ABSTRACT

There comes a time in a woman's life when life itself seems to lose its meaning: the death of her husband. The burden of living the rest of her life under a new set of relationships and responsibilities can be hazardous. This thesis examines the phenomenon of widowhood in Ihechiowa and the response of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria. The work was prompted by the numerous inhuman treatments meted out to widows in Ihechiowa, such as the shaving of hair, sleeping beside the corpse, the wearing of rags and confinement. It seeks to understand the causes of widowhood and the plight of widows, and at the same time to discover how Christianity can serve as a vehicle for rescuing human dignity in Ihechiowa. The researcher also sought to raise awareness of the grave dangers and implications of inhuman treatment of widows, especially as the changing times are exposing people to their rights and privileges. The research drew on oral interviews and on written materials, both primary and secondary. Data gathered from journals and other sources in libraries and archives were sifted, selected, described and analysed. The investigation found that widowhood is common among both young and older people, between the ages of thirty and sixty, and that some widows suffer emotional trauma immediately after losing their husbands. It also revealed that the plight of widows is being reduced by the advance of civilisation and Christianity. In a related finding, the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria was found not to have done much to help widows overcome their plight. The investigation and the data collected further confirmed that some widowhood experiences arise from ignorance and tradition. The work contributes significantly to people's knowledge of the causes of widowhood, and it will help young people who intend to marry to consider issues such as age gap, education, cultural and traditional differences and religious beliefs before entering marriage.

CHAPTER ONE

INTRODUCTION

1.1 Background of the Study

Death is a natural phenomenon that binds the peoples of the world together. It is a great leveller that respects neither king nor peasant, and it reduces the giant and the dwarf alike to the same six-foot measure. It is the ultimate end of all living things. Widowhood, however, is a multi-faceted tragedy. An elderly widow once remarked that she had buried a child and had lost her own parents, yet in all her experience of death none had been as painful as the death of her husband. Her candid assessment was prompted by a desire to make peace between two young bereaved women: one had lost a child and the other a husband, and the first had refused to visit the second, who had in turn failed to condole with her when her child died. The elderly widow insisted that grief in the form of widowhood is incomparable to any other bereavement. Such a discussion of widowhood is, in any case, unusual in ordinary conversation among women.

Under the misery of widowhood, women are the most marginalised in most cultures, especially in Ihechiowa. In some parts of Nigeria, the widow is forced to drink the water used to wash her husband's corpse as proof that she had no hand in his death (Eze & Umeh, 2024; Nwaoga et al., 2021). Integrative research confirms that such practices, together with confinement, ritual cleansing, disinheritance and social stigma, are detrimental to the physical and psychological well-being of Nigerian widows (Anuforo & Zoucha, 2024; Oludayo & Adenike, 2011), and that widows in the Nsukka area of the South-East display high rates of post-traumatic stress (Ezeh, 2022). Generally, in Nigeria, and in Ihechiowa in particular, women had no right to inherit or to own land before the Christian era. Like mere appendages of men, women were, of cultural necessity, left with the widow's only hope and claim to the fruits of the couple's joint labour through her male offspring, since only sons had rights, under customary rules, to their dead father's property (Idoniboyeobu & Obiechina, 2018). Nigerian courts have since held that customs denying women inheritance on the basis of gender are discriminatory and unenforceable (Ukeje v. Ukeje, 2014), although practice in many communities has been slow to change.

Because religion is the central belief system of human beings, it is a key determinant of widowhood practices. The various religions of the world, including Islam, Christianity, Judaism and Hinduism, greatly influence people's attitudes to women in general and the treatment of widows in particular (Nwaoga et al., 2021). Dispelling the popular and strongly held superstitions and myths that surround death and the place of women in society can never be easy. Even so, there is no denying that societies must learn to adjust to a fast-changing world.

1.2 Statement of the Problem

Are there widows? Can we estimate how many there are? Who are they? Where do they live? How do they feel? How do they earn a living? How do they cope with life generally? These and many other questions about widowhood are puzzling and deserve answers.

Before the advent of Christianity, women in most communities, Ihechiowa among them, were to be seen and not heard, and their presence in family and religious settings was regarded as a necessary evil. They were not needed so much as tolerated. A widow's fundamental rights and freedoms were suspended, and she was subjected to cruel and inhuman treatment. She became a prisoner trapped by a custom repugnant to natural justice, equity and good conscience. Widowhood thus turned the Ihechiowa woman into society's whipping top and a receptacle for all kinds of filth. During her one month of detention, the widow underwent a harrowing experience that is unbelievable to the modern person and intolerable to contemporary womanhood. Even when a widow escaped this unjust verdict through the kindness of her in-laws, she remained caught by inhuman cultural practices deliberately invoked against her by a hostile community. She was sentenced to suffer for the rest of her life, in effect to perpetual servitude, and was exploited by unscrupulous men and women. She was accused and convicted by her community of being a husband-killer, and she was then left with the traumatic task of bringing up her child or children. Scholars of widowhood in Nigeria describe similar patterns of gendered dispossession and humiliation across ethnic groups (Adeyemo, 2016; Anuforo & Zoucha, 2024). It is in the light of these conditions that the researcher decided to undertake this work.

