Culture of Widowhood Practices in Africa: De- institutionalizing the Plights of Women and Communicating Development through Theatre (original) (raw)
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In many African societies, when a man dies and leaves his wife (or wives) behind, culture demands that the widow (or widows) undergoes certain traditional mourning rituals before and after the burial of her deceased spouse, after which she can be cleansed of the ghost spirit of her late husband. Therefore, the main essence of the rites is to break the spiritual relationship between the deceased husband and the surviving wife (or wives). Unfortunately, most studies on widowhood rites in Africa generally bemoan the so-called dehumanising treatment of widows, ranging from denial of basic human rights, to intense public display of sorrow. In this paper, we demonstrate-through a vivid description of how the widowhood rites are performed among the Dagbamba of northern Ghana-that contrary to what has been termed as barbaric practices against women, the widowhood rites were not instituted to devalue womanhood in Africa.
Widowhood Rituals among Some Ethnic Groups Africa
International Journal of Multidisciplinary: Applied Business and Education Research, 2021
Widowhood rites are widely believed to be practices that a bereaved spouse must undergo upon becoming a widow in many parts of the world. It is the time period during which a woman transitions from being a wife to being a widow in her family and community. Different societies associate widowhood with a variety of different customs and values, which have a significant impact on how it is experienced. This article therefore sought to examine the practice among some Ethnic groups in Ghana and some African countries.
Most African [Igbo] traditional practices have been misconstrued, misinterpreted or interpreted out of context. The consequence of this hermeneutical error is thedissemination of blurred knowledge and this affects not only modern scholarship adversely but also disfigures the people " s worldview and undermines their personality definitions.These overly results to revolt, libelling and avid rejection of the culture and values of the people. The worst hit of this hermeneutical error in modern scholarship is the Igbo traditional widowhood practices. Thus, the feminists scholarly slant has staked their neck in an avid condemnation of the practices as they consider them obnoxious, de-humanizing, de-womanizing and complete vitiation on the rights and personality of the women. Against this backdrop, this paper is designed to reconsider these practices within their contextual framework and historical milieu. It adopted a socio-anthropological method as its main tool. Here, the work discovers that these widowhood ritual practices among the Igbo people aim at social stability, metaphysical integration of both the physical and spiritual worlds apart. It also notes that the practices were designed for the protection and preservation of the entire community and especially the widow, who through the loss of her husband was exposed to the cross-current traffic of the spiritual and physical worlds. The paper therefore concludes that those practices serve its metaphysical needs of the traditional society as it gave sound philosophical base for the definition of their reality.
HTS Teologiese Studies / Theological Studies, 2015
Traditional Africans teach ubuntu principles of communality, mutual respect, caring and so forth, but they do not walk the talk with regard to the treatment of widows. In the footsteps of Jesus of Nazareth, Christian communities preach unconditional love, especially for the poor, marginalised and vulnerable. Implementation is, however, grossly lacking in respect of the treatment of widows. There is thus an apparent deliberate uncaring, disrespectful, discriminatory, impolite and unjust treatment of widows in African communities in spite of the ubuntu values and Christian teaching that emphasise love and caring, especially towards the grieving and thus vulnerable widows. Widows seem to be neglected and even oppressed in our time. The aim of this research is to critically examine African traditional widowhood rites and practices with special reference to the comfort or pain to which they subject African widows. The research further aims to examine the behaviour of some African Christi...
2016
The study investigates the human rights violations that underlie widowhood practices in Cape Coast and Komenda in the Central Region of Ghana. Review of the relevant literature on widowhood practices suggests that widowhood practices are a global cultural phenomenon, which is not confined to Sub-Sahara Africa. A survey of relevant studies on the phenomenon suggests that there are two competing perceptions on African widowhood practices: (1) a dominant negative perspective and (2) a minor positive perspective. The dominant negative perspective, which receives overwhelming research attention, focuses only on the negative characteristics of widowhood while the minor positive perspective which receives scanty research attention, rejects the criticisms levelled against widowhood practices as being externally influenced by Christianity and Western Feminism. Various stakeholders within the Akan community were given an opportunity to retell their own versions of widowhood practices. In order to achieve this purpose, the research extracted competing narratives from all the multiple sample subgroups of the proposed study: widows; widow family heads; chiefs; widowhood ritual practitioners; elderly female supervisors of widowhood practices; an official from the Commission for Human Rights and Administrative Justice (CHRAJ); an official from the Ministry of Women and Children Affairs (MOWAC); and an official from the Domestic Violence and Victims Support Unit (DOVVSU) of Ghana. The study found out that despite legislative intervention and policy frameworks, the practice still persist among the Akan communities in Ghana. The reasons for the continued existence of such rituals are explained followed by recommendations for possible solutions.
