Stella Edmund in this report captures the painful agonies of widows deprived of love and affection by the society on account of their poor stations in life
Despite assurances by feminist groups of an equal opportunity like their male counterparts, many womenfolk around here still suffer a lot of privations more than they are willing to admit. And the reason for this is not far to seek: Nigeria remains a largely paternalistic society where the women still don’t occupy a pride of place in the scheme of things.
In the eastern region of the country, women, it does appears, are victims of harmful cultural practices among other things largely bizarre.
In its bid to suggest ways forward to streamline certain harmful practices in Igbo land, The Nation had in chat with the Eze Ndigbo Lagos, His Royal Highness H.N.Ohazulike while noting that very ancient tradition has been handed down by their ancestors since the origin of the Igbo race on earth, as such, cannot be easily abolished from the culture and mores of the land, however, said modernity has rubbed off on the way people observe these culture.
Igbo land occupies a large mass of land which includes five states with many dialects and homogenous culture.
Of the many vices in Igbo land, the issue of widowhood rights appears profound. A culture analyst, Titus Nwachukwu, while commenting on the problem of widowhood neglect, said it is a sore point.
“The issue of widowhood right depends on the family or town where the woman is married. Although in Igbo culture, a woman is not entitled to her father’s property or have legitimate right, unless in her husband’s family whereas in some part of the area, when husband dies the woman is subjected to torture from their late husband siblings over right of ownership and if the deceased was sick before his death, some families may accuse the widow of killing her husband. Therefore she will be subjected to drink the dirty water which was used to bath the dead and will be kept in isolation. She will not have bath for one week and after the burial, she will be asked to shave her hair, and wear black clothes for a period of one year.”
Confirming this development, in a chat with Chioma Ogbonna, who said she has been a widow for the past 15years since her husband died and left her with three primary school three children, life has been hellish.
First, she was thrown out by her in-laws, who, in the course of fighting over possessions with her, grabbed her late husband’s little savings and left them wretched. However, as her son came of age, many years later, he went to his uncle and demanded for his father’s properties, which expectedly resulted into a court case. Much to the grace of God, her son took possession of the properties, which include landed properties, cars and houses in Enugu.
Her story however underlines the fact that a woman in the Igbo culture does not have legitimate right on issues like these. Women from that part of the country therefore face such problems and when there is problem in the families before the man dies, some members of the family will always come against you and capitalise on it because of what they want to benefit. Some will even label the woman an osu, meaning an outcast, a negative tag that emanated from pre-colonial slavery era and degenerated to what it is today. An example of people who are referred to as osu are Igbo people, who at very young ages, were taken or who travelled to distant places for a long time, and may not be able to trace their ways back to their original home or place of origin.
