Nigeria: The ritual whereby a widow drinks the water used to clean her husband's corpse; consequences for a widow's refusal to drink the water; whether a widow's refusal is interpreted by others as responsibility for her husband's death

For general information on widowhood rituals in Nigeria please consult NGA34292.E of 4 May 2000.

With respect to the ritual whereby a widow is expected to drink the water used to bathe the corpse of her husband, two sources provided information additional to that contained in NGA34292.E of 4 May 2000. The sources are: the Projects Director of Grassroots Women Foundation (GWF), who holds a Masters degree in law and who conducted a study – as a national consultant for the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) – on widowhood practices in 11 Nigerian states (9 July 2001); and the Executive Director of the Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre (CIRDDOC) located in Enugu, Enugu State (8 July 2001). For a background on the organization please consult NGA34915.E of 4 August 2000. Both said that the specific ritual is practised by the Edo. However, while CIRDDOC's executive director said that the ritual was "commonly practised by the Edo People of mid-western Nigeria and the Igbo people of eastern Nigeria" (8 July 2000), the Projects Director referred to the study she conducted in which 2 per cent of 150 widows interviewed in Edo state said they "were subjected to the practice" (9 July 2001).

Both sources said that the purpose of the ritual was to determine whether the widow had been involved in her husband's death, with the CIRDDOC Executive Director writing that "generally, the widow is the first suspect when a man dies. It does not matter if he died of natural causes" (8 July 2001). The Projects Director added:

it is still normal for a widow, whether she is suspected or not, to be compelled to take an oath with Kola-nut placed on her dead husband's forehead and complete the swearing with 2 broom sticks. We were told that the goal was to determine the extent of the woman's involvement in her husband's death. This is in spite of the fact that 83.9% of those interviewed are Christians. Quoting from the report; "Here, neither education, age, religion, nor any of the other factors has been known to have had much impact on the widowhood practices. It seems that irrespective of any other factor, culture remains the sole determining factor on the issue of widowhood practices in the state." In spite of the fact that 85.9% of the widows found a lot of the practices obnoxious, only 3.3% had dared refuse to carry out any of the practices as they were afraid of the consequences. During the focus group discussions, they recounted some of the consequences of refusal to conform including rejection by the husband's family, denial of any rights to property that ever existed, and isolation of children. The best bet of the women is to go to NGOs such as the International federation of women lawyers (FIDA) and others, for legal assistance. Although there is presently legislation against female genital mutilation (FGM) in the state, there is none yet on widowhood practices (9 July 2001).

CIRDDOC's executive director wrote that the consequences to a widow for refusing to carry out the ritual include physical assault, "banishment from the family or denying her access to her husband's property including her children" (8 July 2001). When asked to whom the widow may turn to for assistance in supporting her decision not to participate in the ritual CIRDDOC's executive director wrote that since it is a traditional practice the police "dismiss" the matter as "domestic and outside their realm of authority" (ibid.).

This Response was prepared after researching publicly accessible information currently available to the Research Directorate within time constraints. This Response is not, and does not purport to be, conclusive as to the merit of any particular claim to refugee status or asylum. Please find below the list of additional sources consulted in researching this Information Request.

References

Civil Resource Development and Documentation Centre (CIRDDOC), Enugu, Nigeria. 8 July 2001. Correspondence from Executive Director.

Grassroots Women Foundation (GWF), Enugu, Nigeria. 9 July 2001. Correspondence from Projects Director.

Additional Sources Consulted

IRB databases

LEXIS-NEXIS

Unsuccessful attempts to contact eight non-documentary sources

Internet sites including:

EdoFolks.com

Edo Nation Online

Empowering Widows in Development (EWD)