"Child Witches": Sexual Exploitation and Abuse of Homeless Girls in South-Southern Nigeria (original) (raw)
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The Religio – Cultural Context of Girl-Child Trafficking in Nigeria
Review of European Studies, 2014
Trafficking in persons (TIP) is recorded to be the second greatest money-spinner the world over after arms trafficking. Human Trafficking is one of the thriving illegal businesses in Nigeria today. It entails all forms of sexual exploitation, abuse and forced labour. Girl-child trafficking in particular is a common phenomenon in Nigeria. Nigerian girls are being trafficked to Italy, Mali, Libya, Morocco, and other countries in droves, for prostitution. The major factor responsible for this crime in Nigeria is poverty coupled with weak enforcement of the Child Right Act, ignorance, greed, illiteracy, collapse of family values and increase in violence against women. The study attempts to investigate the experiences of some of the victims of Trafficking who have returned to Nigerian and have since been reunited with their families as reported in the various daily newspapers and magazine. It also attempts to look into how the dignity and rights of the girl-child can be established through proper education and reorientation of both parents and children. There is need to protect the interests of the girl-child and promote their rights through public awareness and proper education.
Child Abuse and Prostitution Phenomena: Critical Issues in Nigeria's Sustainable Development
Public Health Journal, 2015
It needs not be gainsaid that the reality of the issues of child abuse and prostitution are irrefutable phenomena in Nigeria as in many developing and developed nations of the world as studies have shown. This development has become such a worrisome menace which besides negating the fundamental rights and dignity of the child as endorsed by the UN Convention on the Rights of the Child in 1989 also has diverse associated implications. The concern generated by this development is predicated on the consciousness of the significant position of children in the family and society as the future generation, leaders of tomorrow and potential flag-bearers of any nation, who need to be properly cared for and nurtured and as such provided the enabling environment to develop their potentials for such enormous responsibilities. Hence, the abuse and exposure of a child to prostitution has devastating consequences for both the individual child and the society at large; and undermining such consequences can result in serious far-reaching problems not just to the individual but the larger society. Although a number of factors may be adduced as accounting for this sordid development, which manifests in diverse peculiar dimensions as shall be highlighted in the course of the study, other vital concerns that equally provoke serious consideration include the increasing prevalence of the phenomena; the seeming apathy or insensibility of the society over their devastating consequences, as well as the urgent steps that need to be taken or accelerated to tackle the ugly development. To address the foregoing, the study shall critically examine these phenomena as to provide a proper platform to understand the dimensional intricacies of the issues involved and as such raise our consciousness on the urgent necessity to forge a common bond against the insidious threat posed by the phenomena.
Benin City, the headquarters of Edo State, is known to have one of the highest rates of international sex trafficking of young women in Nigeria. This study was designed to determine the knowledge, attitudes and experiences of young women in Benin City, towards international sex trafficking. A random household sample of 1456 women aged 15–25 years was interviewed with a structured questionnaire that elicited information on women’s experiences of, and attitudes towards international sex trafficking. The results indicate that 97.4% of the women have heard of international sex trafficking; 70% had female relatives who lived in the receiving countries of Italy, Spain, and the Netherlands; while 44.0% knew of someone who was currently engaged in sex work abroad. Up to 32% of the women reported that they had been approached by someone offering to assist them to travel abroad. Women of poorer socioeconomic status (being out-of-school, unemployed, parents uneducated and unemployed) were more likely to report having been offered assistance to travel abroad. Up to 81.5% of the women supported the notion that sex trafficking should be stopped, while 18.5% felt it should be allowed to continue. The perception that sex trafficking leads to wealth creation and economic gains for women was the most common reason proffered by those wanting the practice to continue. By contrast, the fear of adverse health consequences and the need to maintain social and religious morals were the reasons given by those wanting the practice to discontinue. These results suggest that programs that promote the economic well being of women, and social advocacy focusing on harm reduction will be most helpful in reducing the rate of sex trafficking in Benin City.
