How Italian Priests Are Conducting Exorcisms To Break 'Voodoo Spells' On Terrified Nigerian Prostitutes

A Catholic priest stands over the forlorn figure of a young Nigerian girl, murmuring prayers and sprinkling holy water as she sobs. Favour, a 19-year-old, is constantly scratching, her skin is red raw in places. She believes there is a nest of insects living inside her body and that they will kill her.

The priest is attempting to break a powerful voodoo spell that binds her to her 'madam' in Trieste, near the border with Slovenia, for the next five to eight years.

Favour, one of thousands of Nigerian women trafficked to Europe to become sex slaves every year, has been told she owes her female pimp €80,000 for her journey. This will take around 4,000 clients each paying as little as €10 or €20 to pay off.

Although the chains tying her to her madam are only psychological, they are extremely powerful. In their desperation to break the hold over the girls, many of which are sent on the migrant boats crossing the Mediterranean, the Italians have even resorted to get Catholic priests to perform exorcisms on them.

Back in Nigeria a witchdoctor had performed a powerful voodoo spell to bring luck for the girl’s journey, she told Italian aid workers. After leaving her village in the Edo State, with the promise of a job as a hairdresser in Italy, she was taken to a shrine in Benin City.

There, in a terrifying ritual she was made to undress – they cut her pubic hair and toenails and made her swear over the blood of a chicken that she would never betray her benefactor. Like many others for whom the promised job as a hairdresser did not materialise.

Favour believes nevertheless that she has to pay off the debt or face terrible repercussions.
Many of the girls have travelled with a lucky charm - a small package that has been prepared and serves as a concrete expression of the agreement.

As well as nail clippings and hair it may contain underwear with remains of menstrual blood. Other common objects are kola nuts,13 bent pieces of metal and soap to symbolise loyalty, the power of the Ogun deity (important for travel) and beauty.

According to urban legend among the women, girls who go back on their symbolic promise become mad, struck dumb or die, one, they say, was found in four pieces on the side of the road.

 

In their desperation to break the hold over the girls, many of which are sent on the migrant boats crossing the Mediterranean, the Italians have even resorted to get Catholic priests to perform exorcisms on them.

Counter-magic in the form of a reverse voodoo with Catholic priests performing a kind of exorcism is more convincing, according to Rosanna Paradiso, founder of the Tampep association in Turin that helps girls free themselves and return home.

There are estimated to be 25,000 Nigerian girls working as prostitutes in Italy and the numbers arriving rose 300 per cent in 2014, experts say.

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