CHAPTER
ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to
the Study
The traditional practice of widowhood and property
inheritance is as old as human beings. The inevitability of death in spite of
the great strides made in scientific and technological research, leads us to
assert that there is no human society without widows and widowers. Yearly,
there are seven million widows globally (United States Bureau of Statistics,
2008). The increasing number of widows across the world in recent times has
become a social problem. In Nigeria, widowhood is a common phenomenon
attributed to the high and increasing mortality rate (Oyekanmi, 2007). The fact
that females have higher average life expectancy than males and the practice
whereby men marry women younger than themselves likely result in more widows
than widowers in the society. As Potash (1986:1) opines, “Widows make up about
half the adult female population in Africa”. Even though this view is not
justifiable by available data, one striking feature in most parts of Nigeria is
the fact that until the 1990s, not much research had been done on widows and
their plight as determinable from relevant discourse. Yet, this is one specific
sub-group that should be targeted for intervention, considering the incidence
of depression among members, the socio-economic setback that the crisis of
widowhood brings to them, and the sudden change in their status (Sesay and Odebiyi,
1998).
A popular Nigerian folklore has it that all enduring
marriages ultimately end with the death of either the husband or wife or both.
However, the challenges and traumatic experience which accompany the death of a
husband tend to be greater than those which accompany the death of a wife
(Oloko, 1997:9). Even though men and women could die prematurely owing to a
number of factors such as ill-health, accidents and wars amongst other
unforeseen circumstances, it is observed from the relevant literature that,
unlike a wife’s death, the death of a husband is culturally challenged in many
African societies. When a husband dies, the ready suspect is the wife. Deaths,
even in circumstances where the causes are natural and explicable, are never
perceived as such. Magico-religious factors and widows’ bewitchment or sorcery
are evoked for the death of the partners (Erinosho, 2000:1).
In many parts of Nigeria, death is often attributed to some
unnatural causes. When a woman dies, it is more often than not taken with fatalism;
even when such a death is queried, the culprit is sought amongst her contenders
(e.g. co-wives or neighbours), and rarely is her husband seen as being
responsible. Instead of suspicion and accusations, the husband receives more
sympathies and support. For instance, in some Yoruba communities, a woman is
arranged to sleep with the man for a night so that he is not haunted by the
spirit of the dead wife. According to Lasebikan (2001:19), a widower is
evidently pitied and consoled genuinely and encouraged out of his situation as
early as possible while arrangement for a substitute is made quickly, because “Opo‘kunrin
ki da sun nitori iyawo orun” (Yoruba). In other words, “A widower
does not sleep alone because of the dead wife’s spirit”. Though the
widower experiences emotional trauma at the loss of a wife, he is usually given
more social support in order to cope, and to eventually re-adjust to a new
life. In a polygynous setting, other living co-wives become a source of
succour. A woman is seen as part of her husband’s property: at death, family
members do not often challenge the husband with respect to her assets and
wealth. However, if the marital relationship was undergoing stress the
relatives of the woman might query the husband’s wish to inherit her property.
Under normal circumstances, a widow is to be empathized
with, and helped out of the psychological valley into which the unexpected has
plunged her. Unfortunately, this is often not the case. In most Nigerian
societies, she is stigmatized as the killer of her husband, oppressed,
suppressed, afflicted, neglected, accused, openly insulted and consequently
made to succumb to widowhood rites on account of customs and traditions.
Usually, the widow’s ordeal begins the very moment her husband breathes his
last.
As
Dei (1995:6) reveals for the Igbo society in eastern Nigeria,
The sympathy for her ends on
the spur of the moment. Promises and assurances are made at the graveside. But
as soon as the earth swallows the dead, the widow becomes a victim of neglect,
accusation, and bizarre cultural practices. In most cases, the in-laws use the
mourning period as an avenue to give vent to their anger and ensure that the
widow’s solitary life is made more miserable. They strip her virtually of her
self-esteem and all the toil she had acquired with her spouse.
