All enduring marriages ultimately end with the death of either the husband or the wife or both. The death of a spouse may be the most extreme life crisis because; it severs some of the deepest emotional bonds established in a lifetime.
However, the disorganizing and traumatic experience, which accompanies death of husbands, tends to be greater on women than that of men when they loose their wives. Where as the wife immediately becomes the primary suspect for her husband's death, the man is immediately offered an appropriate substitution to comfort him upon the loss of his wife.

This because, from time immemorial, societies have always been male dominated and are still so, all over the world. Women have always been relegated to the background and, traditions and customs in Nigeria clearly rob women of their rights and privileges. Dr. Babatunde Ahosi, a sociologist says, "The differentiation between men's and women's role in Nigeria as with other societies is one of complementary and superior relationship in favor of the men. It involves a hierarch in which... men are given greater leverage over decision-making and resources than women. The result is a cultural setting that invariably promotes male domination and female subordination"
Stemming from this fact, "women are treated like chattels (properties), especially widows..." 2 and the prevalence of witchcraft accusation, widows are subjected to a trial by ordeal (as prime suspect in the demise of their husbands).

The severity of these trials, vary in different states and Local Government Areas, in order to prove their innocence. They are subjected to a variety of ardous and degrading rites that violate some of their human rights and erode their self-esteem. One of such, was the custom of inhuman mourning such as "wailing loudly for several days before their husbands. Widows whose wailings were adjudged as inadequate were accused of being responsible for the death of their husbands."

3 After wailing, followed the moment of confinement/seclusion either in their husband's house or in special huts for various periods of time. During this period, widows experienced several degradations and deprivations. Several practices were introduced to make widows uncomfortable and unattractive. Hair from different parts of their bodies were scraped and burnt; some wore mourning clothes which where never washed nor changed except the widows could afford more than one set; they were denied basic comforts such as bath and their normal food habits were restricted.

Disinheritance tends to pauperize some widows so much that they lack the means of sustaining themselves and their children "...particularly if they do not accept relatives allocated to them as their new husbands." 4 widowhood practices differ from one location to another even within the same domain, however what remains a general fact is in addition to her loss and its attendant consequences, she is subjected to the whims of a culture she has no control over and to which she must submit her self to.
An overview of widowhood practices in the six zones of Nigeria presents different practices generally tampered by peculiarities of culture, religion and other social indices.

SOUTHWEST -ONDO STATE
When a husband dies, the widow goes into confinement for seven days. During this period she is not allowed to go out, even to the toilet or, take her bath. On the seventh day, her head is shaved to sever the bond between her and the dead husband. She also keeps a vigil and appears very sorrowful by wailing and crying profusely. If she fails to mourn, it is believed that "she may become mentally deranged, or forfeit the right to any benefit." 5. After this, she goes into mourning proper, which is for a period of three months. During mourning, she is to be of impeccable behavior so that her late husband's spirit may gain quick entry into the community of his ancestral spirits. The widow is not expected to court, leave the family, go away with the children, or look in the mirror for fear of seeing the deceased. Until recently, she was not allowed to sit on the bed.

This period is also used to ascertain whether the widow is pregnant or not. At the end of three months, she performs the outing ceremony. She is then free to remarry into the family. A widow may however, refuse to be inherited even if her late husbands's family want it so likewise, a man may equally refuse to inherit his late brother's wife. In Ondo, as in other Yoruba land, property belongs to the wife/wives and the children of the deceased. It is shared as Ori o ju ori i.e. equally among the children (including girls), or as Idi'ig i.e equally among the wives (were the man has more than one wife), though, the eventual beneficiaries are the children. Where the widow has no child, she may not get any thing from her husband's property. It reverts back to his family.

 
SOUTHEAST -ANAMBRA STATE
In Ogidi town, in Idemili L.G.A., the mourning period is one year during which time, the widow is restricted to the house where she sits on the bare floor for four weeks and her hair is scraped. She is not allowed to talk, laugh, shake hands or greet people, bake cook. Her attire is called "Ogodo upa, that is, "mud cloth" After seven weeks, she removes the "mud cloth" and wears "the ikpim, that is, a pitch black mourning dress" for the rest of the year. Peculiar to this people is the "etum afa, that is "praise naming" which the widow performs (mandatory) three times a day.

