Dealing With The Vulnerability Of Widowhood

By Fred Nwaozor  

On June 23, the world over commemorated the annual International Widows’ Day as stipulated and observed by the United Nations (UN). The International Widows’ Day is a UN ratified day of action to address the poverty and injustice faced by millions of widows and their dependents in many countries. The event invariably takes place on every day of June 23.

The day was established in 2005 by Raj Loomba whose mother became a widow on June 23, 1954, and the bereaved woman experienced the social intolerance and financial adversity that can befall widows. The establishment was made under the aegis of The Loomba Foundation to raise awareness of the issue of widowhood, which was thereafter formally adopted and duly approved on December 21, 2010 by the United Nations’ General Assembly under the leadership of the present UN Secretary General, Ban Ki-Moon. The proposal for the approval was tendered by President Ali Bongo Ondimba of Gabon.

A widow is a woman whose husband has died, whilst a widower is a man who has lost his wife; thus, widowhood is a state in which a man or a woman, as the case may be, has lost his/her marriage partner. It is obvious that in any society in the world, anyone either a man or a woman found in a state of widowhood is regarded as a less-privileged, because his/her partner in whom he/she is well pleased has departed for eternity. But in Africa, particularly Nigeria, the most devastating aspect of widowhood is when a woman is passing through the ordeal.

In Nigeria for instance, on the average, a widow regardless of her status, is severely molested, intimidated as well as humiliated. The major plight faced by a widow in this part of the world is deprivation of her late husband’s property or possessions by her teeming in-laws. In this case, she could be banned from making use of anything belonging to the deceased, thereby making her appear like a mere slave in her matrimonial home.

In many cases, the widow in question could be accused of being responsible for her husband’s demise without minding the severe psychological pains and agony she is passing through. In some quarters, to prove her innocence, the poor widow would be mandated by the accusers to drink the water used in washing her late husband’s corpse; a practice that obviously seems highly irrational and barbaric.