I Cannot Marry An Igbo Man Because They Are Too Nosy - Tonto Dikeh (Page 100)

In Benin City sorting center for girls between our country and young returnees seeking reintegration
Nigeria, the city of prostitutes where they return the "Italian"

A center receives the clandestine repatriated "They come half-naked, in shock"
posters and commercials to discourage the exodus "But Milan and Rome seem a dream"
In the village of Amina and Miss World is controversy regarding the trafficking of young women
SENT FROM OUR
ANAIS GINORI

BENIN CITY - There's a part of Nigeria where girls speak Italian and know how to say it perfectly: "How much you give me? '. It 'a slice of Africa where some men, the Italos, know the streets of Milan and Turin by heart, as if it were their home. Welcome to Benin City, the Italian manufacturer of prostitutes equator. Bodies to gazelles, blacks big eyes, full lips, low prices: 10 euros per hour of sex. The capital of prostitutes is far south of Nigeria, in the middle of the rainforest, in the same country that condemned to death for adultery, Safiya and Amina, and that these days celebrating the arrival of the beauty queens for the Miss World contest.
"Want to go abroad?", You want to go abroad?, Is written on a large sign in the middle of the marketplace. It represents a Nigerian who picks up a car in chains. The posters, as well as television commercials, print ads, all funded by the local government, are a desperate attempt to remind families and girls that prostitution is slavery. But the question becomes rhetorical. "Yes, all the girls in Benin want to go abroad," replied Grace Osakue, president of a feminist.
The first to greet you are the lepers. Organize roadblocks by placing stones on the roads. The cars slow down, they stick to the glass. Beg some naira flaunting arms and legs eaten by the disease. It 'a very poor south, which has oil and agriculture of the North East. It has no industry and universities, has no political dynasties or military, has nothing. South forgotten by the government for forty years, until the election of President Obasanjo Olejun southerner and a Christian. The unique richness of Benin are girls. "Beautiful, beautiful," admitted Grace desolate. "Already 11 years have developed, ready to go."
In 1897, English colonists on their arrival they discovered to their horror, voodoo rituals: women and children burned at night, heads hung in public squares to the pantheon of Orisha. Today the sacrifice of Benin is consumed elsewhere in Italy. "Do not try a bit 'of shame?" Eki Igbenedion asks, the wife of the governor of Edo State. From practicing Catholic is amazed that the racket of young women prosper in the land of The Pope also wrote to Berlusconi. "Dear President, 42 thousand girls are slaves of Benin in his country. Many never return, all are abused, exploited, infected. Since '99, there were 112 killed. " In response, the first lady received faxes of charter flights from Malpensa and Fiumicino to repatriate the illegal prostitutes.
Production and destruction. Yes, Benin City because it is a factory. No scandal. Local newspapers called the route of the slave pipeline, oil pipeline. There are entire neighborhoods that have changed in appearance since he sells the oil to Italy in Benin: families with the renovated house, proud fathers of the new car. The traffickers, Italos, are considered managers. "In Benin's offer, in Italy the question" summarizes Bisi Olateru, another activist in touch with the union of Italian prostitutes founded by Carla Corso. One of the few traffickers arrested, Chidi Nsoro, stopped at the border of Ghana with thirteen girls, responded to the police: "This is my business."
"Italian Connection" is the title of a film that recounts the journey of these girls to Italy. Nigeria is the largest producer of films in Africa and the trafficking of prostitutes was shot a kind of epic tearjerker. Fiction. Here no one cries. Indeed, families celebrate when a Italos enters and takes a young man in exchange for a promise of 50 thousand euros. "It means 2 years of work, 10 men at night," quantifies Bisi. A great deal of women are mothers who encourage the girls to leave and have to manage the Madame slaves in Italy. "They often use the magic voodoo" Bisi said. "There is a temple to Benin City where you hold locks of hair and photographs of the prostitutes. They fear that, fleeing, will be cursed. "
Women who deal with women. Hauwa Ibrahim, 35, married an Italian, is the lawyer who defended Amina. It deals with Islam and Sharia law in the states of North but has worked with the government in Abuja on a law against trafficking in human beings. "Let's face it: prostitution is part of the local culture. Many believe that the only "traffic" is that of illegal drugs. " Hauwa receives hundreds of emails and phone calls from Italy to save Amina. "The girls in Benin are rather forget. No one speaks. It 's sad but true. "
Sister Blandina is 56 years old and is far less resigned. Irish, came on a mission to Nigeria in the early eighties, along with Sister Florenza welcomes prostitutes returning from Italy. Since the Interior approved the "Free Way" adhere to the charter Lagos least twice a month. Prostitutes land without papers, half naked, in shock. Girls like Joy, Cynthia, Tina you are greeted with suspicion in Italian: "Hello, what are you doing here? '. All tell the same trip: drive from Benin to Lagos, fly to Paris for the lucky or car to Morocco and then train to Turin, Milan, Florence, Rome. None of them has a good memory of Italy, some would come back as a waitress or order. "They can stay with us are convinced that only girls do not want ever again to be a prostitute," says the nun. Others, whenever they can, try to recontact a Italos and start again. The family home in Benin City is funded in part by the Italian Government. Sister Blandina considers him "a small compensation for these girls that the wealthy use and then throw away."