ABSTRACT
These cultural practices unfortunately are mostly found in the rural areas where they are more severe than the urban areas. This is attributed to the relatively high level of education and modernity in the urban areas. Hence, the study examines and brings out the relevant Shari’ah position on such cultural practices which in Nigeria. The study adopted a cross-sectional descriptive design. This study was limited to six (6) communities located within Osogbo Local Government Area of Osun State. This study utilized quantitative instruments of the questionnaire for data collection. The study concluded that widowhood practices are sacred cultural dictates performed by both the Islam widow as a mark of love, honour, and respect for the dead. The experiences of widows differ among ethnic groups in Nigeria. This study shows that widows in the Islam area are not maltreated; rather they are sympathized with by extended family members, friends, relatives, etc. during the mourning period. On the distribution of widows by their extent of coping with widowhood and property inheritance, most of the widows stated that they are not coping very well. Reasons for this were lack of economic empowerment, non-receipt of support from spouse’s extended family members, neglect, discrimination, among others. The study recommended that women’s education and economic empowerment through (formal/informal) channels is crucial, as providing such job opportunities to employable widows will assist tremendously in reducing the existing gap in poverty alleviation.
CHAPTER ONE
INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Study
The traditional practice of widowhood and property inheritance is as old as human beings. The inevitability of death in spite of the great strides made in scientific and technological research, leads us to assert that there is no human society without widows and widowers. Yearly, there are an estimated 200 million widows globally (Ajayi et al., 2019). The increasing number of widows across the world in recent times has become a social problem. In Nigeria, widowhood is a common phenomenon attributed to the high and increasing mortality rate (Oyekanmi, 2017). The fact that females have higher average life expectancy than males and the practice whereby men marry women younger than themselves likely result in more widows than widowers in the society. As Potash (2016:1) opines, “Widows make up about half the adult female population in Africa”. Even though this view is not justifiable by available data, one striking feature in most parts of Nigeria is the fact that until the 1990s, not much research had been done on widows and their plight as determinable from relevant discourse. Yet, this is one specific sub-group that should be targeted for intervention, considering the incidence of depression among members, the socio-economic setback that the crisis of widowhood brings to them, and the sudden change in their status (Sesay and Odebiyi, 2018).
A popular Nigerian folklore has it that all enduring marriages ultimately end with the death of either the husband or wife or both. However, the challenges and traumatic experience which accompany the death of a husband tend to be greater than those which accompany the death of a wife (Oloko, 2017:9). Even though men and women could die prematurely owing to a number of factors such as ill-health, accidents and wars amongst other unforeseen circumstances, it is observed from the relevant literature that, unlike a wife’s death, the death of a husband is culturally challenged in many African societies. When a husband dies, the ready suspect is the wife. Deaths, even in circumstances where the causes are natural and explicable, are never perceived as such. Magico-religious factors and widows’ bewitchment or sorcery are evoked for the death of the partners (Erinosho, 2010:1).
In many parts of Nigeria, death is often attributed to some unnatural causes. When a woman dies, it is more often than not taken with fatalism; even when such a death is queried, the culprit is sought amongst her contenders (e.g. co-wives or neighbours), and rarely is her husband seen as being responsible. Instead of suspicion and accusations, the husband receives more sympathies and support. For instance, in some Yoruba communities, a woman is arranged to sleep with the man for a night so that he is not haunted by the spirit of the dead wife. According to Lasebikan (2016:19), a widower is evidently pitied and consoled genuinely and encouraged out of his situation as early as possible while arrangement for a substitute is made quickly, because “Opo‘kunrin ki da sun nitori iyawo orun” (Yoruba). In other words, “A widower does not sleep alone because of the dead wife’s spirit”. Though the widower experiences emotional trauma at the loss of a wife, he is usually given more social support in order to cope, and to eventually re-adjust to a new life. In a polygynous setting, other living co-wives become a source of succour. A woman is seen as part of her husband’s property: at death, family members do not often challenge the husband with respect to her assets and wealth. However, if the marital relationship was undergoing stress the relatives of the woman might query the husband’s wish to inherit her property.