In Nanka town, Orumba L.G.A. the only peculiarity of this people is that the widow is forbidden to see the corpse of her husband. Christianity or not, "... any widow who contravenes this customs laterality ceases to exist... She neither buys from nor sell to any other member of the community. All men run away from her... She is avoided like death...." . In Ogbunka town, still in Orumba South L.G.A., a widow is secluded behind the house immediately the husband dies. The Umuada force her to observe the routine wailing from morning till night for many days. This widow is in turn expected to provide the oku awa i.e. yam meal with a chicken, for the Umuada (on daily basis).

In Ezira and Nawfija, "the widow is put in a cage" She is allowed to sit on a mat or mattress inside her "cage" though she does not sleep there. According to these people, the widow is "... most vulnerable to physical pains inflicted on her by vicious mourners, who are in the habit of throwing their whole weight on the victim, in the guise of deep sympathy." The widow wears either black or white for seven months at the end of which, she wears another dress for the remaining five months that is neither black nor white.

In Akili-Ogidi town, in Ogbaru L.G.A., widowhood practice is the same as in Ogidi town except that, "the widow does here evening crying shift through the onu ntapa, that is, a chink in the wall. She must also be facing the west... throughout the first twenty eight days after the burial..." Because of civilization however, the working class widow is allowed to return to work after the short bereavement leave granted her. However, no widow is allowed to step out of her husbands compound on her own feet. She mut be"...carried by a man out of the compound to.. The road, to take transport to her destination."

SOUTH SOUTH -EDO STATE
In Bini land, widowhood rights are in two stages. First, the widow is confined to a room outside the family house for seven days immediately after the interment of the deceased husband. She is dressed in black with her hair left unkempt and, she is not allowed to take her bath. She must look mournful and sober and must cry, morning and evening. On the seventh day, a wake keeping ceremony is held and the widow is forbidden (by custom) to sleep because, the spirit of the dead man will come around and kill her if she is found sleeping! On the same day, she perform the semi-purification rites by taking her bath around 4.am at a road junction (all alone).
Her safe return proves her innocence.
The Second stage of mourning begins at the end of the seventh day. The widow smears herself and her clothing with black charcoal and remains so for three months. At the end of the third month, the final purification, which admits her into the society, is performed. On inheritance, both the widow and property are inheritable objects.

Among the Esan, the practice is almost the same but for some little differences. During the seven days of mourning, the widow carries an Ikhmin, which is a many sided plant which is used to wade off evil spirit. She is also forbidden to sleep on the night preceding the seventh day because, it is believed that, the husband will visit and carry her away if she sleeps! A widow in Esan however, takes "... her bath in the night at a burial ground or at some obscure or isolated spot..." 14 and she shoots an arrow into the bush afterwards, to deter the late husband from coming near her again.
Throughout the three months mourning period, a pot containing some leaves believed to wade off evil, is left burning on the stove. The widow performs the purification rites after three months, which includes her hair, being shaved. On inheritance, a wife cannot inherit, rather; she is part of the "objects" to be inherited.

In Agenebode land, women here have different status/order of birth. A woman is either Amoya, a title that is highly respected and cherished because in marriage, she is given out totally or, she is Adegbe, a title that allows the woman to stay in her father's house even after marriage. Northing is done is her father's house without consulting her. As a result of these differences, varying degree of rights and privileges are given to them.

When an Amoya is widowed, one of her sister-in-law who is an Adebge will assist her to wear a white hand woven pant. This she wears for one whole year without washing or changing. She stays indoors and can't even go to the market or church. Her hair is scraped and, she is in total seclusion wearing only black. By virtue of her birth, she remains in her husband's house for life.

If she accepts toe be inherited, she performs the purification right to legitimize the transfer. If she does not want to be inherited, she performs another rite to appease the family's ancestors. Her son inherits the property of the deceased if she happens to have the first son, this does not however transfer ownership of the property to her.

