The Impact of Tradition on Widowhood Rites and Property Rights

ABSTRACT

Globally, gender inequality has been an issue of discourse, most especially among social workers and human right activists. It’s been seen that gender issues stems from religions and cultural practices; particularly in Africa. This situation concerns many parts of Africa where patriarchal tradition where man uses culture to rule that of man’s right. Most Africa countries, Nigeria inclusive favours men over women. The study inspected the impact of tradition on widowhood rites and property rights on women in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State. Five objectives were observed and answered to guide the direction of the study. The study adopted the feminist legal theory as a theoretical framework of the study. Empirical review was also done in the study and it was discovered that the Egors' widowhood customs and property rights have not been researched. The Southeastern and Northern regions of Nigeria were the subject of the majority of study. Also descriptive survey research design was adopted to determine the impact of tradition on widowhood rites and property rights on women in Egor Local Government Area of Edo State. 384 residents were used as the sample size. The instrument for data collection for the study was questionnaire and both the primary and secondary sources were used, reliability coefficient of the instrument was determined using Crombach Alpha and a reliability coefficient of 0.78 was obtained. There were major findings in this study such as: during mourning period, widow is expected to sit on a bare floor or mat, She is to go into seclusion for seven days without bathing, Women cannot inherit any of her husband’s property and the world is a man’s own etc. The study recommended creation of awareness against negative practices towards any woman who lost her husband, general public should be educated against the negative practice, government should join hands in the fight against cruel widowhood rites, laws and policies should be enacted to protect women against cruel widowhood rites; and social workers should stand in the gap by advocating in the eliminating dehumanizing widowhood rites and claiming the rights of women in the inheritance of family’s properties in Egor Local Government Area.