The plight of the widows in Edo State is very pathetic.  A widow in Edo State
is condemned to a life of rejection, trauma, deprivation and poverty.  The
practices vary from area to area, however, there are two broad patterns of
practice in Edo South and Edo North.  Edo South is inhabited mainly by the
Binis and Ishans.
When a man dies in Edo South, the wife is usually suspected to have a hand in
his death, no matter how old he man may be.
The practice is usually for the women to be confined to her room and the man's
family will be invited and informed.  Upon arrival of the family, there is
severe mourning and then accusations and counter accusations.
The interrogation and inquisition then begins.  This generally has put the
women as an accused before her accusers.
In order to prove her innocence the woman is desperate to do any thing demanded
of her in the name of tradition.
Her husband's spirit is usually invoked and she is made to swear before him. In
the purely traditional families, the corpse is washed and she is made to drink
from it.  When the burial proper begins she is made to sit on tree branches,
her hair is shaven and she does not bathe during the seven days of the burial
ceremonies.  She is served food on a broken clay pot which remains unwashed
throughout the period, she is also made to eat with her left hand.  The rites
are fraught with so much danger and hostility that the widow usually has her
family members guarding her throughout.  On the last day of mourning, after
some rituals, she is made to bathe in the dead of night.  This is usually the
most dangerous as there have been occasions when the widow has been physically
attacked by the husband's family members.  She is usually protected by men from
her own family.
If the husband's family is Christian, the widow may be spared the ordeal but
usually there will be non-Christians among them who will insist that some
aspect of the tradition be carried out. By the end of the ordeal the widow is
so traumatised that the cordial relationship which previously existed between
families is terminated.  After the rites, if the man was polygamous or if the
widow was the only wife, but did not bear him a son, she is asked to leave her
matrimonial home.  There are known instances of women who have been driven out
of their matrimonial home after 45 years of marriage.
The widow has no right of inheritances.  If the widow is lucky to have older
children, the children begin to look after their mother.  Where the widow is
young she is pushed into penury, because the family begin to divest her of all
her husband'' property.  If the widow was a full-time housewife, the sudden
loss of status and the traumatic experience has been known to drive some into
depression.  The children are also not catered for and she is left to fend

In Edo North, the widowhood rites are similar but also the women become
inherited by the deceased's brother. It is very common in Edo North for a
woman to bear children for two brothers.

but some idiots are bent on making these stupid practices continue despite the outcry


BENIN CHIEF CONDEMNS ASSEMBLY OVER WIDOWS' BILL

A Benin Chief, Obaloza of Benin Kingdom, Chief Jackson Amure, on Wednesday,
condemned the passage of the bill on maltreatment of widows by the State House
of Assembly, saying it will lead to crisis, if eventually signed into law by
the executive.

This condemnation was contained in a statement, made available to the Punch, in
Benin on Wednesday.
The bill sponsored by the House Committee Chairman on Women Affairs, Mrs. Eshoe
Jacobs seeks among other things to ban the age-long practice of making a widow
drink the water used in washing the corpse of her dead husband or eat a
particular soup from a special plate with the left hand.
Amure, a member of the Benin Traditional Council (BIC) while condemning the
passage of the bill affected the Benin cultural values, adding the practice had
been with people from ancient times.
He berated the legislators for not consulting the people, adding that making a
widow to swear at the forehead of her deceased husband is allowed in order to
prove the innocence of the widow as not being the cause of the death of the
deceased"
While advocating a strict adherence to African cultural values, Amure stated
that "we should remember that we can never be more white than the Englishman.
If you tell a whiteman that it is possible to programme death into somebody's
life by cutting his hair or taking sand from his footprint, the whiteman would
tell you that it is not possible.
But we black know that this is very possible.
But we black know that this very possible. The type of diabolical and
spiritual wickedness practiced here is quite different from what obtains in the
whiteman's world", he said.
He stated that the idea of a widow swearing at the forehead of her deceased
husband was evolved to serve as a check on the diabolical wickedness of some
women.[/b]He added that the practice [b]guaranteed the protection of the man (the husband),
while alive "and it serves as a deterrent to the woman or any of the spouses
that is diabolically inclined. She knows what she will go through, should the
partner dies".
While urging the Governor of the State Chief Lucky Igbinedion to be circumspect
in signing the bill into law, the Benin Chief warned that "the bill, if signed
into law by the governor would cause more confusion than it is made to solve".
He said that any woman who hid under the new bill to defy the family of her
late husband would have herself and her children rejected and denied
recognition within the milieu of the Bini tradition.

http://lists.kabissa.org/lists/archives/public/womenseconomicrights-conference/msg00063.html

The following information was provided in correspondence received on 9 July 2001 from the Projects Director of Grassroots Women Foundation (GWF), who holds a master's degree in law and who conducted a study on widowhood practices in 11 Nigerian states as a national consultant for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP). The Projects Director referred to the study she conducted in which[b] two per cent of 150 widows interviewed in Edo state said they "were subjected to the practice" of drinking the water used to clean the corpse.[/b]