Consequently, the death of a husband dramatically alters a
woman’s status and leaves her at the mercy of her husband’s relations who are
customarily empowered to take decisions concerning her and the properties left
behind by the deceased, not minding her welfare and that of her children, if
any. As observed in Women’s Rights Wake Up Call Assessment Report
(2001:202), the plight of widows is made worse by various widowhood rites,
which, though not uniform in all societies, exist in one form or another almost
everywhere. While it is more entrenched in the rural areas, the practice
affects many urban women in the Nigerian societies especially as it is common
with those who die in the cities but are to be buried in rural areas (“hometown
burial”). As the prime suspect of her husband’s death, the widow is usually
compelled to go through an ordeal to prove her innocence. In some cases, she is
made to drink the water used to wash the corpse (Kantiyok, 2000:61). “To
express their grief, widows are sometimes required to sleep on the floor,
abstain from taking baths, shave their hair, and wear dirty rags as clothes for
as long as mourning lasts”. In a similar vein, “She is made to cook with broken
pots and eat with unwashed hands” (Akumadu, 1998:29).
These practices, which stem from societal traditions and
family beliefs, are harmful besides being extraordinarily harsh. Moreover, most
of these rituals erode the dignity of the widows and also traumatize them.
Besides exposure to diseases such as cholera, diarrhoea, etc, occasioned by
eating with unwashed hands, drinking water used to bathe the corpse could be
poisonous. Worse still, any attempt to contest such practices is met with stiff
resistance and sanctions. The confined widows, in the wake of these treatments,
suffer from social degradation, inferiority complex and low self-esteem. While
lamenting over cultural practices against widows in Ghana, Oduyoye (1995:1) in
a keynote address states:
And today, the category of
woman called widow, is often disinherited specie, sharing no part of the legacy
of her father or her husband and unable to have saved or acquired property
because she was busy being a traditional wife, spending on spouse, children and
the extended family.
In many African societies, particularly in East and South
Africa, the practice of levirate, a marital union of the widow to her deceased
husband’s brother still thrives. In some cases, levirate is responsible for the
wiping out of extended family members if the spouse(s) of the dead man had
already been infected with HIV (The New York Times, 17 Sept, 1990 p14).
This report by The New York Times may not be true for all cases
and could pass for an over-exaggeration. The fact that an extended
family was wiped out may not be as a result of HIV. Also, this report ought to
have taken cognizance of other factors such as magic, sorcery, witchcraft as
well as other inherited diseases in Africa. However, the possibility of HIV
cannot be completely ruled out.
Adepoju (1997:16) observes that
despite campaigns to eradicate levirate, it is closely linked to the
distribution of and right to wealth and property of the deceased. As Kantiyok
(2000:61) opines in her study of Kano State North-western Nigeria, no widow is
completely free from the plight of widowhood rites (and its effects). As much
as there could be diverse cultural practices within the same country, regarding
widowhood rites and property inheritance, one common feature is the fact that
the intensity of a widow’s unpleasant experiences varies within co mmunities
and according to various religious beliefs. While those economically endowed
may be able to pay their way in order to avoid some of the traditional
widowhood rites, others rarely escape. For widows with children (male/female),
the sex of the children is often an issue of contention in property
inheritance, while widows without children are rarely considered.
Nzewi (1996), for instance,
notes that in certain parts of Imo State, Eastern Nigeria, immediately the
death of the man is announced, the in-laws demand a list of the man’s property,
holdings, investments, bank accounts among others. The widow is expected to
take an oath as a proof that she has not concealed any relevant information
about her husband’s wealth. The acknowledged weak and defenceless position of
the widow according to Afigbo (1989:14) is borne out of the fact that she has
no legal right to the property of her husband. It is against this background
that this study attempts to investigate widowhood and property inheritance in
the context of the Awori traditional family structure with a view to
identifying points of convergence or divergence....
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