The situation is different, when an Adebge is widowed. She does not go through all the rites an Amoya goes through. Her hair and that of her children is scraped on the fifth day after the death. Wearing of black is her choice and her movement is not restricted for one day, she goes about her normal business. The issue of inheritance does not arise for her because, she goes back to her father's house as soon as the man dies though, she is free to stay (if she so desires), without any obligation to the family of the late husband. If she is the mother of the first son, he inherits all his father's property.

NORTH CENTRAL - BENUE STATE
The burial practice here is that, the man is buried almost immediately he dies. The widow is restricted to one place, however, if she is still within childbearing age, she is restricted to one room. She cannot go to the toilet unaccompanied; neither can she go to the farm to get food, even for her children.
Among the Etulo people, a widow is confined in mourning for three months during which it would be confirmed if she is pregnant or not.

Her only attire is a piece of cloth called bento, which has a ritual object ascribed to it. This cloth is tied round the waist of the deceased man, and the widow now wears it as a symbol of her sexual relationship with the late husband. It is also believed that, this bento deters the widow from any act o "... flirtation or promiscuity before she is culturally freed from widowhood." 15. After the three months of mourning, she prepares for the outing ceremony. Her hair is shaved during this period and, she exchanges the bento for a white dress, which, she also stops wearing after outing ceremony. On the issue of inheritance, the Etulo are a matrilineal society.

A barren widow has no rights to any of her late husband's property. Even where the widows have children, the property still goes to the maternal relationships who may out of good will and pity give part of it to his children.
Among the Idomas, the widow mourns for at least one year wearing sackcloth. She performs the cleansing/outing ceremony with the help of her age grade (peers) at he end of the mourning period. This done, she is free to remarry either within or outside of the family. In Idoma land, the late man's property belongs to his relations.

The widow has no share in his property neither do his children, if they are still very young. If however, the children are adults, the property is shared between them and their father's relations.

NORTH WEST - KANO STATE
In this part of the country, inheritance issue are according to Islamic injunctions. The widow observes the Takaba i.e a four-month, ten-day mourning period in seclusion talking to no one and sitting in a place. However, there are accounts of widows who are barred:

"(a) From leaving the room where the corpse was laid: sleeping on a comfortable bed;

(b) taking a normal route to the toilet;

(c) observing personal hygiene;

(d) wearing long hair;

(e) moving about;

(f) taking normal bath;

(g) seeing the inside of the grave

(h) eating pounded yam;

(i) fowl, goat meat..." 16

After the mourning, a widow is free to remarry within or outside the family. On the issue of inheritance, the manner in which the property of the deceased is shared is explicitly stated in the Qur'an. However, human factors, especially the relationship of the widow to her in-laws, education of the apportioning parties and cultural leanings have brought about injustices in property sharing.

REFERENCES:
1. The Guardian Newspaper, Saturday, January 26, 2002 p. 16
2. Ibid., p. 16
3. Edited b y: Bolaji Owasanoye and Babatunde Ahonsi, Widowhood in Nigeria: Issues, Problems and Prospects, p. 2
4. Ibid., p. 5
5. Rights and widowhood Rites in Nigeria. Published by: Inter-African Committee (Nigeria) on Traditional Practices Affecting the Health of Women and Children, Lagos, Nigeria, P. 15
6. Okoye, Pat U., Widowhood: A Natural or Cultural Tragedy, Nucik Publishers, Enugu, p. 83
7. Ibidi., p. 84
8. Ibidi., p. 85
9. Ibidi., p. 90
10. Ibidi., p. 91
11. Ibidi., p. 91
12. Ibidi., p. 100
13. Ibidi., p. 101
14. Rights and Widowhood Rites in Nigeria. Op. cit. p. 34
15. Okoye, Pat U., Op. cit., p. 52
16. Rights and Widowhood Rites in Nigeria, Op. cit. P. 68

WIDOWHOOD: Lord Have Mercy Of Widows and Vultures

Funke Egbemode, fegbemode2k@yahoo.com
14th October

The widow is a veritable specimen of suffering. She depicts clearly the male-dominated society in which we all live and man’s inhumanity to woman. She is buffeted on all sides, first by her grief which she is not allowed to suffer silently, then by the society who decrees that she is a leaf in the wind, all on her own.

