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‘Voodoo’ on the Doorstep: Young Nigerian Prostitutes and Magic Policing in the Netherlands

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 March 2011

Rijk van Dijk
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Abstract

This article deals with the moral panic that emerged in the Netherlands when it became publicly known that under-age Nigerian girls were being smuggled into the country to be put to ‘work’ in the sex industry. A massive police investigation not only found hundreds of cases but also uncovered the fact that certain unknown and occult rituals played a part in how traffickers, ‘madams’ and other sex bosses appeared to keep the girls locked in this exploitative system. Soon an unspecified notion of ‘voodoo’ came to dominate the entire police operation, the public image of what was happening to these girls, and the way in which the girls were treated within the Dutch judicial system and its care. The article deconstructs the moral panic and all the images of Africa and the occult which became so crucial to the way the Dutch state tried to deal with the situation. It sets this analysis in the context of an anthropology of globalisation and a cultural exploration of how issues of morality and identity are affected by what the Comaroffs have called the occult economies of late capitalist relations. It concludes that to a great extent the scale of the moral panic can be understood by pointing at the rigidity of the identity politics of the Dutch nation state in previous years. Its policies were meant to curb some of the effects of globalisation (such as illegal immigration from Africa) in order to preserve its integrity, but it now found them seriously undermined by something the policies were not designed to cope with.

Résumé

Cet article traite de la panique morale qui s'est emparée de la population néerlandaise en apprenant qu'on faisait entrer clandestinement des jeunes filles nigériennes mineures aux Pays-Bas pour les faire « travailler » dans l'industrie du sexe. Une enquête de police de grande ampleur a permis de recenser des centaines de cas, mais a également révélé que certains rituels inconnus et occultes jouaient un rôle dans la manière dont les trafiquants, les « mères maquerelles » et autres magnats du sexe semblaient maintenir ces jeunes filles enfermées dans ce système d'exploitation. Une notion non spécifiée de « vaudou » est rapidement venue dominer l'opération de police, l'image publique de ce qui arrivait à ces jeunes filles, ainsi que la manière dont ces jeunes filles étaient traitées au sein du système judiciaire néerlandais et de son système de protection sociale. L'article procède à une analyse critique de la panique morale et des images de l'Afrique et de l'occulte qui sont apparues essentielles dans la façon dont l'Etat néerlandais a tenté de faire face à la situation. Il place cette analyse dans le contexte d'une anthropologie de la mondialisation et d'un examen culturel de la manière dont les thèmes de la moralité et de l'identité sont affectés par ce que les Comaroffs ont appelé l'économie occulte des rapports capitalistes avancés. Il conclut qu'il est possible, dans une large mesure, de comprendre l'étendue de la panique morale en évoquant la rigidité de la politique identitaire de l'Etat-nation néerlandais au cours des années précédentes. Cette politique, qui visait à endiguer certains effets de la mondialisation (comme l'immigration clandestine venue d'Afrique) dans le souci de préserver l'intégrité du pays, se trouve désormais sérieusement remise en cause par des situations qu'elle n'avait pas prévues.

Type
Research Article
Information
Africa , Volume 71 , Issue 4 , November 2001 , pp. 558 - 586
Copyright
Copyright © International African Institute 2001

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