Why the Fate of Ghanaian Widows in Jeopardy?

Dr. Osei Hyiamang

Published in 11/22/2022

Abstract

This paper includes samples of face-to-face interview responses in research on the "how do widowhood rites in Ghana affect your life?" It talks about what PNDC Law 111 does regarding widows' rights. The study also investigates why widows in Ghana do not want to seek redress in courts. Similarly, the paper highlights how widowhood rites work against human rights. Equally, it highlights some challenges widows face during and after the widowhood rites. The study further talks about widowhood forces remarrying and its consequences on women. The write-up further explains what type of education widows' children receive, how domestic abuses affect widows' lives, and proposes some solutions to the challenges.

Background

Every woman dream of finding her perfect partner, who would lead her to the altar to proclaim those three profound words, "yes, I do." Also, live well and grow old together. Nevertheless, life is not permanent as a bed of roses or a fairy tale book, and neither do all couples have the honor of becoming old together. Events happen, and life is cut short. The interference of death terminates future dreams in partners' lives. Ambitions and aspirations wipe away as death brings final departure leaving the living partner experienced.

In some parts of Ghana, most widows suffer from abuses and mistreatments by family members of their late spouses, often about personal properties and possession of the land. Frequently, these women lose their social status and are let off from their social and economic lives. The women are often evicted, and some even get killed. The orphans usually drop out of school to depend on their mothers' toils. In some circumstances, some widows may not have access to their children at all.

The most terrible maltreatment given to some widows is the traditional widowhood rites, where the women pass through several abhorrent rituals, such as sitting on a bare floor for some days before and after their husbands' burial. They keep some widows' hairs unclean for some period before completely shaving. Some widows were forbidden to take baths for several days and were imprisoned within their late husbands' homes for months.

Some widows pass through obligatory wailing and recounting of their husbands' virtues. They usually wear black clothes for a year or more. They are forbidden to inherit their husband's assets and are prohibited from having sexual intercourse for a year or more. Some widows usually are forced to confess guilt for killing their husbands publicly. When a woman cheats on her husband when he is alive, she will be asked to sacrifice to appease the dead husband. Some items used for such sacrifices are goats, sheep, fowl, and drinks to perform so-called rituals.

In some unique cases, a widow's ordeal begins if people believe she is responsible for her husband's death. Among the Ewes of the Volta Region in Ghana, a widow cannot trim her toe or fingernails or wear shoes during mourning. While these widows are subject to such humiliations, widowers are not. Men can remarry, even the same day after their wife's death. These acts of oppression, embarrassment, and dehumanization affect Ghanaian widows to the extent that most of them commit suicide.

Supporting Literature

Some tribes in Ghana allow widows to sleep with their husbands' corpses for some days before burial, especially when they believe that the woman has a hand in her partner's death. SEDOS laments that widows do not only sleep with their dead husbands' corpses in some cultures but also deny them food and shelter during the mourning period. The writer observes numerous human rights violations against widows in Ghana. Moreover, most widows and their children face many challenges that lead them to poverty, migration, or extreme stress. SEDOS claims that because most widows cannot stand widowhood rites humiliation, many women kill themselves.

According to Thelma Asantewaa (2017), women in Ghana experience emotional, mental, and spiritual suffering when they lose their husbands. She laments that widowhood rites of passage make it unbearable for some women to enjoy the best of their health because of their trauma. Asantewaa claims that because of direct sanctions placed on widows by some societies, it becomes difficult for women to express their worries during widowhood rites. Asantewaa (2017) believes that the system denies women the privilege to enjoy their constitutional rights. For this reason, becoming a widow in some parts of Ghana is like experiencing hell.

A report from the Ghanaian Chronicle (2010) shows similar concerns that widowhood rites are endemic in some parts of the country. The Chronicle (2010) writes that most widows are stripped naked and humiliated at marketplaces in the presence of their community. Does the paper express concern about why "Article 26 section 2 of the Ghanaian Constitution" does not protect women from cultural practices that dehumanize widows in the country? The paper laments how thousands of widows undergo various human rights violations because of culture and customary dehumanizing practices.