In some Nigerians societies, the widow is not as tormented as in others. Among the Yorubas, the tradition is not very harsh on her. Just wear the mandatory black, sit on the floor for as long as one year, don’t go to the market and other such restrictions.

Then at the end of the mourning period, she can resume her life once again.

But the story, even among the Yoruba, is not always that smooth. Because she is often seen as a chattel, her late husband’s property to be shared along with farmlands and furniture, her troubles may start as soon as her husband is buried.

The widow is the first suspect when causes of her husband’s death are being considered. How can she be innocent? Was she not the last person he saw? Did he not sleep with her, eat her food? All types of implausible reasons are strung together to crucify the widow. She must be a witch. She comes from a family of witchdoctors, or don’t you remember? The relatives conduct the autopsy in their heads and pronounce her guilty even when the deceased had a prolonged history of diabetes or even cancer.

Oftentimes, when there is financial gain involved, the most successful tool used by greedy in-laws is to accuse the new widow of killing her husband. That way, she is forcibly ejected from the only home she has lived in for probably the better part of her life, out into cold uncertainty. The children are sometimes pushed out after her so that the empire can be adequately shared by the miserable vultures. Of course, a Yoruba widow is lucky if she gets the support and consolation of her in-laws.

In some parts of Edo State, according to Mrs Nkem Izuako, a seasoned member of the bench, a widow is made to sit on the floor, near naked with a fire to keep her warm for seven days. During this period, she is not allowed to bath. Se must wail and howl her loss at intervals while her relatives keep vigil with her. After the seven days, she howls and laments all the way to the stream near naked but her mourning is for a whole year.

I remember vividly the paper titled Culture and Widowhood, at a workshop on "The Nigerian Widow – Her Plight in The 21st Century organized by Abia State Women Association in conjunction with PROJECT HEALTH, some years ago, delivered by Mrs Izuako on the horrors widows are made to go through in most of Igboland, not all. If the submissions had not been made by a learned woman, born in Igbo land and married to an Igbo man, I would have found the instances cited unbelievable. The stories were so pathetic that I wondered if the said Igbo societies do not deserve the civilization that is just being preached to the naked inhabitants of Koma Hills.

This in the same society where woman can’t own land and 60 year old women have to call their four-year-old grandsons to break Kola. The Kola that is supposed to symbolize life cannot be broken by a woman who carries pregnancy for nine months to give life to that four-year-old boy and the all the men in that society! A woman who tills as much land as (if not more than) the man cannot own land unless she buys it in the name of a small boy she trained with her money.

And before any Igbo men (or Igbo women who rationalizes being treated as thrash as) start to curse me, let them start their rejoinders by honestly narrating how widows are treated in their villages (not in Lagos) and how they’d want their wives to be treated if they slump and die today. I know that the punishing and humiliating rites of widowhood do not take place in all Igbo societies but if widows are treated shabbily in your place, why don’t you do something instead of picking holes in this piece.

Try, this for size, as told by Mrs Izuako. In one Igbo society, it is an abomination for a woman to see her late husband’s corpse. As soon as the man is pronounced dead, the widow is expected to flee home with her children. That is according to tradition but the reality is that while she’s on ‘exile’, her in-laws can plunder the deceased’s properties.

There was this widow who refused to run away. She stood her ground. The whole village shouted abomination. Her brother-in-law refused to be part of the burial. The widow being a member of the Charismatic Renewal Movement was rescued by the sect who buried the rejected body. To show his ‘powers’, the brother-in-law came late and exhumed the corpse and left it in the open.

Could somebody tell me the rationale behind the tradition that forbids the departed to rest in peace? A custom that forbids a woman, who has fed, lived and slept with a man from seeing his body is illogical. Exhuming a brother’s corpse in the name of tradition is sickening.

