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A group of women seated under a tent looking at two women standing in front of them.

THE STRUGGLE OF A WIDOW AGAINST DOGMA  AND STIGMATIZATION

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Written by Thomas Kagwa

A group of women seated under a tent looking at two women standing in front of them.

Widows celebrating during the 7th Goat Foundation Cause giveback.

Joyce (not her real name) is a widow from Kilifi, Kenya. She supports a household of 12, both children and grandchildren, despite the limited economic opportunities in the Coast region that reflect the ongoing crises and prevalent gender inequality. Joyce is just one of the millions of widows around the world who struggle to claim their equal human rights after the loss of a husband; an event that can lead to enduring poverty for women and their families.

Although accurate information is limited, it has been estimated that there are some 285 million widows around the world, with over 115 million of them living in deep poverty. Data on women’s status are often not disaggregated by marital status, so at every level of gender statistics, from national to global, widows are not visible. Yet we know that many elderly widows face multiple and intersecting forms of discrimination, based on their gender, age, rural location, or disability. Others are still young when they lose their husbands, perhaps as a result of conflict or because they were married as children to a much older man. These women face a long lifetime of widowhood.

Along with the shock of losing a spouse, the situation for widows is often compounded by stigma and social isolation. In many countries, widows have been stripped of their rights to assets such as land, income, and property. Without access to social protection, they face destitution.

According to the World Bank Group’s Women, Business and the Law 2021 report, out of 173 countries, 90 per cent have at least one law limiting women’s economic participation, including constraints on their ability to inherit or own land. Repealing these discriminatory laws is not only ethical, but it is also a mandate of the Sustainable Development Goals. The first target of Goal 5 is to ”end all forms of discrimination against all women and girls everywhere” with a further target specifying the need to “undertake reforms to give women equal rights to economic resources, as well as access to ownership and control over land and other forms of property, financial services, inheritance, and other natural resources, in accordance with national laws.” Action on these could impact the lives of millions of widows who are currently dependent on their husbands for their livelihoods.

Joyce was able to improve her situation, thanks to a project supported by The Goat Foundation for widows that trained her in financial skills, and included her among a group that received a donation of a pair of goats. Through this group,  saved enough money to start two micro-enterprises. With these new ventures—selling slippers and breeding goats—she has established her independence, growing her business, and supported her family.

The Goat Foundation is committed to working with communities around Kenya and Africa, and with like-minded civil societies on ensuring the human rights of widows. This includes providing widows with information on access to a fair share of their inheritance, land, and productive resources; pensions and social protection that are not based on marital status alone; decent work and equal pay; and education and training opportunities.

Widows must be empowered to support themselves and their families. This also means addressing social stigmas that create exclusion, and discriminatory or harmful practices, such as those in the DRC, where a widow can be required to undergo a period of isolation and imprisonment, purification ceremonies to “cut the link” with her deceased husband, and pressed to remarry.

 

This year’s UN High-Level Political Forum took place in July with a focus on “Eradicating poverty and promoting prosperity in a changing world“. It provided an important opportunity to highlight and act on the connection between widowhood and poverty, as well as on the paucity of quality, sex-disaggregated data about widows and their lives.

The Sustainable Development Goals call on all of us to include those who are at risk of being left behind. Widows have inviolable rights that are not dependent on anyone else; they must be able to enjoy those rights. Let us work to ensure that, just like Joyce, all widows have the opportunity to build a new life after a personal loss.

 

CAST OUT BY CUSTOM – A WIDOW’S TRIUMPH OVER CUSTOMARY LAW

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A woman peeking through the window of a clay house balancing a basket and headwrap on her head

The Goat Foundation has been at the forefront of highlighting widows’ triumph over adversity and circumstance. It is always hopeful and delightful whenever we encounter a case where communities work together to help one of their own emerge from debilitating conditions. Such a case was that of Mary through whom it was demonstrated that retrogressive customs and traditional laws that discriminate against widows could be overcome.

