AJADU NWANYI: WIDOWHOOD ISSUES AND EXPERIENCES IN CONTEMPORARY IGBO SOCIETIES

Abstract

Widowhood practices abound in many cultures in Nigeria but regrettably, many of the practices are obnoxious especially among the Igbo of southeast Nigeria. Today, widows experience very devastating practices even when it is assumed at some quarters that some of the obnoxious practices had been abolished. Such practices include forced moodiness, restriction of movement, dispossession of husband’s property, subjection to ritual sexual intercourse (Ajana ritual). Others include brutal beating, compelling the widow to drink the water with which her husband’s corpse was bathed, accusing the widow of killing her husband, not allowing the widow to see the corpse of her husband before burial; forced compulsory load wailings by the widow as an expression of grief and restricting her to a set of derogatory clothing for a specified period of mourning. This study was conceived to investigate cultural widowhood practices among the Igbo and the major problems encountered by these widows as a result of these practices. The study adopted area culture approach of the qualitative method and the Social-Psychological Theory of Carl Rogers to establish that some of these somewhat obnoxious widowhood practices were not originally designed to dehumanize or humiliate the widow. They were rather conceived on the premise of Igbo cosmology in pursuit of ontological harmony of the Igbo universe. The study further noted that such practices like dispossession of widow’s deceased husband’s properties by in-laws are dubious interpretations of family inheritance practice among the Igbo. The study therefore recommends a social review of some of the practices and a possible synthesis between the Igbo worldview and contemporary Christian widowhood model since most Igbo communities now profess Christianity.