I remember a widow from the Enugu/Agidi Community whose brother-in-law wanted to ‘inherit’ narrating her experience. The brother-in-law was rich, quite so that everybody felt there was no reason why the widow and her children had to suffer. But suffer they did. The children were sent home from school for unpaid fees. The landlord threatened the distressed and hungry family with ejection. Yet the brother-in-law didn’t lift a finger to help. When the desperate widow sought him out, he made his amorous intentions known. The widow was shocked.

"How could you even think of sleeping with me?" she tearfully asked.

Smirking, the brother-in-law told her: " you cannot work at railway and collect money at NEPA". And that was the end of all help she could hope to get.

Is the Igbo widow’s problem still being compounded by the Umuada (daughters of the land) whose mean mentality of the oppressed make laws that make life horrible for the widow? Or things are different now?

Do they converge to enforce all types of obnoxious laws? If that attitude still obtains, one hopes they know that it is an attitude born of jealousy and lack of self worth.

Do we still have bush people who confine to a corner where she must wail and weep? She acknowledges sympathizers nodding, as she must not speak. Gifts for her are dropped on the floor. She sits there almost naked (especially around Nsukka area) clad in black mourning clothes for between six months to one year. She is not allowed to have more than one change of cloth. The Umuada shaves her head and other parts of her body. Her food is prepared outside the home. She can’t use washed plates and cannot eat with ‘normal’ people except widows like her.

In some societies, she is locked up with the corpse. In other climes, she is whipped by terrifying poison-carrying masquerades. She cannot hug or be hugged. She can’t shake hands or go to the market. And after the one-year mourning period, she is taken to the river for the Aja-ani ritual during which the aja-ani priest ‘rapes’ her. In some societies, according to Mrs Izuako, the widow is raped by 10 men. To cleanse her and make her available for other men! Lord have mercy!

So how do they treat widows in your community in the year of our Lord 2006?

The Osu Caste System

Leo Igwe
The Osu caste system is an obnoxious practice among the Igbos -in Nigeria-which has refused to go away despite the impact of Christianity, modern education and civilization, and the human rights culture. In this piece, I will argue that the Osu discrimination is an outdated tradition with no basis for its continued practice and observance in the contemporary Igbo society.
Traditionally, there are two classes of people in Igboland – the Nwadiala and the Osu. The Nwadiala literally meaning ‘sons of the soil’ are the freeborn.

They are the masters. While the Osu are the slaves, the strangers, the outcasts and the untouchables. Chinua Achebe in his well-known book, No Longer At Ease asks: What is this thing called Osu? He answers: “Our fathers in their darkness and ignorance called an innocent man Osu, a thing given to the idols, and thereafter he became an outcast, and his children, and his children’s children forever” The Osu are treated as inferior human beings in a state of permanent and irreversible disability. They are subjected to various forms of abuse and discrimination.

The Osu are made to live separately from the freeborn. In most cases they reside very close to shrines and marketplaces. The Osu are not allowed to dance, drink, hold hands, associate or have sexual relations with Nwadiala. They are not allowed to break kola nuts at meetings. No Osu can pour libation or pray to God on behalf of a freeborn at any community gathering. It is believed that such prayers will bring calamity and misfortune.

A human rights group outlined the atrocities meted out against the Osu in Igboland. They include: ‘parents administering poison to their children, disinheritance, ostracism, organized attack, heaping harvest offering separately in churches, denial membership in social clubs, violent disruption of marriage ceremonies, denial of chieftaincy titles, deprivation of property and expulsion of wives etc.”
The Osu caste discrimination is very pronounced in the area of marriage. An Osu cannot marry a freeborn. The belief is that any freeborn that marries an Osu defiles the family. So freeborn families are always up in arms against any of their members who wants to marry an Osu.

They go to any length to scuttle the plan. Because of the Osu factor, marriages in Igboland are preceded by investigations-elders on both sides travel to native villages to find out the social status of the other party. And if it is found that one of them is an Osu, the plan would be automatically abandoned. Many marriage plans have been aborted, and in fact some married couples have been forced to divorce because of the Osu factor.