In 2001, the Government of Enugu State passed The Prohibition of Infringement of a Widow's and Widower's Fundamental Rights Law, 2001-A Law to Make it Unlawful to Infringe the Fundamental Rights of Widows and Widows, and for Other Related Matters (WIN NEWS Spring 2002; Widows' Rights International n.d.). Subsection 1 f) of this law specifically forbids forcing a widow to drink the water used to wash her husband's corpse (WIN NEWS Spring 2002). To publicize the law, the Widows Development Organisation, assisted by the Canada Fund for Local Initiatives (CFLI), has published an explanatory guide (Widows' Rights International n.d.). [b]According to a report by the project coordinator of Women's Rights Watch - Nigeria, "three states have passed laws against punitive widowhood rites, Enugu, Edo and Oyo state" ([/b]Rufarm 2003). However, the report states that despite these laws, the mourning rites continued to be practised in these states in 2003 (ibid
http://www.irb-cisr.gc.ca/en/research/rir/?action=record.viewrec&gotorec=433946

Women are indeed suffering

In Rivers State,the widow sits on the bare floor for some time after which the corpse is placed on a platform called(IVU-OJU)which the widow will now sit for two hours because she is suspected to have a hand in her husbands death so that she will die if she actually has a hand in his death and if not,she goes free.http://www.helium.com/items/75450-the-challenges-of-being-a-widow

Ghana

Ghana: Ashanti widow rituals, steps required, whether the widow can refuse to participate, whether she would be required to marry her husband's relative, and consequences for refusal

In a telephone interview with the Research Directorate, the executive director of MATCH International, a non-governmental organization that works with women in developing countries in Africa and Latin and Central America, based in Ottawa, stated that among the Ashanti, as in other ethnic groups in Ghana, women are expected to observe rituals such as being secluded in the dark during the period of mourning, bathing in cold water, and abstaining from eating certain foods (23 Apr. 2002). She also stated that widows are usually harassed by their husbands' relatives, who may disinherit the them and their children (ibid.). She said that although in theory, widows have some recourse under the law, in practice, whether a woman accesses the legal system depends on ethnicity, class, age, and her family's social status (ibid.).

The following information on widowhood rites in general may be of interest. A report on gender issues in Ghana prepared for the Institute of Development Studies, at the University of Sussex, in Brighton, UK, states that:

[B]Widows are often expected under customary law to undergo lengthy periods of mourning (of up to one year) whereas widowers generally only observe mourning for a few days.[/b] There may be restrictions on their movements, the imposition of food taboos and subjection to various forms of humiliation and abuse. , Whilst these practices are traditionally considered as a form of rehabilitation, "some of the practices involved are cruel, degrading and traumatic for the victims and amount to a denial of their rights" (UNECA, 1984: 7). They may also prevent women from engaging in normal economic activities and thus may cause considerable hardship. Bortei-Dorku (1990) reports that (as of 1990) the Law Reform Commission was considering legislation to abolish or restrict widowhood rites.

Older women members of extended families or communities have been known to be savegely brutalised and murdered, often on the basis of accusations of witchcraft (Ampofo, 1993) (Baden et al. Jan. 1994).

According to a report published by Empowering Widows in Development (EWD) on the situation of widows in Ghana,

what determines the widow's future is how tradition is interpreted at the local level. The practices of communities which are mainly traditionalist and muslim are the most severe on widows. ,

Among the Northern tribes the widows are required to stay indoors sitting together if there are several widows, alone if there is only one. The widows are stripped naked, with only leaves on their private parts, and must sit on a reed mat, for days or even weeks. They must hold a calabash (symbol of a dead husband) any time that they leave the hut.

Widows may not cook, and must eat and drink only from a special bowl or calabash to avoid polluting others. The corpse of the dead man is put in another part of the hut and the widow can only visit it in the company of an old lady.

After the burial, and once the cause of death has been established by a soothsayer, the widows are led out naked and made to drink a special brew. They have to wash in a designated place, usually a little used area where rubbish is thrown. Then their heads are shaved. The funeral ceremonies can be over in three days but many last weeks, months or even years depending on the wealth of the relatives and how much money there is to be spent on rites.

Some of the mourning rites may include "ritual cleansing" through sex with designated individuals. These could be the "first stranger met on the road", or brothers-in-law, or the heir. These coercive acts and others such as scarification (scarring) with unclean instruments are life-threatening as well as degrading in the context of HIV/AIDS infection.

It is noteworthy that Ghana is the only country in the world that has attempted to eliminate degrading and harmful widows' mourning rites by legislation. The 1989 amendment to the Penal Code criminalises the acts of any person who compels a widow to undergo any custom or practice that is cruel, immoral, or grossly indecent.

But according to EWD's partner groups, no one has ever been arrested and brought to court under this law; it is difficult to see how an illiterate and marginalised rural widow could realistically use this amendment even if she was aware of it. However, the existence of the law provides leverage for action and possibilities in the future for some collective action. ,

Physical and mental violence, including sexual violence and rape, is a common accompaniment to the onset of widowhood. Sometimes as part of the mourning rite, or associated with some of the ceremonies (for example, having to sit naked, having to take off all clothing by the river, being left alone and destitute), widows are frequently vulnerable to extreme sexual abuse. ,

The mental anguish caused by such physical abuse, the sudden destitution, homelessness, starvation and insults leads a considerable number of widows to commit suicide. No research has been done to get an idea of numbers. A suicide of a widow is usually made to look like an accident.

