INFLUENCE OF WIDOWHOOD PRACTICES ON THE PSYCHO-SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH OF WIDOWS IN SELECTED STATES OF SOUTH-EASTERN, NIGERIA

INFLUENCE OF WIDOWHOOD PRACTICES ON THE PSYCHO-SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH OF WIDOWS IN SELECTED STATES OF SOUTH-EASTERN, NIGERIA

ABSTRACT

The study investigated the influence of widowhood practices on the physical, psychological and social health of widows in selected states of South-Eastern, Nigeria. Descriptive survey research design was adopted for the study. The population consisted of all the 4,879 registered widows from the three selected states; Imo, Anambra and Abia. Sample size of 370 registered widows was purposively drawn from these states. Research instrument was a structured questionnaire tagged: Widowhood Practices and Health Questionnaire. Reliability was determined using cronbach alpha, the following scores were obtained: Physical Implication Subscale 0.77, Social Implication Subscale 0.76, Psychological Implication 0.643, Economic Implication 0.87. percentage, frequency were used to answer the research questions while Analysis of Variance and z-test were used to answer the null hypotheses. It was found out among others that widows were ritually shaved of their hair on pubic region and head, they were forced to swear to prove their innocence, forcing widows to marry their husbands’ relatives and economic hardship. It was recommended among others that younger widows, that is, those bereaved before the age of 35 years should be encouraged to remarry, as a way of integrating them properly into a social inclined society like Nigeria.

INTRODUCTION

Widowhood is a sordid situation that befalls women after the death of their husband. The harmful rituals associated with this widowhood have lots of serious implications on the health and general wellbeing of these widows. In view of this fact, this study therefore intends to look at the implications of these ritual practices on the physical, psychological and social health of widows, as well as their economic implications. In Nigeria, just like other patriarchal societies, women are regarded more as appendages to their husbands. They lack right to ownership of property, they face lots of inhuman traditional practices harmful to their health, such as female genital mutilation and widowhood rituals which both old and young widows are compelled to undergo as part of mourning their dead husbands, (Odimegwu and Okemgbo, 2003). Mourning and burial rituals are inherently left for women to suffer when ever a man dies. This situation presents a traumatic, painful, and regrettable experience all over the world, but worse in developing countries including Nigeria, where there are lots of these obnoxious practices and rituals (Odimegwu and Okemgbo, 2003). A widow in the Nigerian context refers to any female, married under native law and custom or under the marriage Act or any other law recognized in Nigeria, whose husband has died, and has not remarried (Amasiatu, 2009). A widow refers to a woman whose husband has died and who has not remarried, while widowhood is the state or period of being a widow or a widower (Foluso, 2011).

Widowhood rites, as practiced in many traditional African societies, are the practices that accompany the mourning of the loss of one’s spouse. The period of mourning is coupled with a series of life events which often have wide-ranging implications. Some of these practices are variously described as barbaric, atrocious, backwards, immoral, commoditization and an abusive violation of the sexual and human rights of powerless” (Nyanzi, and Sossou, 2002). A typical Nigerian widow is by tradition expected to undergo these serious mourning rites and widowhood practices which is an enduring period of deep rooted agony, seclusion and exclusion, anxiety, deprivation, restitution, trauma, insecurity and pain, all these have lots of social and health implication to the widow (Amasiatu, 2009). Widowhood has a brutal and often irrevocable harsh economic impact on the widow's children, especially the girl child. Poverty may force widows to withdraw children from school, exposing them to exploitation in child labor, prostitution, early or forced marriage, child trafficking, and hawking.. Widowhood rites enforced on widows mete out different kind of losses and inevitably expose them to economic hardships, confinement and ill-treatment (UN 2001). Lopata (1972) has done extensive research with more than 1000 widows and widowers. According to the finding, a major problem for both sexes is economic hardship.

INFLUENCE OF WIDOWHOOD PRACTICES ON THE PSYCHO-SOCIAL AND PHYSICAL HEALTH OF WIDOWS IN SELECTED STATES OF SOUTH-EASTERN, NIGERIA

Chapters: 1 - 5
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Number of Pages: 75

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