Culture as Tool of Widow’s Plight in Africa: A Study of Bayo Adebowale’s Lonely Days
British Journal of Multidisciplinary and Advanced Studies
Prejudices against women in Africa are culturally deep-rooted. Cultural practices in Africa have consistently impinged on the dignity and rights of women in Africa. This paper explores some of the practices presented in Lonely Days by Bayo Adebowale that impinged on the dignity and rights of women in Africa. Some of the practices that make life worst for the widows in Africa are: false accusation, cap-picking ceremony and widows’ path. These practices worsen the condition of widows who deserve compassion not cruel treatment. The paper quotes different instances of widows’ suffering caused by cultural practices from the text where Kufi village is used to symbolize Africa. The paper recommends among other things: cultural practices should be ignored as they are contradictory and widows deserve to be taken care of cpnsidering the life they going into.
South Asian Journal of Social Science and Humanities
Some practices are barbaric, atrocious, backward, immoral, commoditization and an abusive violation of the sexual and human rights of the powerless. Widowhood rites are performed at the fresh funeral and during the final funeral rites. Widows prefer to be inherited by their grandsons so that they are free to choose a man of their choice and still hold on to their deceased husband assets. The Talensi widow would strangle a goat and part of the skin is used to cover the private of the dead for burial. The Nabdams would slaughter a sheep and an elder will slaughter it. In both cases older women served as the enforcers and custodians of such practices. The purpose of this study was to examine widowhood rites practices among the people of Talensi and Nabdam in the Upper East Region of Ghana. The study employed ethnography research method. Purposive sampling technique was used to sample twenty (20) widows from Talensi and Nabdam. The study recommended that Ghana's widows need to lead ...
WIDOWHOOD RITES: A THREAT TO THE ACTUALISATION OF WOMEN’S RIGHTS IN NIGERIA
NNHRCJ, 2022
A widowhood rite is a traditional practice in several Nigerian communities today but with a few observed nuances. As one of those rites that is characterised by compulsion, threat, emotional, sexual and physical violation of victims, the practice appears to be in outright defiance of the fundamental human rights of women as enshrined in the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria, the United Nations treaty and other legal instruments of international emphasising to which Nigeria is a signatory. This article examined the features of widowhood traditional practice as operational in the southeastern, southwestern, south southern, and Northern Nigeria; and by so doing brought out salient components that undermine the full expression of women’s rights under the practices of widowhood. The Deviant place theory as well as the Routine activity theory were deployed as a framework. The study found that poverty on the part of men and women, ignorance, illiteracy, culture, greed on some men’s part and low status of women are some of the most reckoned enablers of widowhood rite practice. Based on these findings, the study recommends that the government should initiate or at least support significant research on widowhood practices in the country. Other recommendations include the creation of an intense awareness campaign, activation of vicarious liability, women empowerment particularly at the local level, exploration of educational curriculum channels and government sponsorship as relevant measures to ending the widowhood rites practice in the study area.
Emergent Issues on Widowhood Practise in Igboland: Between The Video Screen and Reality
Video film has become an important and persuasive medium of expression in the African continent. It helps in the presentation, preservation and promotion of the African image. In Nigeria, the boom in the video film industry (Nollywood) has resulted in the promotion and marketing of Nigeria culture. Hence they reflect cotemporary social life and culture while exposing the old and primitive culture of the people for what they are. This paper focuses on the reflection of widowhood practice in Igbo culture, as captured by the lenses of some video film makers in Nigeria. It further attempts an appraisal on the ideology behind such portrait and points out some faulty cultural issues that were reflected in the video films.