After the funeral ceremony the widow is expected to choose which man will marry her. In practice she may have no real choice; if a man succeeds in sleeping with the widow he will tell a close relative and the man then takes the widow as his wife. Any children she bears him will be the children of the dead husband. This is what is called a "levirate" union.

In the Bolga district (where much of our information comes from) widows of fertile age who are forced to continue to produce children in the name of the dead husband for the "levir" often find themselves abandoned once they have given birth. They are at the mercy of the levir's other wife or wives. They might say, as they did to one informant " You have killed your husband. Now you wish to kill mine".

The Widows' Ministry (MOW), a Christian welfare organisation in Bolga reports that so many widows are left caring for children conceived in this way that they are unable to adequately care and feed them all. Many widows faced with this situation turn to begging or prostitution. Or they are forced to abandon their babies and those small children who are too young to beg. The MOW also writes that sometimes unscrupulous relatives offer to take the children and send them to school, but they then exploit them as unpaid cattle-herders. ,

Widowhood itself makes daughters vulnerable to very early marriage. The MOW reports that quite destitute widows find themselves searching for husbands for their young girls so as to acquire bridewealth of cattle.

[B]The future for a very young widow is very bleak.[/b]


Widows are generally regarded as bringing bad luck. They are frequently accused of having used witchcraft to kill their husbands. A woman surviving her husband is suspect, and to avoid such suspicion she must demonstrate her grief and penance by wearing special clothes, avoiding people and all social occasions such as weddings and parties. Friends shun her because she poses a threat: she could cast an evil spell on them, destroy their children or cattle. She must be avoided at all costs.

Relations may allege she is a prostitute, or not the proper wife – these are tactics to avoid the responsibility of supporting her. This reaction is often the result of the widow refusing the levirate or remarriage with one of the husband's male relatives. [B]It is not just a question of men against women, but of mothers-in-law and sisters-in-law uniting in their bitterness that a wicked woman has deprived them of a son or a brother.[/B]

[B]A Christian Minister reported that one young widow, unable to bear the jibes and accusations locked herself in a room with her baby. When someone eventually forced open the door he found she had hanged [herself]. The baby was still alive, and was trying to suck from the dead mother's breast, she having fallen from the hook where she had tied her dress.[/b] He said that other Christian widows who refuse to follow harmful and degrading mourning rites or take another man from the male relatives are accused of pride and labelled as witches.

As explained above, few widows, especially those in the rural areas, dare attempt to get their problems resolved through the courts, or to apply for relief through the social welfare agencies. In one reported case the in-laws murdered a widow after she complained to a human rights lawyer that her brother-in-law had sold all her husband's land on which she depended on for food. ,

Prostitution is often the only means of survival, but these widows often die early from HIV/AIDS and the opportunistic illnesses associated with this infection. TB is a big problem. Widows never have sufficient cash to buy medicines or follow a healthy diet. Widows tend not to seek medical help because the drugs have to be paid for and they cannot meet the hospital bills , (n.d.).


http://www.unhcr.org/refworld/topic,463af2212,469f2da82,3df4be3520,0.html

From Ghana

Widows Bemoan Widowhood Rituals

Nalerigu (N/R), July 19, GNA - A forty- five year-old widow from Nalerigu in the Northern Region, Mrs. Lariba Mohammed, stated at the weekend that she was stripped naked, her hands and legs dipped into hot water and kept in indoors for a couple of days when her husband passed away.

Another widow (name withheld) narrated similar shocking experiences, and said she could not attend church services because of the shame and humiliation she went through after the death of her husband. These outmoded widowhood practices are still deeply rooted in most parts of the three Northern Regions of the country.

The reason for the inhuman treatment in most cases, is for the widows to prove that they had no hands in the death of their husbands. These came to light when the Widow and Orphans Ministry inaugurated a 110-member widows' group at Nalerigu, in the East Mamprusi district of the Northern region.

The Director of the Ministry, Ms Betty Ayagiba stressed that such outmoded cultural practices were an abuse of human dignity and a violation of human rights.

She said it was against this background that the Ministry was organizing numerous durbars and workshops to sensitise chiefs, opinion leaders and all stakeholders on the need to stop such barbaric practices.

Inaugurating the group, the Director urged them to exhibit a sense of compassion for one another in their communities. She indicated that for the past years, her outfit had been supporting widows' groups in the country logistically and financially to undertake basket weaving, batik tie and dye, and agricultural activities, among others.

