"I and my children were beaten and kicked out of our house by the
brothers-in-law. We live by begging, in continual fear"
Presentation by Dr. Eleanor Nwadinobi President of the Widows Development Organisation, Nigeria
On the occasion of the International Widows Day Conference at the Locarno Suite
Foreign and Commonwealth Office UK 23 june 2006
INTRODUCTION
Today is special for me in many ways .Not only is it the first time a day has been officially set aside and dedicated to widows ,but also the fact that I have been invited to be a part of it and to speak on behalf of widows.
I will be sharing two typical case studies from Nigeria in West Africa, however it will be necessary to first give an overview of the context in which The Widows Development organization has been working.
Due to the erroneous belief that the woman is responsible for the death of the husband, there are cultural practices put in place to dissuade women from killing their husbands Just over ten years ago when I started research and activism on behalf of widows, the subject of death in our corner of the globe was a taboo subject. I was dissuaded from talking about widows as the very name was thought to bring bad luck. My Organisation however went ahead to give the name of our Organisation WIDOWS DEVELOPMENT ORGANISATION, with the acronym WiDO in order to destigmatise the word. Soon after our inception, my husband survived a ghastly car crash I was told it was a warning. However, I am still able to continue with my work on widows largely with his help and support. Today is of great significance for me as today is his birthday
There are differences between urban and rural perceptions in the SE of Nigeria ( a predominately Igbo cultural area) and there are the custodians of tradition and culture who want to maintain the status quo. Let me add that Nigeria is a diverse and complex country with varying practices between various ethnic groups. In Enugu State where most of our work has been done, a State law was passed on widows rights in June 2001. However, laws are slow to be implemented and enforced and cases which go to court are very costly and take a long time in some cases years to be resolved. WiDO has been able to use this law in intervening on behalf of widows whose rights have been violated.
Allow me to speak on behalf two of our beneficiaries who sent a message to the organizers, saying, “Thank you for remembering us”.
CASE 1: NASA
With the help of the Fighting Fund instituted by a U.K charity, Widows Rights International, we were able to intervene on behalf of Nasa.
Nasa and her husband started from scratch to build up their family together. Nasa had not received any formal education but she was happy to contribute her resources to make sure her husband would further his education and have better prospects for employment. They had four children and it was thought they would live happily ever after. However, as soon as he received promotion at work he started to bring his girl friends home while making Nasa leave the house for him and his “guests”
Nasa by this time, had heard about HIV on the local radio refused to have sexual relations with him . Sadly he soon tested positive for HIV. Nasa gave up everything to look after him until he was diagnosed as having full blown AIDS and later died. Nasa went through a number of dehumanizing traditional mourning rites which included shaving her hair, remaining in confinement for 28 days and wearing white for one year. She however came to report to us that one of her sons had been forcefully taken away from her by her in laws and that she had been thrown out of her matrimonial home which she built with her husband. She then learnt that her husband had named his brother as the next of kin at his place of work. This meant that she and her children would not have access to any of the husband’s death benefits which would send her into state of destitution a common situation faced by many widows in SE Nigeria.
She heard of the Widows Development Organisation by word of mouth from a previous beneficiary of the Fighting Fund who lived in her community.
When WiDO received some resources for a small litigation fund from DFID through the Security Justice and Growth Programme we were able to send our vanguard team1 to investigate the matter. The vanguard team have been trained to do Alternative Dispute Resolution (ADR) through Interview, Negotiation, Mediation , Reconciliation and Counseling.
After several visits and series of meetings with the key gate keepers including the village head, the local priest, Nasa got her son back .A ceremony was performed to celebrate her moving back in to her home. As a result of extra meetings between the head of her husband’s place of employment and the vanguard team, she was given some of the money from the death benefits when the cheque was handed over to her brother in-law.
Today Nasa has joined our team of community focal persons 2 who have been equipped with phones and trained to report cases of violation to the Organisation.
CASE II:. EDITH
Edith’s case was brought to our attention through a documentary team in February 2004. Edith was the second wife of late Mr. E who died in 1999.