1.3 Purpose of the Study

In this work, relevant literature will be reviewed, the geography and origin of Ihechiowa will be highlighted, and widowhood in the Old and New Testaments will be examined. Widowhood as practised in Ihechiowa and the response of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria will also be examined. Relevant suggestions will be put forward, and a critical and comprehensive conclusion will be drawn.

The researcher intends to investigate the root cause or causes of widowhood plight in Ihechiowa with the aim of proffering possible solutions. The work intends to challenge and motivate the Presbyterian Church to rise to its responsibilities in the area of widowhood plight. Many people have lived for years in ignorance, enveloped by cultural and traditional beliefs, and some practise what they do not understand and cannot explain. This research aims to expose those practices that are inhuman and unchristian. Finally, it will help to educate both the traditional and Christian communities to rise to their responsibilities and to stop every inhuman practice meted out to widows.

1.4 Significance of the Study

A study of this nature can be an eye-opener and a call to churches, traditional institutions, communities and society at large to rise up to fight for, defend, protect and care for the widow within their environment, through teaching, through gifts of money and material support, and by campaigning for a total end to all inhuman practices meted out to widows. Scripture itself repeatedly commands care for the widow (for example, Deuteronomy 10:18 and James 1:27). With knowledge of the widowhood phenomenon in Ihechiowa, widows should be able to understand that death is inevitable and visits rich and poor alike regardless of status. The work also aims to educate widows to avoid becoming a burden on others and, as far as possible, to engage in ventures that keep them busy so that they can take care of themselves and their families.

1.5 Scope of the Study

The study is limited to the phenomenon of widowhood in Ihechiowa and the response of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria. It does not cover all aspects of the plight suffered by widows around the world, only that in Ihechiowa. Narrowing the scope to Ihechiowa makes for a more effective study and allows a critical and comprehensive position to be presented on the plight of widows there.

1.6 Methodology

The researcher collected data through personal communication with people within and outside Ihechiowa. Data from primary and secondary sources enabled the researcher to make a detailed study of the widowhood phenomenon in Ihechiowa and the response of the Presbyterian Church of Nigeria. Information from archives and libraries, and a detailed study of existing materials, were also used, and the information was carefully sifted, described and analysed. Internet sources were also consulted. In organising and presenting the data, the researcher used both the descriptive and the historical method.

1.7 Definition of Terms

Relevant and related terms and concepts are defined here for clarity.

Widowhood. Widowhood is the state in the life of an individual who has lost a spouse to death. Irrespective of the cause of death and how it happened, once it occurs it separates the dead from the living. It has been described as a multi-faceted tragedy, and as a stage of suffering experienced by a woman who was legally married under statutory, customary, Islamic or Christian law but who loses her husband to death (Eze & Umeh, 2024; Nwaoga et al., 2021). The Hebrew word translated "widow" is almanah, which lexicons connect with a root meaning "unable to speak" (Brown et al., 1907); it commonly refers to a widow as helpless and exposed to oppression and harsh treatment. The Greek word for widow, chera, is related to the sense of being "without" or bereft (Danker, 2000), and it can refer to anyone who is destitute, miserable or living in solitude. A widow is therefore a woman left without a husband, friend, adviser, protector, supplier and shelter, and widowhood is the situation of a woman who experiences these difficulties. It may further be explained as a situation in which a woman loses her physical, religious, emotional and economic enjoyment of life.

Phenomenon. A phenomenon is a thing that appears to or is perceived by the senses, as in the phenomena of nature. It may also mean a remarkable or unusual person, thing or happening.

Ihechiowa. The name means "the light that holds the world." Ihechiowa is a community of people with a common history and ancestry, located in the present Arochukwu Local Government Area of Abia State. It is made up of seventeen villages and occupies a land mass of about 216 square kilometres. It is flanked by Ohafia to the north, Ututu to the south, Ukwa to the west and Abam to the east.

Presbyterian. In the New Testament, presbyteros means "elder" and refers to the custom of choosing leaders and advisers from among the wisest members of the Church. The Presbyterian Church is therefore a church of elders, organised in accordance with Calvin's ecclesiastical ordinances, which set out four offices in the Reformed Church of Geneva: pastor, teacher (of the word), elder and deacon (Calvin, 1954). Presbyterians are a group of Protestants whose church is founded on this concept of representative government under the word of God. Contemporary Presbyterianism originated in the Protestant Reformation, particularly in Calvin's Geneva (Ferguson et al., 1988).

Church. The English word derives from the Greek ekklesia, denoting an assembly, and the Septuagint uses it to render the Hebrew qahal, "congregation" (Schmidt, 1965). It can denote both the local assembly and the worldwide communion of believers. The Church was born on the day of Pentecost (Acts 2). It is not primarily a human structure like a political, social or economic organisation; it belongs to Jesus Christ, and it draws its life from him through the Holy Spirit, working through the word of God (Dulles, 1974).

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