Copyright 2012 by Liza Stuart Buchbinder ii In memory of Foussena and Ganiou and dedicated to my father. Wish you were here. iii Acknowledgements A project of this scope, where my engagement with the Yondans spanned three countries and over a decade of time, could not have been possible without a village of people supporting me. In fact, it was the warmth and generosity of many Yondans during my time as a Peace Corps volunteer that led me to search for opportunities to return as a researcher, and I chose a school that offered a joint master’s program for this reason. While it would be difficult to name everyone who opened their hearts and homes to me, of particular mention are Kokotina Aboubakar, Sabi Ali, Sabi Adjara, Sabi Foussena, Sabi Kamarou, Affo Karo Adjingbe, Affo Karo Issa, Kamelo K., Kamelo Palekiyem, Kamelo Masamessa, Affo Karo Mariama, Okotan Kafaya, Okotan Aicha, Kamelo Madame, Olossomare Seibou, Okotan L’Accoucheurse, Alagbe Arissou, Okotan Taiba, Oga Latifou, Le Chef Canton, Affo Tenin Roubatou, Okotan Aicha. My research assistant Alessoun Mahassou (Mazou) was the backbone of this research endeavor. Not only did he work on this project for over seven years, interviewing, transcribing, interpreting, coordinating and traveling with me, but his carefully crafted fieldnotes and poignant observations proved him to be a natural researcher. The result has been a truly collaborative project. In Nigeria, the cordiality of Innocent Chukwuma, Edet Ojo, Geoffrey Anyanwu, Sade Ogunsola, Adigun Agbaje, Akin Mabogunje and Awole Fashokun made my stay in Nigeria not only pleasant, but possible. I remember fondly my Sunday morning chats with Innocent and am indebted to him for providing me with personal contacts, office iv space and comraderie. In many ways, he was my safety net in Nigeria. Geoffrey was also an important friend, showing me the softer side of Lagos through a tour of the local eateries, where we would discuss philosophy over Star beers and pepper soup. I am also grateful to my Yoruba teacher Moses Maboyoje at SCALI who was also instrumental in helping me with contacts in Nigeria and at the University of Ibadan. At the Joint Medical Program, I was encouraged to pursue a doctorate in medical anthropology under the wise guidance of my master’s committee: Harvey Weinstein, Judith Justice and Elizabeth Colson. Harvey and Judith were wonderful mentors. Professor Colson’s example of chronicling the Gwembe for over fifty years has served as a valued reminder of the immense power of long term commitment. Ike Okonta and Anna Zalik were equally instrumental to my decision to pursue a doctoral degree by serving as critical role models of activists and scholars. Ike, in particular, showed me how one makes a vocation out of bravely speaking out against powerful interests and acts of injustice. Philippe Bourgois also encouraged me at a formative time to combine my interests in activism, medicine and anthrpology by joining the doctoral program. I may not have taken the leap of faith without his enthusiastic support. Throughout the project, well-timed voices of guidance helped me stay the course. In particular, I am indebted to Jane Guyer and Charles Piot. Jane provided me with critical contacts in Nigeria and I am especialy thankful for her extended “office hours” at the University of Ibadan, which included a warm meal and wonderful company. Charles Piot reinvigorated my interested in continuing work in Togo and on questions of v trafficking, particularly through his invitation to participate in a generative conference on trafficking at Duke University. I am unspeakably grateful to my dissertation committee; to Sharon Kaufman for her enthusiastic support of my writing, insightful feedback and tough love when it came to making deadlines and submitting material—a godsend for completing a written work of this scope; to Vincanne Adams for pushing me to tighten up my arguments and for opening my eyes to different problem spaces and fresh approaches to seemingly well- trodded debates; to Nancy Scheper-Hughes for her infectious energy and commitment to public anthropology, as well as her demands that I keep the stakes in mind when writing about the suffering of others; to Benjamin Lawrance for giving me opportunities to dissemination my work to larger audiences through publication and for his welcome advice from an historian’s perspective. I would also like to thank Sharon and Vincanne for their flexibility during my doctoral studies as I not only grew into my role as a scholar, but also as a mother. Most notably was their willingness to allow me to fulfill my requirements in a manner and order that worked for me and my family. Deborah Gordon was also a wonderful teacher, helping me see more through a series of seminars on fieldwork, as well as through reviews of my writing for publication. At Berkeley, I was also fortunate to have had the chance to study with Donald Moore and Tabitha Kanoga, as well as to work with Lawrence