Praise Song for the Butterflies, A Novel: Beverly L. McFadden, author
This novel takes place in a country called Ukemby. Americans once ruled this fictional African country, but with the election of a new African ruler, the Americans left, and the new ruler brought back the old ways, one of which was trokosi. Trokosi is the practice of bringing children to a shrine where they are left for a period of years to serve the needs of the priests who are representatives of their gods. This is done in order for the family to redeem the sins of their relatives that have brought misfortune’s hand down upon them. They hope that this sacrifice will cause fortune to once again smile on these families. Unwanted children are also brought there.
Abeo Kata was a happy child in Ukemby, until her grandfather died and her grandmother, who seemed to be the embodiment of ignorance and a desire to stay that way, came to live with her family. Abeo’s family were practicing Catholics, grandmother was not. Her religion was superstition. When Abeo’s father, Wasik, was doing well at work, all was right with the world. Their family was happy. However, when Wasik’s superior was accused of a crime, it implicated Wasik, as well, and defending himself brought them to ruin and bankruptcy. The grandmother, who came to live with them after the death of her husband, preyed on Wasik to sacrifice Abeo to the priests at the shrine. She believed it was the only way to bring about a reversal of fortune for the family. The sins of the relatives had to be redeemed. Against the wishes of Ismae, his wife, he brought Abeo to a shrine at the age of 9, and he left her there, deaf to her screams.
This book tells of the trials of Abeo once she was enslaved. She remained at the shrine for more than a decade, experiencing untold moments of suffering, terror and shame. The abuse was brutal. All of the children, some as young as four years, were poorly clothed in rags, basically starved and overworked. The girls were forced to submit to the unwanted advances of men shortly after their menses began. Some matured at very tender ages and had children by the age of 12. They had to care for the children and still work in the fields. They understood little of what was happening to them, although the older girls guided the younger ones. They, though, were not prepared or particularly well skilled having also been enslaved for years with no education or contact with the outside world. The experiences of Abeo and her hut mates were inhumane. Many wished to die. Some were murdered; some were maimed after brutal beatings. Escape was virtually impossible. They could not be freed when their term of indenture was over or when they could no longer serve the needs of the priests, because the families that left them often could not afford the price to buy them back. They were sometimes shunned because of what had happened to them, so it would not be a joyous reunion in many cases.
The story of Abeo’s servitude, rescue and redemption is powerful and is crying out to be read in order to shine a light on this atrocious behavior, only outlawed right before the turn of the 20th century, two years before the Millennium! Although this story does not take place in a real African country, the practice of ritual servitude still exists in parts of the Volta region of Africa (Ghana, Nigeria, Benin and Togo), even though it has been outlawed. The will to end it is simply not strong enough, and there are too many shrines to find them all. Many children remain in bondage until they are lucky enough to be rescued by various charitable organizations and humanitarian groups. The practice of trokosi used to involve the sacrifice of animals, but the priests appear to have decided that young girls, virgins, would be far better symbols of sacrifice. Some shrines were like brothels, according to the book, with the young girls forced to engage with multiple men brought there for their pleasure.
I won this book from Early Reviewers on Library Thing. From the first page, with an introduction about the history of this fictional country in Africa, I was immediately inspired to look up further information on this heinous practice of trokosi and was shocked to find out it is still in existence. The information was both enlightening and frightening. The novel tells the story of the nightmarish existence for these young girls who fell prey to the foolish superstitions of their parents, but unbelievably, in the real world of Africa, children are still slaves of the priests.
How could I have never before heard of such an atrocious practice as ritual servitude? Why isn’t the black community in an uproar about this continuing abuse? How is it possible that there is hardly a mention of it by women’s rights groups, the NAACP, and other prominent humanitarian groups at the United Nations? I am outraged because so many people work in Africa building schools, fighting disease, proselytizing, but no one seems to be publicizing this shameful behavior or emphasizing the need to provide resources to free these children from captivity and a system of the worst kind of organized abuse in whatever places it still exists.

These websites will provide further information.
https://womeninthewindow-intl.org/trokosi-slave-girls-west-africa/
http://internationalneedsgh.org/gh/?page_id=1989

Quite harrowing! This may be a painful and difficult read for some readers. The novel exposes how far a parent will go erase a stream of life misfortunes (bad luck). Let’s agree that enslavement is never a solution.