When there is a problem of childlessness in the family, as we have already noted, women are always blamed while men are exonerated. The situation is such that: "The women are always the object of discussion, ridicule, and gossip within the vicinity especially among the womenfolk. They deride her, call her names, and wonder aloud why she has not gone back to her place of birth. If the woman ever beats or scolds other women’s children, she is told it is because she has not experienced the pains of childbirth”.248
In the course of this research work, the writer visited a hospital where many childless-couples are coming to conduct fertility test. The shocking
246
Daily Post Newspaper, May 9, 2015
247 Mbiti J.S, Introduction to African Religion, London: Heinemann, 1975, p. 105.
248 Kemdirim P.O., “Towards a Positive Vision for Childless Couples in the African Church: A Post - Synodal
discovery was that the medical laboratory results showed that in about 90% of childlessness in the couples examined, men were responsible for the problem. These included cases ranging from low sperm count, to infection of one virus or bacteria. This betrays the level that Igbo people are still operating. African societies are largely populated with people with parochial and poor educational background. Phenomena like low sperm counts or infertility sounds like fairy tale to most of them. The worse is that even when the problems are medically diagnosed, some Africans, for no just cause other than mere superstition and ignorance, would still not believe the doctor's report.
The real plight of the majority of the childless wives begins immediately the husband dies. With the death of their husbands, widows are often faced with suffering, deprivation, discrimination, humiliation, rejection, abuse and injustices of the highest order. Worst still, is the subjugation and inhuman traditional or cultural practices against women during the so called widowhood rites.249 The first sympathy package from her brothers - and sisters - in- laws is to ask her to surrender the bank documents of her deceased husband. The life of such a widow is always in danger if she refuses to comply. A lot of them have lost their lives in the process of trying to safeguard their husband’s property. The place of the childless widow in the conflict is best located within the larger picture of women in Igbo traditional society. In the traditional society, widows are subjected to all kinds of dehumanizing and agonizing conditions. A widow returns to statusless situation at the death of her husband. She is once more a “nobody” especially if she has no child of her own and in some cases, the property of the dead husband is also taken by the brother if the dead man had no son250 or the children happened to be too small. In fact, violence against widows is both complex and countless. For instance in a newspaper report of Sunday Sun Newspaper of 18th March, 2012 captioned: “The plight of widows in a village in Nsukka Local Government Area” (which is in Enugu State in Igboland-Nigeria), it was reported that “a group of youths raped old widows and that the suspects regained their freedom few hours after
249 2010 Catechetical Week Programme, “Syncretism: A Challenge to the Christian Faith”, p. 12
250 The writer witnessed this at Ede-Oballa Parish where he worked as Assistant Parish Priest. We had to consult a
arrest.”251
If the widows had grown - up children, the matter would have taken a different shape. This is just one case among numerous cases of documented and undocumented cases of abuse of widows with impunity which is widespread and persistent all over the Igbo society especially in rural settings.
There have been cases of some widows who were returned back to their parents after the death of their husband simply because they were barren. Some of these widows took care of their husbands while bedridden for several years only to be sent home as soon as their husbands gave up the ghost. There are some who are practically punished as if they were responsible for the death of their husband. Some have been forced to drink the unsafe water used in washing their dead husband as way of exonerating themselves from the accusation that they were responsible for the death of their husband. Some shave off all the hair on their head, compelled to wear black and shabby clothes for a whole year, banned from applying cosmetics like make-ups, or must go around carrying blunt cutlass. They are confined for weeks without association and integration with other people. In some areas, they are not free to change their cloths or plait their hair. Apart from stress of seclusion and loneliness, they suffer severely at the hands of Umuada. The Umuada would perform the ritual cleansing on a widow by taking her at midnight to a stream, strip her naked and shave all the parts of her body. Besides, some are forced to continue bearing children for the late husband.252 Some widows abandoned everything for the sake of their life and that of the children. In fact, “it is already a misfortune to lose a husband, but in most Nigeria cultural settings, it is a double misfortune, such that some women wish to die before their husbands. This is because they are subjected to all kinds of inhuman conditions, all in the name of tradition”.253
In few cases, the church has actively intervened to rescue some suffering Catholic widows through the help of the Justice and Peace Commission in the various dioceses.
251 Eze E.N., “Women’s Right and Succession to Estate in Nigeria”, in Ochada P.C., (ed.), Anniversary Journal Rev.
Fr. Hyginus Eke: Selected Contemporary Issues And Challenges in Theology, Medicine, Law, Sociology and Education, p. 119
252 Udoye E.A, Resolving the Prevailing Conflicts between Christianity and African (Igbo) Traditional Religion
through Inculturation, Berlin, Lit Verlag, 2011, pp. 203-204
But such interventions are quite rare. The Church needs to help the world to realize the vision of John Paul II that: "We must understand that in creating the human race 'male and female’; God gives man and woman an equal personal dignity, endowing them with inalienable rights and responsibilities proper to the human person".254 The Synod deplored those African customs and practices "which deprive women of their rights and the respect due to them" and asked the Church in the continent to make every effort to foster the safeguarding of these rights.255 The safeguarding of the rights of the widows is yet to be practically realized in Igboland-Nigeria.