Mary had been married to her husband for ten years before he was diagnosed with cancer. At the time, she and her family did not have enough money to transport him to a reputable hospital for treatment. John died just a few weeks after his doctor confirmed that his cancer had progressed to stage 4.

Shortly after her husband’s death, Mary’s life quickly became unbearable. Things became difficult. She couldn’t send her children to school or feed them. Everything she and her late husband had spent years building was now under threat of being taken away. In their customary law, women were not allowed to inherit from the estates of their deceased husbands. To enforce that, they harassed her and ordered her to vacate the property where she and her husband had lived for nearly ten years.

She endured the suffering until she learned that a local Kilifi town community-based non-profit organization that looks after the plight of widows could assist her with her case. She showed up there, and the organization assisted her in getting legal representation, which resulted in a favourable ruling that allowed her to stay and raise her children in the home where they had been living with her late husband.

The court’s decision reprieved Mary as it gave her and her kids a place to live and call home. Soon after, the organization organized training on business skills so she could slowly rebuild her life, provide for her family, and send her kids to school.

With her small savings, the training, and the enablement she received from the organization, Mary opened a small shop that sold household items to the community. Using the business skills that she had learnt; she was able to grow the business to the point that it could feed her children and pay for their school fees

Many women, like Mary, experience the same fate following the passing of their husbands. Most of the land is typically owned by men. Most traditional families do not write wills, and in the event of a man’s passing, all land and property are reclaimed by the male relatives, mainly brothers and uncles rather than their wives or children

The help that Mary received from the charity organization, went a long way in reviving the hopes she had of taking care of her family. It ensured that there was no hunger and that her children attained the highest form of education. The training she got to start her business will help her grow and flourish in business and ensure that there is no poverty in her household.

The Goat Foundation remains at the forefront in championing for widows’ rights and looks forward to the day when widows will be regarded as equal family members and therefore achieve the Sustainable Development Goals for social and economic justice for women. We are continually expanding our partnerships and associations throughout Africa and with the help of our partners, we believe we will transform the lives of millions of widows.

A widow looks onto the horizon

Is Africa ready to abandon some of its widow passage rights to uphold the dignity of widows? 

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A widow looks onto the horizon

Drum rolls, upbeat music, and people dancing over lit fires. A description of a typical funeral set up among many communities across Africa. Here, death is ‘celebrated’ as a right of passage. People feast, mourn and send off their loved ones to the ‘spirit world’ safely. The loss of a loved one marks the beginning of doom, especially for widows. During this ceremony, they are comforted by their fellow women and surrounded by much love. But as soon as the funeral ends, a new life that may be marked by extreme hardship begins for these widows.

Cleansing rights like drinking the water that was used to bathe their husband’s corpse begin. Others are required to cut off their hair, go to the stream to bathe, and sleep beside their husband’s dead bodies. Among widowed households in Kenya, Tanzania, Malawi, and Uganda- widows are forced to participate in sexual cleansing. This means widows must have unprotected sex with their husband’s brother or other relatives, or with a professional village, cleanser to ‘remove the impurities that have been ascribed to her.

According to MS Magazine, widows in the South Eastern part of Nigeria go through a period of isolated confinement. This ranges from 8 days to 4 months after their husband dies. ‘In this period, the widow is not allowed to leave her room and her hair is completely shaved. She is expected to sit on the floor and wail at the top of her lungs every morning and is not allowed to take a bath or change her clothes till the body of the deceased is buried.’

The prejudices against widows are embedded in the African culture. While there are some positive customs, the negative ones overweight the good in the intention of the positive customs. It is important to note that these cultures contribute to the spread of diseases such as HIV/AIDS among the widow communities and the belief that widows should be treated inhumanely through generations.

While many may argue that widows can choose to not participate in such customs, these rites and practices intersect with the economic freedom of widows. They control their ability to be accepted and own property rightfully from their husbands. Failure to participate in these activities calls for banishment and dispossession of their property.

The only way widows across rural Africa can unlearn these practices is through economic empowerment. If they are rightfully given opportunities for wealth creation, they can leave these practices behind and stand on their own financially.