Ms Ayagiba also stated that the Ministry has set up an HIV/Aids counselling unit for widows and orphans. She disclosed that the Ministry has so far enrolled 210 orphans into schools in the Upper East Region and called on NGOs and philanthropists to come to the aid of the Ministry to enable it to discharge its functions efficiently. June 19 05

From Kenya
www.sahara.org.za/index.php/Download-document/284-Widowhood-in-the-era-of-HIV-AIDS-A-case-study-of-Slaya-District-Kenya.html+widowhood+rituals&hl=en&ct=clnk&cd=4&gl=us&ie=UTF-8">Widowhood in the era of HIV/AIDS: A case study of Slaya District, Kenya

They make the widows go through a cleansing ritual, this is rid the widow of taboos and the spirit of her dead husband. Who does the cleansing. . . You ask? The brother in law or cousin, a male relative of the husband by having sex with the widow however long the elders prescribe. Sometimes, if the brother in law aren't interested, the hire a professional cleanser. . . That's right a professional sex-uper to "rid" the woman who just lost her husband, the spirit of her husband.

Nice! Real Nice.

Whats this one again

Popularity Contest if you ask me

It seems many of these so-called acient practices were are not so ancient.

I have spent a considerable amount of time wondering how single women could have made do in West African history. The non-existent yet much spoken of “African culture” of today paints a picture that such things never happened even though there are several renowned women who we remember today that never married, whether it is Queen Amina of Zaria, or Sarrounia, or Pa Sini Jobu, or even King Ahebi Ugbabe. Yet, most of us believe that independent minded women who are not interested in marriage only came to be so due to colonial European influence. Or assume that it must have been hard for unmarried women back when. In this post, I use Baule women of Ivory Coast as an example to show that it was not impossible to be unmarried and childless in a pre-colonial West African society.

It was a great pleasure coming across Mona Etienne’s “Gender Relations and Conjugality among the Baule”, in Christine Oppong’s Female and Male in West Africa. In a chapter, Etienne begins by mentioning that modern Baule women are known for being independent, noting that many middle aged and elderly Baule women who live in towns are unmarried yet acquire enough wealth to support those that are dependent on them and to maintain social networks. Some of these women have educated adult children or foster children who earn high salaries and are thus able to support their incomes, ensure that the women are taken care of in old age, and that they will have a “presitgious” funeral when they die. Young women holding these older women as role models, view marriage as “incompatible” with their personal goals of becoming wealth, or view marriage as a means through which they can get wealth as “a generous husband may help them attain wealth and success”.

Etienne boldly states that “this type of situation is not unusual in Africa, especially in West Africa”, and I believe that she means among modern West African women in urban environments. However among Baule women, even those in rural areas resist marriage despite pressure and the limited economic opportunities available to single women in the village, putting marriage aside because they want to go to the city or wanting to escape to the city because they do not want to marry. Both in the urban cities and rural villages, there are Baule women who are more concerned with achieving economic autonomy. Etienne traces this reluctance to marry, and this view of marriage as an unwanted convenience or “as an outright exploitation” to pre-colonial Baule society. Baule society has always placed premium in personal autonomy and individual freedom of choice for women and men.

Early European observers remarked on the high positions Baule women held. They had a voice in the decision making process in affairs that concerned the village. Furthermore all adult women were part of a secret society whose rituals were forbidden for men to see/watch. As part of this society, women defended the interests of the community against foreign threats, they also defended the interests of women against women although Etienne states that the more import role was safeguarding the community interests in times of illness and warfare. The support of women was absolutely crucial in affairs concerning the community, for example it was believed that men who went to war without the support of women would surely meet defeat and death. It should be noted that men also had their own secret society that women could not be part of.

It seems it was only in ritual that Baule women and men were divided as there was hardly any other case of separation between the sexes, and gender attributes were not rigidly defined. The division of labour in which men and women were assigned different tasks were apparently upheld due to efficiency in production and were not enforced by supernatural or civil sanctions. Deviations were acceptable when necessary or convenient meaning that men could perform women’s labour tasks when the situation called for it and vice versa. Finding a partner of the opposite sex to aid with labour did not necessarily mean finding a husband or wife, but could mean finding a “sister” or a “brother”. Deviations were only rare in the cases of apprenticeship though healers and diviners could be men or women.

Women chiefs were important, although they grew less in number at the time of colonisation. Women could attract vast amounts of wealth and dependants (both men and women), they played their role in trading and gold prospecting expeditions, and acquired domestic slaves in their own rights. Etienne mentions the traditions and histories contemporary women have of business minded grandmothers and great-grandmothers, and guesses that these women may have been encouraged by their own mothers hinting at a chain of enterprising Baule women who inspired their daughters over time. So Baule women’s search for independence and wealth is not new but rooted in history and traditional models.

Among the Baule, early stages of marriage were marked by long periods of duolocality, that is the wife continued to live with her kin and the husband did the same. Marriage was not thought to be complete until the wife took up residence with her husband. It is due to this that noble women, women who belong to families that held high political office, are said to not marry. Such women could not be expected to move and take residence with their husbands if they did marry because they had a chance at a political office. And apparently the same thing happens today, even though the traditional political office does not hold as much important in this post-colonial age. Yet there are women who refuse marriage because they are heirs to a political seat, or whose families oppose their marriages for the same reason. Etienne states that these cases must be less frequent that in the past, because colonial and post-colonial administrations does not encourage women holding traditional political positions. In pre-colonial times when this discrimination was non-existent, there would have been more noble women refusing to marry or whose families refused their marriages. There would have also been noble women who married but did not live with their husbands as they did not want to risk losing their chance at a political seat. Thus for politically ambitious women, marriage was a constraint and noble women were not anxious to married, or if they did get married often divorced to claim their political office with their kin.

