Years before Juliana Dogbadzi was born, her grandfather was accused of stealing the equivalent of two dollars. When Juliana turned seven, her family chose her to atone for her now long-deceased grandfather’s crime. Replacing an older sister who had died, she went to live with a fetish priest. She worked in his fields, tended his house, and endured his repeated rapes. She was captive to Trokosi, or “slave wives of the gods,” a traditional Ghanaian practice that forces young girls to become sex and labor slaves in punishment for the alleged crimes of ancestors.

Trokosi, found primarily in the Volta region of Ghana, is based on the belief that, unless a young girl is given to a fetish shrine, family members will be cursed or even die. The girl becomes the property of the priest, who subjects her to physical, mental, and sexual abuse. When she becomes too old or dies, the family replaces her with another young girl. The atonement often continues for several generations until the fetish priest releases the family of its obligation. Although the constitution of Ghana outlaws slavery, superstition has continued to fuel the practice, and law enforcement officials have traditionally ignored what they have regarded as a spiritual affair.

After seventeen years of enslavement—and several failed attempts to escape—Juliana was finally able to flee with the help of International Needs, a nonprofit organization with a program for freed slaves. Rather than turning her back on her painful past, Juliana decided to devote her life to rescuing other girls and women from the same plight. Her testimony and public campaign contributed substantially to the passage of Ghanaian legislation that outlawed Trokosi in 1998. Since then, more than a thousand slaves have been freed from fifteen shrines. With an estimated 4,500 girls and women still enslaved, though, Juliana continues her fight.

Risking her life and the wrath of her family, Juliana returns regularly to fetish shrines to alert the priests to her campaign and to talk to slaves about their freedom. As she moves from shrine to shrine, one of Juliana’s most difficult tasks has been to convince the slaves that their freedom will not bring devastation to their families and that they will be able to learn to support themselves. Her best teaching tools have been her strength and conviction as a liberated slave.

In 2000, Juliana helped found Survivors for Change (SFC). An autonomous affiliate of International Needs Ghana, SFC is an organization of liberated women who have suffered the enslavement of Trokosi, bondage, and other forms of discrimination. Its founders are determined to fight the practices that abused them and to seek economic and social empowerment, not only for themselves, but also for the thousands of women still enslaved.