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Page: Profile: Wren's Nest News Local
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Article: 17691
[Religious]
Date Posted:
4/20/2007
8:36:17 am EDT
Wvox Stats
Views: 6,371
RSS: 19,889
Comments: 4
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Former Shrine Slave Fights Entrenched Traditional Practice
Author: Michelle Faul Source: The Namibian (Africa)
Title: FORMER SHRINE SLAVE FIGHTS ENTRENCHED TRADITIONAL PRACTICE
It started before dawn, waking to the dull ache of hunger.
Then the ritual sweeping of the shrine before a day in the fields.
And it went on after dark, with the fetish priest forcing her to join him in his bed.
"They say we are priestesses, divinely honored to be called to serve the gods as wives, but for us it just means suffering and pain," said Juliana Dogbadzi, who was about seven years old when her family sent her to a shrine to atone for the sins of a great-grandfather long dead.
After nearly 20 years of physical, mental and sexual abuse, with two children born of rape and the scars from beatings for previous escape attempts, Dogbadzi finally got away.
She now is part of a campaign to end a practice born of centuries of West African beliefs and found in several other African countries.
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Community Thoughts: There are 4 comments posted | Reverse Sort |
| Just One More Example | Apr 21st. at 1:19:06 am EDT
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arinna (Kill Devil Hills, North Carolina) - Email Me
of an authoritarian priesthood that enriches itself at the expense of it's people. Just like governments, religions suffer from the maxim that absolute power corrupts absolutely. Whenever you let someone else speak to the Gods for you, beware of self serving mistranslations.
I am grateful for the wisdom of our modern pagan paths that focus on a personal and individual connection to the Gods or nature or whatever inspires the divinity within each of us instead of blind obedience to authority figures and dogmatic traditions. May we always stay true to that vision. And may this brave woman succeed in her quest to bring that same freedom to her own people.
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| Cheers | Apr 20th. at 11:28:34 am EDT
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Arachne Priestess (Cookeville, Tennessee) - Email Me
to the other commentors before me. They got it right. This should absolutely be abolished. It is disgusting, cruel, and has no other basis in the culture other than to make these women powerless and abused.
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| I Feel This Should Be Abolished... | Apr 20th. at 10:29:54 am EDT
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bigcat (peoria, Illinois) - Email Me
Slavery is slavery, whether enforced by raiders or culture. And while I am for native culture, there are times when it can be barbaric and cruel and should be abolished when it serves no useful purpose but to promote power over those unable to fight back or make a choice to refuse.
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