Baule women retain economic rights in their own kin group. They have rights to the labour of a brother or any other kinsman with whom they could launch an economic partnership similar to that between spouses. Basically, unmarried women could form ‘marriage-like” partnerships with their kinsmen on solely economic grounds. Kinship relations among the Baule are traced from both parents, rather from either a father and a mother, with succession and inheritance being generally matrilineal. In this cognatic system, people continually sought to attract dependants from all sides of the family tree that they could rely on, and who could rely on them in turn. Elders looked to attract dependants in order to increase their own wealth while juniors wanted to establish ties with elders who were rich enough to finance entrepreneurial undertakings and who were generous enough to offer dependants a share in the profits. Kin group membership was not rigidly ascribed and there was less gerontocracy or autocracy. Elders did demand respect and had some authority, however rigidly enforcing authority could led to the departure of dependants and even the eventual dying out of a kin group due to all the members leaving.

Riches came from having a large number of dependants to contribute to one’s revenue. No elders or chiefs could completely take the labour or revenue of their dependants, meaning that dependants always could keep a little something to themselves. The elders held on to a bonus which increased their own wealth. People acquired wealth and personal property either from their labour and also from estates inherited matrilineally. Relationships of dependency were flexible, all adults had the possibility of building their own group of personal dependants. A son who remained with his father’s kin was a “child of male” and could not inherit there, and neither could his children unless he married a woman in the same kin group as his father. In order to inherit, one had to be a “child of a female”. A man could return to his maternal kin in order to inherit there. Or he could build his own group, with his sisters, or his sister’s children, or by attracting maternal kin unrelated to his father. These people would show allegiance only to their “brother” and contribute their labour to his estate while receiving some revenue for themselves.

A women who chose to live with their husband had access to similar opportunities. She could create her own group by holding on to her unmarried or divorced daughters. These would be joined by her dependants unrelated to her husband, her domestic slaves, and younger members of her own kin group. By fostering and adopting children, a married woman could grow the number of people who depended on her. Usually when a woman took up residence with her husband, she was given a child in adoption and would adopt other children as time went on. Junior dependants would join her group if she had a reputation of wealth and generosity. All a married woman’s dependants owed allegiance to her alone, and respect to her husband. Through this, a married woman essentially she aided the people in her own kin group and maintained ties with them even though she now lived with her husband.

Etienne argues that marriage in Baule society was more of an “association of a woman and man for purposes of reproduction and production with shared rights in both children and products”. Children owed labour and allegiance to both parents, but this could be circumstantial depending on the child’s desires and ambitions. A married woman controlled the products of her labour and gained new wealth from surplus production. Gender equality was so that the two most important products in pre-colonial Baule society were controlled by men and women; yam for men and cloth for women. Division of labour meant that both men and women contributed to the production of both. Women and men controlled surplus production by controlling the labour of their dependants, domestic slaves, children and junior kin. And by controlling male dependants who worked in yam farming for example, a woman could use her surplus production to fund other opportunities such as long-distance trade and gold prospecting.

Of course colonialism changed things considerably. The introduction of cash crop lead to Baule women losing control over production. And losing control over production lead to losing control over dependants, as reduced productivity reduced a woman’s ability to attract dependants, and less dependants reduced a woman’s productive capacity. There is more to be said on how Baule gender relations and marriages were affected by colonialism and urban migration, however that is not the purpose of this post so I will end things here hoping that those who read this post have a clearer idea of how single unmarried women thrived in pre-colonial Baule society.

What I read
Etienne Mona, “Gender Relations and Conjugality among the Baule”, pp. 309-319 in Female and Male in West Africa (1983) edited by Christine Oppong

http://eccentricyoruba./

Women in Pre-colonial/colonial Nigeria

Pre-colonial
The position of women in pre-colonial Nigeria obviously differed in the vast number of ethnic groups in Nigeria. A woman's position varied according to the (1) kinship structure of the group and (2) role of women within the economic structure of the society. Common factors among women of different ethnic groups, however, included the domestically oriented jobs and the range of economic activities that the societies reserved for women. Women in pre-colonial societies held a complementary position to men although patrilineal and patriarchal kinship structures predominated Nigerian societies. The kinship group expected women who married into a Yoruba or Igbo patrilineage to give birth to sons to ensure the future of the group. Furthermore, the position of a young wife improved as she grew older, bore children, and earned approval from its older members. She gained assistance from younger wives as she grew older, thus allowing her to spend less time in the home and more time engaging in activities outside the household--activities such as farming and craft making which allowed her to provide the material resources needed in order to care for her family. Yoruba society offered the greatest opportunities for women to participate in other economic activities such as manufacturing and trade. In Yoruba society, the responsibility of a woman to provide for her family included providing the material resources for such care. Women believed that providing such resources met their responsibility as women and citizens. Their society considered the work the women did complementary to the work of men, and some women achieved impressive status in the economic and social realms of Yoruba life. However, more commonly, women achieved power by means of their lineage or by means of marriage into ruling families. By achieving such power, they obtained indirect political influence, but they rarely showed their influence in public.

