[dropcap]A[/dropcap]ll is not well in the Abiriba community of Ohafia Local Government area of Abia State. The hitherto peaceful and bubbling community is now under the siege of an orchestrated traditional mafia within the community that has continued to unleash traditional terror to women since Chief (Dr)Jonah Ndukwe Anagha Ezikpe, assumed office as the President General of Abiriba Communal Improvement Union. Abiriba Kingdom is a rural community in the heart of Igbo tribe, and most of their cultural practices are typical of the Igbo tribe in south-east Nigeria.
In spite of the 90 years of contact with western education and Christian religion, widowhood rites and practices considered to be dehumanising are prevalent in the area. In recent times, there have been conflicts between families, traditional and religious groups when some of the rites and practices are being enforced, especially when working class or fundamental Pentecostal groups are involved. Such conflicts sometimes result to open verbal and physical violence even at the places of burial, resulting in disruption of social activities, ostracisation and sanctions among disagreeing groups. Apart from affecting community life, the widow is the centre of the crisis, a situation that worsens her physical and mental state.
Between January 2010 and June 2015, major conflicts and events precipitated the Christian interest in and action on widowhood practices. On one occasion, a widow was alleged to have maltreated her husband and had not taken good care of him when he was on his sick bed. The umu ada (the daughters union) accused her of being responsible for her husband’s death, and ruled that if the woman was contesting, then she should prove her innocence by drinking the washings of her husband’s corpse. Where she refused to drink, she would be ostracised and dragged along the streets to her father’s house. This is an accepted traditional practice (igu mmiri ozu). Another option was for her to crawl over her husband’s corpse (ige ukwu ozu). The women relations of the widow and some CWO members at the funeral resisted this and conflict ensued.
Another case involved a young widow working in a bank in Lagos. She was required to restrict her movement and not go for work for six months by Abiriba Communal Improvement Union.She was to be in the village,confined to the compound in mourning dress. The widow explained that she would loose her job and disrupt her children’s schooling in Lagos. The Abiriba Communal Improvement Union headed by Chief (Dr)Jonah Ndukwe Anagha Ezikpe sanctioned her for breaking the traditional norm of not mourning her husband for the customary duration (ilu uju) in 2014. The umu ada fined her the sum of N 10,000.00 and compelled her to stay at her husband house for one month as a punishment and tortured her for consummation of the traditional ritual in Abiriba land.When the widow finally died six months after her husband’s death. The Christian community gathered for her burial and funeral, but Abiriba Communal Improvement Union resisted and insisted that the woman should be thrown into the evil forest without mourning for her since she committed an abomination by dying before the end of the traditional mourning period.
Stigmatising a widow who died within the mourning period and refusing her corpse burial rites. The Grassroots Publishers also observed that women are the victims, perpetrators and enforcers of the sanctions. The patrilineal daughters (umuada) are the key perpetrators and enforcers who most of the time are prejudiced against their dead relations’ wives for past disagreements or misunder-standings. They see the widowhood period as a time for vendetta. The women reasoned that umuada are not faceless people but members of the women group, and an umuada in her father’s village could one day be a widow in another village. It is therefore women fighting women and, therefore, they must collectively stop the practice for the benefit of every woman.
The Grassroots Publishers wants all the identified practices, except loss of right of inheritance and wife inheritance, to be eliminated by the government because the The main victims are women in Abiriba Community.
By : Grassroots Publishers