Widows Voices Must Be Heard

Let's Build Bridges for Widows and not Walls

I saw them,they were women they were not men.They spearheaded the act on her.They stripped her naked,tortured her and shaved her hair with a rusted,unsterilized blade.They were her friends but they knocked her down.

I saw them,they were women,they were not men.They accused her of killing her late husband and then they forced her to drink concoctions prepared with leaves,hairs and fingers nails of her late husband.They were her sisters but they pressed her down.

I saw them,they were women,they were not men.They made her to sleep in the same room with the corpse for 3 or more days and she ate only on leafs.She was not allowed to change clothes for a long period of time.She was isolated by everyone and could find solace only from her children.They were her mothers but they pushed her down.

I saw them,they were women,they were not men.They stripped her naked before the full glare of the public.Every one isolated her,they chanted mockery songs in their dialect and called her a witch.She had no one to comfort her.She gazed at a distance and saw her children wailing uncontrollably.She thought of their future.It was so bleak.They were from the same community but they crushed her down.

I saw them,they were women,they were not men.They forced her out of the community to have sexual Intercourse with an unknown man an the end of the rite,in order to shelve herself from the bad omen of the widowhoodrites.

I saw them,they were women,they were not men.They refused to change this obnoxious practice.They said they went through it and all other widows must pass through it.They argued that it's their culture that must be passed from generation to generation.

She could not stand the humiliation, discrimination and violation.She had lost her social status,this dehumanizing act has reduced her to ruins.She could still hear them whispering that she killed him.She thought of committing suicide but find solace in her children.

During this 2018 IWD, let us join our voices and talk in favor of widows.Widowhoodrites is a gender based violence that is perpetrated by women on women.It can lead to HIV and AIDS,it de humanize the survivor,leaves communities in abject poverty and reduces the self esteem of the survivor.Can the eradication of Widohoodrites create  waves of change in our communities?