Like the family and economic structures, the religions of many Nigerian tribal societies conceived the position of women as complementary to that of men. However, the fact remains that the societies of Pre-Colonial Nigeria believed men superior to women and, to some extent, in control of women. According to Carolyne Dennis, writer of Women and State in Nigeria, "The religions of many Nigerian societies recognised the social importance of women by emphasising the place of female gods of fertility and social peace, but women were also associated with witchcraft which appeared to symbolise the potential social danger of women exercising power uncontrolled by men" (15). In societies that did not confine women to the household as the Hausa did, women held important roles in agriculture, manufacturing, and trade, and women also possessed an important, if restricted, religious role. However, religion also provided an important means of controlling women by explaining that women acting outside their appropriate social role, unconfined by menled to dangerous results.

Women held a basically complementary, rather than subordinate, position to men in indigenous pre-colonial Nigerian society, which based power on seniority rather than gender. The absence of gender in the pronouns of many African languages and the interchangeability of first names among females and males strikes Niara Sudarkasa, author of "'The Status of Women' in Indigenous African Societies" in the anthology Women in Africa and the African Diaspora, as a further relation of the social deemphasis on gender as a designation for behavior. She observers that "many other areas of traditional culture, including personal dress and adornment, religious ceremonials, and intragender patterns of comportment, suggest that Africans often deemphasize gender in relation to seniority and other insignia of status" (36). However, despite the lack of emphasis placed on gender by Nigeria's indigenous societies, the state and its bureaucracy tried to dictate the lifestyles of women, endorsing the domesticity of women and the unwaged services they provided for the family. Much of the legislation concerning women, therefore, attempted to control them, their sexuality and fertility, further defining their subordination. The beginning of colonial rule brought to Africa the European notion that women belonged in the home, nurturing their family. At the same time the societies expected women to work--work which the society considered complementary to that done by men--the state and the beginning of colonial rule began to change the roles of women by means of legislation restricting women and the focusing of colonial economics on men.

Colonial
The colonization of Africa by European powers including Britain, France, Italy, Germany, Belgium, and Portugal brought Africa into the world economic system as a major target for exploitation. Africa not only provided Europeans with a source of raw materials but it also provided them with what they viewed as raw, uncivilized people -- if Europeans considered Africans people at all -- on whom they could impose their views and whom they could exploit at the same time they exploited the land. For example, with the incorporation of Nigeria into the international economy as a supplier of raw materials, new patriarchal conceptions of the appropriate social role for women dictated by colonial administrators and missionaries changed the position of women in economic, and therefore social, endeavors. Males began to dominate the cultivation of cash crops for the international market and confined women to the growing of food crops which received lower returns. By focusing on men, the cash crop farmers, bureaucratic efforts to improve agriculture further encouraged the separation of economic roles of men and women that had previously complemented each other. The importing of cheap manufactured goods from Europe, and later from Japan, led to the decline of craft industry, except for a limited range of luxury goods which in some regions affected the significant proportion of women engaged in such manufacture. The creation of the colonial economy thus tended to marginalize the position of the majority of women.

Colonial administrators and Christian missionaries introduced the assumptions of European patriarchy into Nigerian society. Their ideas of the appropriate social role for women differed greatly from the traditional role of women in indigenous Nigerian societies. The ideas of the colonizers resembled the patriarchal European assumption that women belonged in the home, engaged in child rearing--an exclusively female responsibility--and other domestic chores. The colonizers expected African societies to consider women as subordinate to men because Europeans considered women subordinate to men. They thought that if a woman obtained financial independence she might not give her husband and his family their entitled respect. In pre-colonial indigenous Nigerian societies, however, a woman's role included providing for her family by means of financial support; therefore, her traditional responsibility required her financial independence. Furthermore, many members of the extended family helped to rear the children, not only the mother.

The restrictions that colonial governments placed on women changed the position of women in indigenous societies. In Nigeria, the colonial state passed legislation restricting women, indirectly preventing them from performing their duties towards their families. The extent of the changes inspired many Nigerian women to hold a series of protests throughout the colonial period against particular colonial policies and against colonialism itself. Colonialism disrupted the traditional system of production in indigenous Nigerian societies, reinforcing the existing systems of social inequality and introducing oppressive forms of social stratification throughout the state.

HOW I WAS FORCED TO DRINK MY LATE HUSBAND’S BATH WATER BY FAMILY – WIDOW
•Queries alleged amputation of late hubby before burial

A widow, Mrs. Stella Ogheneovo, who was allegedly forced to drink the water used to wash her dead husband’s corpse by relatives of the deceased to prove her innocence about the death of her husband, Captain Johnbull Ogheneovo, has alerted police authorities over her plight.
The widow who alleged that the incident took place at Emervo in Isoko North Local government area of Delta state after her husband died intestate on 9,May 2017 at Warri, Delta State said she had petitioned the Assistant Inspector -General of Police, Zone 5, Benin, Mr. Muhammed Abubakar, through her counsel, Mr Olayiwola Afolabi.

