Liberation from Juju in Sex Trafficking: What Strategies?

This paper aims to explore the elements that intervene during the process of liberation from the juju rite in women of African origin, trafficked for sexual purposes. There are several contributions in the literature that highlight the power of subjection to the juju ritual, but few have studied how the women who survived the trafficking succeed, once they arrive in the new continent, to free themselves from the power of juju. With the intent to fill this aspect of the literature, we will present the results of a research conducted with women who survived the sex trafficking, from Nigeria, subjected to the juju ritual before leaving for Italy. 24 life stories were conducted with the women participating in the research. The main results of the interviews show the centrality of the spiritual dimension also in the process of freeing: the latter passes through the re-appropriation and strengthening of Christian spiritual elements in opposition to juju.