Widows drinking Corpse water

In Akwa Ibom State and most of the States in the South of Nigeria, there is a very dehumanising Custom or rite that Widows perform when their husbands die unexpectedly. I said unexpectedly and not young because even if the man is as old as Menthuselah, the community will still want the wife to perform this terrible rite.

This  Custom is the forced drinking of water used to bath the dead husband by the widow. This custom is ancient and has so many negative implications on the woman. The Spiritual implication is that the departed will haunt the woman for the rest of her life. Health wise, the body is ravaged by infections and diseases and psychologically,  rejection and condemnation plagued the woman.

Traditionally, it is believed that the men are stronger than the women so when a woman outlived her husband, then she must have killed him. In order to clear herself, she must drink this dirty and polluted water to show her innocense. If she survives, she is celebrated and if she dies, then her sins have caught up with her. Most times, these women dont survive.

Why Dont They Survive?
The Corpse being washed most times have started the process of decomposition and anything touching it is not fit for human consumption. That bathe water is not hygienic or good for drinking. A woman drinks, and is locked up in a little filthy and airless hut for days. Medically, she will have cholera and fever. When she starts vomiting and stooling, they will say her sins have come back for her instead of taking her to the hospital for medical attention. Within days, the woman drops dead and the community says, shes quilty of killing her husband.

I remembered a particular incident as a child several years ago where the woman who was my mothers friend was stripped of all her husband properties and was forced to go to the village to perform this rite. It was a pathetic incident as the woman and her children were crying and pleading to be spared that terrible experience. We all joined in the weeping fete but these wicked family members insisted she has to go if she still want to be part of the family. Eventually, she went with them and never came back. A daughter surfaced years later to tell us, the mother did not survive. For the daughter, she swore she will not marry someone from her State.

So I am  happy that Akwa Ibom State Government in a bill passed by the House of Assembly and signed by the governor, Chief Godswill Akpabio, outlawed this custom and others which maltreat widows after the deaths of their husbands, declaring it as unlawful and inhuman.

In the Governor's Democracy Day speech,  29th May 2013, he declared that it had become unlawful for widows to be maltreated in Akwa Ibom, saying defaulters of the law risk fines and three years imprisonment. His wife, the First Lady of the state, Chief (Mrs) Unoma Ekaette Akpabio, commended the House of Assembly and the governor for the pro-women law, describing the passage of the law as a breakthrough for the womenfolk in the state.

This came 12 years  after Enugu State passed a similar law "The Prohibition of Infringement of a Widow's Fundamental Rights Law, 2001-A Law to Make it Unlawful to Infringe the Fundamental Rights of Widows and  for Other Related Matters". The law specifically forbids forcing a widow to drink the water used to wash her husband's corpse.

So far three states have passed laws against punitive widowhood rites. These States are Enugu, Edo and Oyo state. But implementing or enforcing the laws are the major problems here. I hope, Akwa IbomState will not fall into this category of States passing laws and not enforcing them.

Honestly, it is still normal for a widow, whether she is suspected or not, to be compelled or forced to perform this rite or other rites if she wants to be cleared of any suspicion of killing her husband.

Emem Isong, one of the foremost Producers and Directors in Nollywood, highlighted the plights of widows in her Film 'UYAI'. The Widow played by INI EDO was suspected of killing her husband that she recently married and was subjected to this rite by the women of the community. She fainted after drinking the water and was left to die.  

I pray more women will become educated and insist on their rights not to kill themselves with the poison from their wicked in-laws.