Her story
In the petition, Mrs Ogheneovo alleged that when her husband died, she was invited by her husband’s relations to their family house at Emevor village and was forced to disclose her husband’s assets, property, bank details including information about the company where her husband worked before his sudden death.
She added that her mobile phone was also seized. Stating that she was legally married to her late husband and the marriage was blessed with five children, the widow narrated that on the day her husband died, she received a call from her husband’s office that he had slumped and had been taken to the hospital.
She disclosed that during the funeral rites which commenced with a service of songs on the 29th June 2017, a member of her husband’s family, a Reverend Father with the Roman Catholic Church (name withheld) came with thugs to harass and intimidate her and her children adding that she was given over 30 strokes of the cane by the thugs. She said that the said Catholic cleric also threatened her that if she did not declare the assets of her late husband to the family, he would deal with her.
Deceased amputated before burial
According to her counsel, “Our client was forced by the same family member in the presence of other family members (names withheld) to drink water from an unknown source claimed to be the water used to wash the corpse of her late husband to prove her innocence about his death. As a result of the substance forcibly taken by our client under duress, she was admitted at the hospital due to poisoning which caused her severe stomach ache. The same family member warned her to desist from further interference in their family matter and never to attend the burial. It is imperative to note that our client’s late husband was buried without his legs as they were allegedly amputated based on the instructions of the same family member.” She told the AIG that it was through the first son of the late Captain Ogheneovo,Master Shedrack Ogheneovo, who saw his father being buried without his legs intact, that she got to know that her late husband was amputated and the gory sight had continued to have a devastating effect on her son till date. However, she said that despite several attempts to curtail the excesses of the said Priest who now posed as the next of kin to her husband, he ( the priest) has sworn to take over all her late husband’s property and assets despite the intervention of a monarch from the area who had pleaded for settlement. She said that appeals were made to the Bishop of the Catholic Diocese of Warri, the first Lady of Delta State and the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA) over the inhuman treatment meted on her and her children.”As of today, our client and her children have been chased out of the solace of their home by the Rev. Father, who is acting in connivance with other family members. Our client has suffered serious molestation and gross maltreatment in the hands of the said Rev Father who is bent on making life miserable to our client and her children and frustrates all her attempts to expose his selfish evil acts.”
Legal action
Mrs. Oghenovo said that several legal actions have been instituted against her by the family members with the aim of shutting her and her children from having a say in the sharing of her husband’s estate. She, therefore, called on the police, all relevant government authorities, Civil Societies and human rights organizations to intervene in the matter to ensure that she and her children get justice.
Counsel to priest replies
In his reply, the Reverend Father who was accused of masterminding the widow’s plight wrote through his counsel, Jonathan Ekperusi to Mrs. Ogheneovo’s counsel, Olayiwola Afolabi that, “Contrary to the malicious and false impressions created in your publications under reference, none of our clients humiliated, intimidated, assaulted, maltreated and/or threatened your client, Mrs. Stella Ogheneovo.
“The incessant attacks by your client on our clients, especially against Very Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Stephen Ogheneovo is motivated and driven by greed geared towards hoodwinking our clients to allow your client appropriate to herself alone all the properties of Captain Johnbull Ogheneovo (deceased), to the exclusion of Mrs. Best Oghale Walter (nee Ogheneovo), the eldest child of the deceased. Mrs. Best Oghale Walter, was not born out of wedlock, but was already a child of the deceased long before he met and subsequently married Mrs. Stella Ogheneovo.
“The allegations of witchcraft and being born out of wedlock are targeted against Mrs. Best Oghale Walter by your client to embarrass, ridicule, humiliate, and intimidate Mrs. Best Oghale Walter from asserting her rights as an heir and lawful beneficiary to the estate of the deceased. In order to legally redress the serial injustice, Mrs Best Oghale Walter has commenced proceedings in court in Suit No. EHC/162/2017: Mrs. Best Oghale Walter & Anor vs. Mrs. Stella Ogheneovo, over the properties comprising the estate of the deceased, which your client has been tampering with and seeking to dissipate to the exclusion of Mrs. Best Oghale Walter. Our Clients are well to do, and have no interest in their late son/brother’s properties, save that the eldest child, Mrs. Best Oghale Walter gets her share.
“Our Clients believe that it is in a desperate attempt to cover the truth about the actual cause of death of the deceased and to distract our clients from seeking investigation of the matter that Mrs. Stella Ogheneovo has resorted to the violent media attack on our clients, especially against Very Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Stephen Ogheneovo. Very Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Stephen Ogheneovo is not the head of the Ogheneovo family of Emevor and did not preside over the burial arrangements of the deceased. “Therefore, he could not have done any of the things alleged against him by his late elder brother’s wife, Mrs. Stella Ogheneovo. Mrs. Stella Ogheneovo has been changing her story from being forced to ‘drink the water used in bathing the corpse of the deceased’ as contained in some media publications.
To further disparage and distract our clients, Mrs. Stella Ogheneovo has gone further to wickedly and maliciously allege against our clients, especially against Very Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Stephen Ogheneovo, that they amputated the legs of the deceased before he was buried. “The Police at Zone 5, Benin City, merely advised Very Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Stephen Ogheneovo, as younger brother of the deceased, to ensure that Mrs. Stella Ogheneovo, as a widow, was not harassed by members of the family. Mrs. Stella Ogheneovo’s complaint against Very Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Stephen Ogheneovo to the International Federation of Women Lawyers (FIDA), Benin Branch; Catholic Bishop of Warri; the Odion (King) of Emevor; among others, have all been duly responded to by Very Rev. Fr. (Dr.) Stephen Ogheneovo. Whilst openly fighting our clients, Mrs. Stella Ogheneovo has been sending emissaries behind the scene to appeal to our clients.
“For the records, our clients briefed us that they did not give (not to mention force) Mrs. Stella Ogheneovo, the water used in bathing the corpse of the deceased, and that the entire story was a gross misrepresentation of facts, calculated to vilify, embarrass, harass and humiliate our clients as part of a grand plan by Mrs. Stella Ogheneovo and her cohorts to chase away her husband’s family members in order to effectively disinherit her husband’s eldest child, Mrs. Best Oghale Walter.
“Our Clients are not after any of the properties left behind by the deceased. Our Clients’ interest is to ensure that the properties left behind by the deceased are fairly, justly and equitably distributed among the rightful beneficiaries in accordance with the applicable law. Our Clients are pained that Captain Johnbull Ogheneovo, who was doing very well as a businessman and maritime captain died suddenly on 9th May, 2017 barely two (2) days after he visited his sick mother at the Central Hospital, Warri where he even contributed money towards the mother’s treatment.”
When contacted, the Public Relations Officer of the Zone 5 of the Nigeria Police, Benin, Mr. Emeka Iheanacho (DSP) confirmed that the zone has received a petition by Mrs Stella Ogheneovo through her counsel. He disclosed that the Rev. Father in question was invited by the Zonal Investigation Bureau and made his statement adding that the ZIB has commenced investigation into the allegations levelled against the clergyman.