Some statistics about Ghana

Most young girls in Ghana are scared to get married because of the tribulation that some women pass through when they become widows. Women in Ghana undergo different treatments based on their marital status. According to the Ghana Statistical Service (May 2012) report, the 2010 population census shows about 1,647,124 widows in Ghana out of approximately 28,000,000. These women are from about 75 different ethnic groups.

Samples of Face-to-Face Interview responses

The narrations below are samples of the reactions from the face-to-face interviews with some widows. When the question "How do widowhood rites in Ghana affect your life?" was asked, the widows responded in different ways, and examples of them are as follows:

Widow A

"My husband was in bed in the hospital when his sister asked for some money from our account, and when I refused, she poured abuses of insult on me. She swore that I would regret it. Two days later, my husband died. His family came to our house immediately, took his two cars away, and emptied the house. His elder brother asked me to submit our house documents and all his properties on his burial day. Immediately after his burial, the elders of his family asked me to remarry his younger brother. When I rejected that request, they summoned a meeting to share my children, claiming that I had declined to remain in their family."

Mr. R. for Widow B

"Again, one of my Ga friends died, and when I got to the house, the wife was wailing, hitting her head against the wall, saying her life was ended. I comforted her and told her to hide their house papers because her husband's family would come for them. She hesitated, but I insisted, and she gave the documents to their 16-year-old boy to keep. The following day, her in-laws came and requested the documents. However, she told them that she did not know where the documents were and asked if they wanted to search the house. They searched that whole house looking for the building documents. I told her in-laws that my friend once told me he was about to sell the house and that they should find out if he sold it. When the widow's in-laws left the house, they told the woman to pack up and leave immediately."

Widow C

"On that fateful day, my husband passed away. He called me 45 minutes before his death. When he called, he said he was not feeling well and attending the hospital for his regular blood pressure checkup. I waited a while and did not hear from him. I later got a phone call from a man who said they were looking for someone who knew my husband and saw my phone number on his phone. He told me to come to the hospital center. Upon arrival, I saw my husband's car parked, and they told me that he had come to the hospital. However, it could not survive the attack. Some people at the hospital told me to know what to take out of our house because of our culture. I hesitated to do so. When I returned home, my husband's family came and asked me to pack up and leave the house. I told them that I was not going anywhere. I was the only living wife of my late spouse, and he married me legitimately. I knew if I had collaborated with those who asked me to take some properties, I would be accused of killing him."

Widow D

"When my husband died, my sisters-in-law told me to urinate in an open place in the presence of everyone in the village to prove that I was innocent of his death. That humiliation blocked my bladder because of the stress and the psychological feeling that I went through. My husband had two wives, but his junior wife was not part of the ritual because they thought I killed him since I had no child for him. The elders shaved my hair to the skin and covered me with a black wrapper for three months, after which I was given two sets of wrappers to wear for one year."

Widow E.

"What my husband's family did after he passed away was to assess all of his properties in the house. They went further, throwing all my personal belongings out of the house. After that, they sold our three houses, plus my children, and l shared with my late spouse. My children and I ultimately moved our belongings to church premises because we had nowhere to go. We learned that the custom permits beating the late man's children, so they started this traditional rite. I ran so that they won't beat me alongside my children. Even with that, I have been beaten several times, including my children. After the funeral, l was forced to crawl on my knees to plead with my husband's family to halt the whipping. It went too far that my children couldn't take it anymore, and we strike back."

These and others were some of the responses I heard when I met some widows during the interviews. Most widows have things in common, thus, public humiliation, or asked to remarry in the family, handing over the husbands' properties to the family, or being ejected alongside their children.

Provisional National Defense Council (PNDC) Law, (1985) 111

The PNDC Law (1985) 111 explains the Intestate Succession provisions that support spouses or children seeking redress in court to share a dead spouse's properties. The law discusses the inheritance of possessions when a person dies without a will. According to the law, the deceased's partner, children, parents, and family prioritized spouses and children. The law covers self-acquired properties purchased, inherited, gifts, or awards. The law permits a spouse, child, parent, and customary family to seek the court's attention regarding the distribution of the properties of a person who dies without a will.

