Sample Expository Essay: Widowhood Practice in Nigeria

Which are the Features of Widowhood Practice in Nigeria?

Widowhood practices in Nigeria include customs which require women to engage in several rituals that lots of consider proof a double standard between your way women and men are treated after a spouse passes away. Losing a husband places a female in a location of extreme vulnerability pertaining to her capability to support herself financially, and her capability to provide emotional and financial support for just about any children from the marriage.

This leaves the lady at the mercy of family and friends members who may be bound by societal practices to stick to all or most of the methods which are customary for the community and which can perhaps not be changed. An example of one of these simple practices could be the practice of the widow wailing and moaning aloud during the day and night, while men aren't required to make any outward showing of grief.

Criticism of the widowhood techniques in Nigeria appear to be linked to the techniques during the mourning period, which are referred to as almost inhumane for the widow. Widows are referred to as losing rights to the the husband’s personal property whether or not the husband died and left a will. Widows in Nigeria are often treated as their deceased husband’s murder suspects and have been asked to activate in rituals to prove their innocence, and to take part in cultural techniques to prove that they have purified themselves and so are free of guilt (Genyi, 2013).

Other examples include methods which force the widow to stay awake during the afternoons whether or not she may want to sleep because of grief or fatigue. Some other methods demean the widow, including having her entire body and head shaved, and having to drink from the bath water of her husband’s dead body which can make her physically ill and might damage her psychologically (Nwogu, 2015).

The laws governing widowhood methods in Nigeria are being challenged at national and international levels and therefore are considered human rights violations (Nwogu, 2015).

Works Cited

Akinbi, J. O. (2015). Widowhood Practices in certain Nigerian Societies: A Retrospective Examination. International Journal of Humanities and Social Science 5(4), 67-74.
Genyi, G. A. (2013), Widowhood and Nigerian Womanhood: Yet another Context of
Gendered Poverty in Nigeria, Research on Humanities and Social Sciences 3(7) 68-73.
Nwogu, M. I. (2015) The Legal Anatomy of Cultural Widowhood Techniques in South Eastern Nigeria: The Need for a Panacea. Global Journal of Politics and Law Research 3(1) 79-90.