She has been disinherited of both her farm land and economic trees assigned to her children by her late husband Mr E.
Her step son Mr. B (the son of the first wife) who is now the head of the family has been the major party in the dispute.
Mr.B claimed that Edith deserted her husband and her matrimonial home years before her husband died. Edith on the other hand claimed that she left the matrimonial home after a very serious quarrel with her husband and after being beaten up by Mr. B.
However she returned after her husband died and observed the traditional mourning rites in her matrimonial home. Thereafter, they continued to make her feel unwelcome and her two sons were forcefully taken away from her. She decided to return to her father’s compound which happens to be adjacent to her husband’s home. Edith built herself a shack made of sticks and with a thatch roof.
WiDO on being informed of the situation sent out her Vanguard team to verify the allegations on both sides. This was followed by letters to Mr. B concerning the unlawful custody of Edith’s children. WiDO was able to intervene with the support of Widows Rights International (WRI) U.K and she regained custody of her two sons. One of her sons was discovered to be disabled after the people he was sent to live with, physically abused him by kicking him in the knee- cap for helping himself to some food when he was hungry. He is still unable to walk properly.
Even though she has her sons back Edith was unable to provide them with adequate shelter and send them to school due to the disinheritance which she had suffered. Meanwhile Mr.B who had another legal problem with the church employed the services of a lawyer. When the lawyer heard of Mr. B’s case with Edith he opted
to advise his client to ensure an amicable settlement of the ongoing inheritance matter.
The lawyer invited the two parties and WiDO to a meeting where the deplorable
conditions under which Edith was living in were discussed.
With support from Security Justice and Growth (SJG) programme, the Widows Rights Coalition ( WRC) was formed and coordinated by WiDO . WiDO as a member of the Coalition had several meetings with Mr. B and his brother, Mr C . They eventually agreed to hand over a portion of land and economic trees to Edith. An agreement was then drawn up by the lawyer for all parties to sign. 
On the 17th of September 2005, the agreement papers were signed by Mr B and Mr. C, on one hand and by Edith on the other hand. In the presence of the lawyer and the vanguard team, the Local Ward Councillor, Edith’s older brother, a church catechist and other members of the family, Mr. B under the terms of the agreement handed over a large parcel of land to Edith under our supervision. In total Edith received two plots of land and thirty two palm trees. Today she is living happily with her two sons and can support them with the proceeds from her farm land. Edith is grateful to WRI and SJG for their support.
In conclusion, ladies and gentlemen contrary to the thinking that support sometimes may not be of benefit to someone miles away, these two cases are a testimony to the impact on lives by decisions taken by benefactors such as yourselves who are a world away.
The results of a State wide survey carried out by WRC with support from SJG showed that the most prevalent of the widowhood practices is hair shaving followed by disinheritance.
Is it worth noting the challenges still being faced and these include:-
1. Social as well as economic exclusion of widows
2. The future impact HIV / AIDS could have on the lives of numerous families and the socio-economic impact traditional practices will have on increasing numbers of poor and marginalized people
3. Limited human and financial resources for monitoring and enforcement of the laws at national, local and community levels,
4. Inadequate evidence-based data collection
5. The Role of ADR is essential for the poor to be able to gain some redress to their plight, since the present formal court system is alien and not accessible to the majority!!
Finally, we have taken a bold step by instituting and setting aside a day to
Remember, the plight of Widows like Nasa and Edith and others like them around the world; we are grateful that you have remembered.
I would like to strongly recommend that in addition to publicizing the Conference communiqué that we consider appointing a Reporter for Widows and advocating for getting Widows Rights on the U.N Agenda through a resolution by the General Assembly.At local level, official hiring policies should be instituted for preferentially hiring widows. This would enable the widows to house feed and educate herself and her children, take them off the streets into decent homes and safety.
CONTACT
WiDO
SJGP / DFID Nigeria
From WRI Newsletter 8 - Full copies of the Newsletter available from WRI office or download PDF