thus : In an attempt to weaken robbers and kidnappers the Oba of Benin, Erediauwa, marshalled out the traditional priests/priestesses of the African Cultures and traditions in his kingdom who gathered together at Urhokpota Hall in Benin to invoke curses on all those who either kidnap or aid kidnappers as well as armed robbers and their abetters. The Chief Priest of Benin Kingdom, Chief Nosakhare Isekhure, was quoted as saying, "The exercise is to protect our people's lives and property as well as the government. For us the traditionalists, we know when crimes are going to the extreme, the police and security agents cannot do anything. We have the power to invoke the gods of the land and that is what we are doing right now. It is always the last resort." The online media reported that Priests from Sango, Olokun, Aiyelala, Ashigidi. etcetera were all dressed in their ceremonial regalia. Sculptors, amulets, charms, talismans, gong etcetera were taken round Benin City and some were buried with live chickens and goats. The land of Benin was cursed orally against the men of the underground world from 10 to 12 June 2010. Did it work? In the early morning of 13 June 2010 armed robbers came calling in the middle of the night in Benin City to retrieve the buried chickens and goats. They waited until day-break when the banks opened to strike at one of the banks in the city, leaving two police men and three bank officials dead before carting away with money. Up till now, kidnappings and armed robberies are still very rampant in Benin just like other parts of Nigeria. The cause of kidnappings and armed robberies is also the cause of prostitution and voodoo illusion. www.vanguardngr.com/2013/06/spain-police-smash-nigerian-voodoo-prostitution-ring/
Skickat: den 22 april 2018 21:56
Till: usaafricadialogue
Ämne: USA Africa Dialogue Series - TIME MAGAZINE : " An Ancient Curse Kept Nigerian Women Bound to Sex Slavery. Now it’s Being Reversed"
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