The widows in Ghana still suffer immensely despite this provision. Section 2 (1) of the law states that a person shall be deemed to be without a will under the law if, at the time of his death had not made a will sharing their properties. The law further mentions that (Section 2) any person who dies without adding their properties in the will is considered to have been killed without a valid will. Because of that, his properties that are not in the will shall be shared accordingly. Section 3 states that where a spouse or child or both survive, they will be entitled to all the household properties. Section 5 of the law specifies how the other properties of the late spouse should be shared. According to the PNDC (1985) Law 111, (a) three-sixteenth of the properties would go to the surviving spouse; (b) nine-sixteenth to the surviving child (c) one-sixteenth to the surviving parent(s); and (d) one-sixteenth may be saved for a child who is a minor. However, where there is no surviving parent, two-sixteenths of the property would be added to the child. If a spouse has one house at the time of their death, the surviving spouse will keep it.

Why do the widows refuse to seek justice under PNDC Law 111?

Although a constitutional mandate permits widows and their children in Ghana to seek a court order from being disenfranchised when inheriting their late husbands' properties, some widows decide not to take action. Some measures prevent them from doing so. For example, several traditional succession by-laws oppose constitutional law, depending on the ethnic group. These local succession laws put some fear in women struggling to acquire part of their late husbands' wealth. These widows are usually afraid of physical, spiritual, and emotional abuse and are worried about their in-laws' neglect. One of the traditional by-laws is that a woman should not wash the family's dirty linen in public, meaning family matters must be treated as confidential.

Another factor that deters the widows from seeking redress in court is the high cost of legal counsel fees. Some widows also believe that court cases are time-consuming. Others do not seek help from the court because they are ignorant of human rights and lack knowledge about PNDC Law 111. Again, it is a belief that a woman who takes her husband's family to court to claim his properties is a witch, and she will be that family's number one enemy forever. Most widows also desire to keep a conflict-free relationship with their in-laws because they fear the family will not consent during their daughters' marriage. Some widows also think their male children cannot inherit their father's wealth if they continue to have problems with their in-laws. Most widows would often consider these and some implications and refuse to seek justice in courts.

Human Rights and Widowhood Rites

It has become challenging for the tribes that practice widowhood rites in Ghana to adhere to the human rights provision that specifies how to treat women. Some tribes believe that accepting the PNDC Law 111 that determines how to share intestate possession would make them lose trust, gratitude, and influence in their communities. Many human rights advocates feel that the practices are inhumane and human rights abuse. Nevertheless, the Universal Declaration of Human Rights passed in 1947 under a cultural relativism doctrine has not been clearly understood in the communities that do the practices. Most tribes see nothing wrong with the practices because they think the ritual is inherited from their ancestors, and it is not their generation to abolish it. They do not believe that the practices are human rights abuse, but it is their culture.

Another way that those who practice widowhood rites in Ghana do not see it as a problem is because of patriarchy. Patriarchy is a form of fundamental feminism in universal, trans-historical, and trans-cultural phenomenon; men everywhere oppressed women in the same ways, so those Ghanaians who practice widowhood rites see themselves as not different. These notions of patriarchy tend toward genetic essentialism that provides no basis for some significant historical or modern variations in women's situations in the country. Women from ethnic and racial minorities, as well as working-class women, always submit to their men—the men in all tribes in Ghana control women in all aspects of life. Therefore, widowhood practices that deny womanhood rights do not seem to be new.

Widowhood rites and social stigmatization

In some tribes, community members do not want to associate themselves with women accused of killing their husbands. There are traditional stories that if you are a married woman and you mingle with widows, your husband will die as well. Most men prevent their wives from attending a gathering that has widows with a threat of divorce if their wives refuse to listen. Because some young widows can be stripped naked during their husbands' funeral rites, they feel shy to attend even church services because of the stigmatization.

Force Remarriage

In other circumstances, widows are forced into remarriage to any of their late spouse's relatives. In most cases, a widow who passes through this ordeal will require by tradition to shave her entire hair, deface herself, and prevent the ghost of the late spouse from recognizing her. The women who agree to such a compulsory marriage must continue giving birth to the dead man. The man who remarries the widow shelter off the responsibility of taking care of the children since they do not bear his name. Contrary, a widow who will be bold enough to discard this compulsory marriage is ejected. In some extreme cases, the woman will lose farmlands, all her late spouse's assets, and shelter.