-Source: https://www.vanguardngr.com/2017/09/forced-drink-late-husbands-bath-water-family-widow/

plusQueen:
SOUTH SOUTH -EDO STATE

In Bini land, widowhood rights are in two stages. First, the widow is confined to a room outside the family house for seven days immediately after the interment of the deceased husband. She is dressed in black with her hair left unkempt and, she is not allowed to take her bath. She must look mournful and sober and must cry, morning and evening. On the seventh day, a wake keeping ceremony is held and the widow is forbidden (by custom) to sleep because, the spirit of the dead man will come around and kill her if she is found sleeping! On the same day, she perform the semi-purification rites by taking her bath around 4.am at a road junction (all alone). Her safe return proves her innocence.

The Second stage of mourning begins at the end of the seventh day. The widow smears herself and her clothing with black charcoal and remains so for three months. At the end of the third month, the final purification, which admits her into the society, is performed. On inheritance, both the widow and property are inheritable objects.

Among the Esan, the practice is almost the same but for some little differences. During the seven days of mourning, the widow carries an Ikhmin, which is a many sided plant which is used to wade off evil spirit. She is also forbidden to sleep on the night preceding the seventh day because, it is believed that, the husband will visit and carry her away if she sleeps! A widow in Esan however, takes ", her bath in the night at a burial ground or at some obscure or isolated spot, " 14 and she shoots an arrow into the bush afterwards, to deter the late husband from coming near her again.

Throughout the three months mourning period, a pot containing some leaves believed to wade off evil, is left burning on the stove. The widow performs the purification rites after three months, which includes her hair, being shaved. On inheritance, a wife cannot inherit, rather; she is part of the "objects" to be inherited.

In Agenebode land, women here have different status/order of birth. A woman is either Amoya, a title that is highly respected and cherished because in marriage, she is given out totally or, she is Adegbe, a title that allows the woman to stay in her father's house even after marriage. Northing is done is her father's house without consulting her. As a result of these differences, varying degree of rights and privileges are given to them.

When an Amoya is widowed, one of her sister-in-law who is an Adebge will assist her to wear a white hand woven pant. This she wears for one whole year without washing or changing. She stays indoors and can't even go to the market or church. Her hair is scraped and, she is in total seclusion wearing only black. By virtue of her birth, she remains in her husband's house for life. If she accepts toe be inherited, she performs the purification right to legitimize the transfer. If she does not want to be inherited, she performs another rite to appease the family's ancestors. Her son inherits the property of the deceased if she happens to have the first son, this does not however transfer ownership of the property to her.

The situation is different, when an Adebge is widowed. She does not go through all the rites an Amoya goes through.

Her hair and that of her children is scraped on the fifth day after the death. Wearing of black is her choice and her movement is not restricted for one day, she goes about her normal business. The issue of inheritance does not arise for her because, she goes back to her father's house as soon as the man dies though, she is free to stay (if she so desires), without any obligation to the family of the late husband. If she is the mother of the first son, he inherits all his father's property.

this is inhumane and so barbaric