THE PLIGHT OF WIDOWS IN THE RURAL AREAS
Becoming a widow is every woman's nightmare and for the rural dwellers widowhood means going through a lot of hardship that comes from tradition and the late husbands' family. In most rural areas in African a widow is treated as an outcast, it is always believed that she knows something about her husband's death either through adultery or witchcraft. As a result, widows are always humiliated; they are not allowed to have a bath or wash their hands after eating. Sometimes, a widow is not allowed to change her clothes or underwear, she has to sit and sleep on the bare floor during her period of confinement - eprints.covenantuniversity.edu.ng/id/file/6716
Since most women in the rural areas are illiterate and lack any form of skill acquisition, their transition of becoming a widow is always associated with pain, grief and depression since they have almost nothing to fall back on - http://leadership.ng/features/342278/the-plight-of-widows-and-struggle-for-survival.
Among all these plights of the widow, it is of note to mention the dominating dehumanizing and barbaric treatments that widows in the rural areas are subjected to. They include:
SWEARING AN OATH OF INNOCENCE:
Widows in most rural communities are made to drink the water used to bathe the corpses of their husbands in order to prove their innocence that they were never part of the cause of their death. It is believed that the widow will die from drinking that water unless she is innocent.
Again, they have to go into the thick forest at night and recite some incantations for the purpose of proving their innocence. All these exercises will continue to go on while consultations by traditional practitioners will be made to find out the real cause of their husbands death.
ATTITUDES OF IN-LAWS:
Widows in some cases are re-married by a relative of the late husband as tradition demands. Some of them are made to vacate the matrimonial homes for the relatives of this dead husband. Again, their hair are shaved as a mark of respect for their departed husband and as a sign of remembrance of their 'state' from the husbands' relative who may be doing them a world of good to be 'covering' them either as a concubine (mistress) or as an openly inherited 'property' handed over to him which no one can now contest to.
However, access to education and skill acquisition is what every woman (widow or not) needs in the rural communities in order to have a sense of believe in herself and to have something to fall back to in situations such as widowhood. In doing this, she will be able to fulfill the desire of a friend who once said:
Among all these plights of the widow, it is of note to mention the dominating dehumanizing and barbaric treatments that widows in the rural areas are subjected to. They include:
SWEARING AN OATH OF INNOCENCE:
Widows in most rural communities are made to drink the water used to bathe the corpses of their husbands in order to prove their innocence that they were never part of the cause of their death. It is believed that the widow will die from drinking that water unless she is innocent.
Again, they have to go into the thick forest at night and recite some incantations for the purpose of proving their innocence. All these exercises will continue to go on while consultations by traditional practitioners will be made to find out the real cause of their husbands death.
ATTITUDES OF IN-LAWS:
Widows in some cases are re-married by a relative of the late husband as tradition demands. Some of them are made to vacate the matrimonial homes for the relatives of this dead husband. Again, their hair are shaved as a mark of respect for their departed husband and as a sign of remembrance of their 'state' from the husbands' relative who may be doing them a world of good to be 'covering' them either as a concubine (mistress) or as an openly inherited 'property' handed over to him which no one can now contest to.
However, access to education and skill acquisition is what every woman (widow or not) needs in the rural communities in order to have a sense of believe in herself and to have something to fall back to in situations such as widowhood. In doing this, she will be able to fulfill the desire of a friend who once said:
if i should die and leave you here awhile, be not like others, soon undone, who keep long vigil by the silent dust and weep. For my sake turn again to life and smile, nerving thy heart and trembling hand to do something to comfort weaker hearts than thine. Complete those dear unfinished tasks of mine and I, perchance, may therein comfort you.
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