Widowhood In Igboland

By Onyinye Igwe

In the past, the life of a widow in a typical Igboland was anything but rosy. The archaic rituals of the Igbo community have been abolished but some traits are still seen even in the modern Igbo community.

Usually, when a man dies, a lot of rituals surrounding the burial involve his wife and this would see her go through rigorous processes all in a bid to appease the gods and set everything straight.

Lots of times, Nollywood portrays widowhood and even though we see them as simply movies, they actually tell the story of the widow. During the burial, you would see scenarios where the woman would be instructed to shave her head bald using crude instruments, they may also require her to drink the water used to bath the corpse of her dead husband. These were practices that hurt women deeply. Their plight doesn’t end with the finale of the burial as she would then lose all her husband’s properties and then be shipped off to marry her husband’s brother. She suffers continually. In some more severe traditions, if the man dies under suspicious premises, it would be said that the wife had a hand in it and for that reason she could be banished. The plight continues!

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Westernization had been said to have left an indelible mark on the Igbo tradition and they have indeed dealt us an unfair hand but the truth remains that every thing has good and bad sides to it. One of the pros of westernization was the fact that it abolished burial rituals that involved women going through inhumane practices, the white men felt that the widow was going through enough seeing as she has lost her husband and has to fend for her kids alone.

The modern Igbo community is a lot more suitable for the widow, she gets aids from the village chief and programmes are held to support women with materials they may need for upkeep. Widows also form communities to serve the purpose of supporting and caring for one another.

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The period of mourning is hard enough for any one and so the modern Igbo community refrains from pointing fingers and give all the support they can possibly muster. As regards properties, the village chief divides the properties amongst the widow and her in laws to ensure that no one cheats the other.

Looking at the present Igbo community, we have indeed come a long way and the inhumane practices carried out on widows during funerals seem to have reached a point of extinction thankfully!