Chinua Achebe also noted this in his book. When Okonkwo learns that his son wants to marry Clara, an Osu. Okonkwo says: “ Osu is like a leprosy in the minds of my people. I beg of you my son not to bring the mark of shame and leprosy into your family. If you do, your children and your children’s children will curse you and your memory… You will bring sorrow on your head and on the heads of your children.” 

But there have been several efforts and initiatives to eradicate this harmful tradition. In 1956, the government of the then Eastern Nigeria passed a law abolishing the Osu caste system. The law freed and discharged anybody called Osu including the children born to such a person. It declared the practice unlawful – and a crime punishable by law. But unfortunately, 50 years after the enactment of this legislation, nobody has been prosecuted or convicted for breaking the law. At best what the legislation has achieved is to drive the practice underground. Also many religious leaders and traditional rulers have spoken out against the practice. Recently Eze Enyeribe Onuoha, the traditional ruler of Umuchieze autonomous community in Imo State urged his community members to abandon the practice. He said: “discrimination against Osus is irrational, illegal, unjust and archaic and opposed to human rights. It is one Umuchieze(Igbo) tradition that should immediately be abolished.” 

But statements and declarations like this are not uncommon. But they have always fallen on deaf ears among the Igbo people most of whom think that cultural norms are sacrosanct and should not be tampered with. So the belief in and practice of Osu caste system continue to wax strong in Igboland. In 1997, a person alleged to be an Osu was made a chief in a community in Imo State. But six months later, the community was engulfed in a crisis. And when the case was brought to the court, the presiding judge noted that though the abolition of Osu caste system was in the statute, it was an unenforceable law. The chief was dethroned so that peace would reign in the community.

And not too long ago I met a lady in a friend’s house in Lagos. I was told that she was engaged to a young man from Imo State. And months later I learnt that the marriage plan had been abandoned because the lady was said to be an Osu. There have been several instances like that where young men and women of Igbo extraction have suffered heartbreaks and emotional traumas as a result of this cultural disease.

And now the question is, why is it that this cultural practice has refused to go away even among educated Igbos. The reason is not far fetched. The practice of Osu caste system is hinged on religion, supernaturalism and theism. And Igbos are deeply religious and theistic people. Osu are regarded as unclean or untouchable because they are (alleged to be) dedicated to the gods. So it is the dedication to the gods that makes the Osu status a condition of permanent and irreversible disability and stigma. 
So this cruel custom will not be eradicated until Igbos begin to realize that gods are imaginary beings, not objective entities. Igbos need to understand that deities and spirits are mental constructs used to control and organize the society at the infancy of the human race.

And today that humanity has come of age. Because if one does not believe that the gods and spirits are real, then the idea of treating someone as unclean or untouchable because the person is dedicated to any deity does not make sense at all. Even for the god-believing Igbos, the practice is out rightly baseless. Because most Igbos are Christians and do not profess any belief in the traditional gods to which the Osu were (alleged to be) dedicated.

So, it is both sensible and appropriate that all Igbos - believers and non-believers alike renounce and abandon this abhorrent, inhuman and despicable practice. Politically, state authorities must get Igbo communities and associations to remove provisions in their constitution that bar Osu from contesting elections or receiving traditional titles. Legally, the courts must begin to enforce the law abolishing the Osu caste system. And the Nigerian state must rise up to its duty of protecting and defending the humanity, dignity and equal rights of all citizens irrespective of their sex, ethnic origin, religion, belief or birth status.

Most importantly Igbos must begin to envision a new society where people can live and interact, marry and be married, elect and be elected, without division, distinction, discrimination on the basis of Osu or Nwadiala. Hence I want to use this opportunity to appeal to my people-ndi Igbo: Please let’s strive to remove this mark of leprosy and shame from the face of our culture and society.
_____
About the author: Leo Igwe is director of the Centre for Inquiry in Nigeria. He can be reached at nskepticleo@yahoo.com.