Girl-Child Sexual Abuse as a Public Health issue in Accra Ghana Ahmeda Mansaray MPH Thesis
The Construction of Childhood Sexual Abuse as a Public Health issue in Accra, Ghana. Ahmeda Mansaray MPH Thesis, 2008
Girl-Child Sexual Abuse (CSA) constitutes an alarming social phenomenon. Heavily influenced by social and cultural factors, CSA is understood and dealt with differently by different societies. Ultimately, survivors are left to bear the indelible consequences of the abuse. The impact of this traumatic experience on their health and subsequent quality of life is well documented. These health effects range from the immediate physical scars to long-term psychosocial, emotional and physical problems (Finkelhor, 1993). Unfortunately, the dearth of research seeking to illuminate the socio-cultural context within which CSA flourishes, has led to the creation of CSA prevention and response systems that are inadequate and ineffective in many parts of the world. In Ghana, recent statistics indicate 1 in 3 young women in Ghana experience CSA before the age of 18 (Appiah & Cusack, 1999). This constitutes an urgent public health concern, and it is for this reason this study was conceived. Using semi-structured interviews with 10 survivors and 16 key informants in Accra, this study sought to document the current understanding of CSA in Ghana, the perceived reasons for its occurrence and to make recommendations on how to deal with its root causes and its effects on the society. I argue that an analysis of cultural key elaborating scenarios (Ortner, 1975) expressed through the Ghanaian concepts of “defilement” and “respect” illuminates societal rituals creating girl children’s vulnerability to CSA. Societal norms constituting these scenarios include: the continuance of a patriarchal tradition that overlooks men’s aberrant sexual behavior; children’s strong socialization to deference to adult instruction; easy access on the part of potential perpetrators girl-children due to girls’ socialized role as helper in the home; historic cultural rituals that emphasize female virginity at marriage as essential to family dignity; and, sexual inhibition emphasized for women. Altogether, these societal norms create an environment where the girl-child is extremely vulnerable to CSA and, subsequent to the abuse re-victimized by the stigma attached to her as the one who has brought disgrace on her family by virtue of her defloration outside of marriage. Additionally, the key metaphor of “worry” used by study participants in relation to the health effects of CSA illuminates the perceptions surrounding the depth of the effects of CSA on the survivor. Both survivors and key informants in the study recommended a re-examination of the socialization process that creates these key scenarios and the re-structuring of a response system centered around the survivors’ dignity and healing.
Interrogating the Causes, Effects and Societal Responses to Rape and Child-Defilement in Nigeria
Interdisciplinary Journal of Rural and Community Studies, 2021
Nigeria’s social landscape has been inundated by an alarming spate of rape and child defilement cases, so much more that there is hardly a week without media reports of rape in the country. Records released by the Nigeria Police Force shows that a total of seven hundred and seventeen cases of rape and child defilement were recorded in the first five months of the year 2020. More alarming is the defilement of minors and underage children by adults. The foregoing raises concerns and the need to interrogate the causes of alarming cases of rape and defilement of minors in Nigeria. The mixed methods research approach was adopted to generate both primary and secondary data. For the primary data, an online questionnaire was designed and administered to a total of two hundred and nine Nigerians across various sectors and regions of the country. Besides, six (6) key informants, each from the Ministry of Women, Legal Department, National Human Rights Commission, NGO, religious leader and medi...
Global Scientific, 2020
The pervasiveness of the child sexual abuse for monetary and spiritual rituals is a critical concern in the contemporary world and Nigeria is a hard hit on it. Money ritual for quick wealth in Nigeria traditionally refers to an untenable situation whereby someone is intentionally murdered for ritual purposes. This is to enable them to typically acquire swift wealth, considerable power, self-protection, and enduring fame. Regrettably, observable shreds of evidence about the child sexual molestation for money-makings remain ambiguous. It has not been conveying the seriousness it deserves but rather, has been deliberately ignored because of cultural practices and belief systems within different socio-cultural societies in Nigeria. As a result, victims of sexual abuse are not courageous to report their experiences. This is because they are afraid of stigmatization and the threat of abuser on their consciousness. It is against this background that this paper argues that the supposed correlates of the child sexual assault for money ritual in Nigeria constitute a setback for national sustainable development. Therefore, the inclination towards sexual abuse of minors must be directly addressed to safeguard the life of children from the devastating effects.
African Population Studies, 2014
This paper examines the lived experience of street children and other stakeholders' perceptions in three urban cities (Lagos, Kaduna and Port Harcourt) in Nigeria. The study used quantitative and qualitative methods to explore the perspectives of five major stakeholders: Government Agencies, Civil Society Organizations, the Community, Non-Governmental Organizations (NGOs) and street children themselves. The findings revealed that street children are perceived to be perpetrators as well as victims of crime. They are exploited, abused and used as drug mules, pressed into commercial sex, and manipulated or bribed into the fire-bombings and violence in Nigeria. While some stakeholders urge increased protection of child rights, others canvassed for "eradication" of the street children. There is therefore the need for more pragmatic steps by the Nigerian government and civil society to address the conditions faced by street children in order to address the security problems and the fundamental human rights of the children.
The Nigerian Girl-Child and Sexual Abuse The Plight of Victims in Bayelsa State Nigeria
International Journal of Gender and Women‟s Studies, 2019
his study examined the effect of child sexual abuse on children in Yenagoa Local Government Area, Bayelsa State. Relevant literatures that deal on child sexual abuse were reviewed. Three research questions guided the study. Survey and semi-structured interview were the research design employed. Sample size for the study was 200 sexually abused children drawn from the ages between 0 - 17 years from Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa State. Yenagoa Local Government Area of Bayelsa was selected as the site of the research as a result of the recent high prevalence of girl-child sexual abuse in the selected location. Research findings showed that 92 (46.0%) of the respondents agreed that bad parenting played a major factor responsible for child sexual abuse in Yenagoa Local Government Area, Bayelsa State, that 94 (47.0%) believed vaginal bleeding to be one of the consequences. The study also revealed that 104 (52.0%) of the respondents agreed that sexual abuse can be prevented thro...