Education of widows' children

Another hardship the widows undergo is how their children will get an education. Widows habitually face extreme poverty and cannot provide for their children, except when other family members help. Most children may be forced to drop out of school if some nonprofit organizations do not assist them. For this reason, most orphans are deprived of the chance to obtain the skills required to get employment, become independent, and earn more money for themselves.

This educational issue has become a significant challenge for girls, as they are considered a potential source of treasure for the family. The late father's family put most of these girls into early marriage so they could access the dowry from their suitors. They push them into married with no education or skills. Usually, older men marry such girls, and the poverty cycle continues unabated.

How domestic violence or abuse affects widows?

Because of the non-availability of shelters and domestic abuse, most widows are forced to migrate from the northern part of the country to the south to avoid domestic violence and seek greener pastures. These women face verbal, physical, spiritual, or psychological abuse. Some victims may be required to pay bribes at the hospitals before medical doctors sign their police forms proving that they are physically abused, and most cannot afford such expenses. The local Domestic Violence and Victim Support units that handle domestic abuse cases are short-staffed across most districts. So domestic violence cases mostly go directly to the regions. Because it takes so long for the victims to seek justice, they let it go and continue being maltreated. The legal aid services which provide legal services for these vulnerable widows who cannot afford lawyers are enormously understaffed, with only one person available to cover an entire region.

Conclusion

In Ghana, instead of men caring for or protecting women who lose their husbands, these same men become perpetrators of the worst forms of widows' abuse. When a widow happens to be a young lady, it becomes clear that remarried is no more an extended option. Despite the climbing numbers of widows in Ghana, public policies that explicitly target these vulnerable groups are yet to be implemented. It is hard to believe that the government will offer any protection and empowerment to these widows. Or is there any action that would help check widowhood poverty and give them a chance to have breathing space?

The anguish that many widows pass through is not just the sadness of grief but the awareness of how they lost their position in their family because of complete neglect, poverty, and dishonor. What makes widows' problems in Ghana very pitying and depressing is how visibly the pride of widows goes unnoticed by Ghanaian authorities, civil societies, and the international bodies who preach about human rights on their lips but not in an action that can redeem these vulnerable women.

Some schools of thought would say that sensitization in the communities that practice widowhood rites will be needed. In contrast, others would say we need more legal aid lawyers, with others arguing that we need shorter court processes. All these measures may bring forth excellent outcomes if appropriately pursued. Nevertheless, customary families must rethink their intestate by-laws and make them approachable to widows. The tribes who practice widowhood rites should know that it is essential to acknowledge the PNDC Law 111, which is superior to all tribal by-laws. We should all, therefore, abide by it as a constitutional decree.

Sources

SEDOS. The Effect of Widowhood rite on the Ghanaian Female in the New Millennium. Retrieved from: Https://Sedosmission.Org/Article/The-Impact-Of-Widowhood-Rite-On-The-Ghanaian-Woman-In-The-New-Millennium/

The Ghana Government Provisional National Defense Council Decree ((1985). Intestate Succession Law. Government to Amend PNDC Law 111. (PNDCL 111). Retrieved from http://www.ghana.gov.gh/index.php/media-center/news/2563-government-to-amend-pndc-law-111

The Ghanaian Chronicle (September 30, 2010) Widowhood rites still rife in Northern Regions Retrieved from https://www.modernghana.com/news/298544/widowhood-rites-still-rife-in-northern-regions.html

The Ghana Statistical Service (May 2012). 2010 population & housing census summary report of results. Retrieved from: http://www.statsghana.gov.gh/docfiles/2010phc/Census2010_Summary_report_of_final_results.pdf

Thelma Asantewaa (July 30, 2017) The plight of widowhood in Africa Retrieved from https://www.ghanaweb.com/GhanaHomePage/NewsArchive/The-plight-of-widowhood-in-Africa-564369