WIDOWHOOD

The study of women as a vital and autonomous social force, as well as the In certain parts of Nigeria, the maltreatment of widows is common. In-laws and the community subject them to physical and emotional abuses such as being made to sit on the floor; being confined from a month to one year; having their hair literally scraped off with razors or broken bottles; not being allowed to bathe; being made to routinely weep in public; being forced to drink the water used to wash their husband’s corpse; crowned by the loss of inheritance rights and eviction. CFC felt that it was important to launch the film in Nigeria as part of an entire campaign to stop harmful widowhood practices. 

BACKGROUND AND OBJECTIVES

Nzewi in "Widowhood practices: A Female Perspective" found out that widowhood practices in certain parts of Imo State begins after the burial ceremony but among the Mbaise Igbos, a woman becomes a widow (isi npke) when her husband dies. It is from this point of death of the husband that a woman begins to go through the rituals associated with widowhood. However, there are a lot of similarities in the rituals undergone by widows in the different parts of Igbo society. These practices, I define as sets of expectations as to actions and behaviour of the widow, action by others towards the widow, and rituals performed by, or on behalf of the widow from the time of the death of her husband. Later phases of these practices include issues of inheritance, the status of the widow, the remarriage of the widow and levirate relationships.