Cohen. My peers in the medical anthropology program have been instrumental interlocutors and teachers over the years. They include Jeff Shoenberg, Nick Bartlett, Kelly Knight, Krystal Strong, Michele Friedner, James Battle and Elena Portacolone. vi Above all, Alex Belieav has been an extraordinary friend and colleague, giving me thoughtful advice and humbling me by his soaring intellect and rigorous approach to scholarship. My family is my lifeline and none of this would have been possible without them. In particular, I would like to thank my mother Voren for her endless patience, listening to me work through arguments and writing sections as I drove back and forth from childcare. Hayley and David Buchbinder have also been critical to my completion of this dissertation, both carefully reviewing chapters. Olga Gonzalez is like a second mother to my two small children. I am not only grateful for her loving attention to their needs, but also for her comraderie and emotional support. Instead of an isolating experience, I have found this writing project to be a time of wonderful companionship, whether it was light conversation over bowls of chicken soup, or the fact that I worked downstairs while she cared for laughing children up above. My husband Mickey is my life partner, never shying away from supporting me throughout the long haul of dissertation writing and the challenges of parenthood, as our lives become increasingly intertwined. To me and our children, he has been a loving provider of security and emotional strength. Sivan and Yanai are my joys. Their goofy giggles, pattering feet and precious smiles infuse a welcome lightness to my life and serve as a daily reminder of how lucky I am. vii Abstract After Trafficking: Naming Violence against Children in West Africa by Liza Stuart Buchbinder Doctor of Philosophy in Medical Anthropology University of California, San Francisco Following the end of the Cold War, the West African nation of Togo underwent a series of economic and political crises that led to an unraveling of state authority, with non-governmental organizations (NGOs) and evangelical Christians taking over the role of governance. Within this climate of economic decline emerged a human rights discourse on child trafficking. Based on field work from 2004 to 2009, this ethnography of child labor migration practices in the Togolese village of Yonda is a counter-narrative to the discourse around the national campaign against trafficking—a campaign that claims that hundreds of thousands of children are working in slave-like conditions across West Africa, one that sustains itself with sensationalized representations of violence to fuel an otherwise ailing development industry. The dearth of cases of exploitation and abuse found during the period of this dissertation research calls into question the human rights explanation: that the root causes of “trafficking” are grounded in poverty, criminality and self interest. Instead, this project asks how the collective imagining of Togo as a site of non-futures contributes to the community’s ritualized practice of sending adolescent girls to work as domestic servants in Nigeria. This project also questions the folk understanding of the practice as a rite-of-passage into adulthood, where viii girls secure the clothes and dishes they will need to marry. Instead, I argue that by contributing to the remaking of youth subjectivities in the urban diaspora, the practice does more to transgress customary norms than to reinforce them. ix Table of Contents Chapter One: Introduction 1 Chapter Two: The Mechanics of Bopi Bateh Onati and A Few Words on Uncertainty 35 Chapter Three: The Construction of Trafficking 70 Chapter Four: Ranking States: Tracking the “State Effect‟ in West African Anti-Trafficking Campaigns 111 Chapter Five: The Good Life 142 Chapter Six: After Trafficking: Togolese Girls’ Orientations to Life in a West African City 178 Chapter Seven: Conclusion 217 Bibliography 224 x Chapter One: Introduction My dissertation project investigates the impact of adolescent domestic service on the marriage practices of Togolese women living and working in Lagos, Nigeria. As an ethnography, this project is a direct response to human rights discourse on child trafficking in West Africa. By presenting a narrative of the Yondan practice of sending children out as historically contingent and partial, this ethnography troubles the universal and moralizing rights-based construct of human trafficking as an emergent form of slavery. The core narrative of the project follows the lives of young Yondan women as they carve out their futures in Lagos. It reveals how their everyday practices of survival and socialization act as a direct challenge to the hegemonic discourse of international human rights law. It also tracks the effects of a three year tour of duty, in which adolescent Yondan girls leave their rural homes to work in isolation as domestic servants for families of strangers in the city.