The Catholic Church and Obnoxious Widowhood Practices in Nanka, Nigeria
Ekenedirichukwu Eze & Sandra Mmachukwu Umeh
Nsukka Journal of Religion and Cultural Studies | Vol 12, No 1 | © 2024 Ekenedirichukwu Eze & Sandra Mmachukwu Umeh | This work is licensed under CC Attribution 4.0
Submitted: 20 Dec., 2023 | Published: 06 May 2024
About the author(s)
Ekenedirichukwu Eze, a lecturer at the University of Nigeria, Nsukka
Sandra Mmachukwu Umeh, Graduate of Religion and Cultural Studies, University of Nigeria, Nsukka
Full Text:
Abstract
In every society, couples get into marriage with excitement and high expectations. However, losing a partner to death cuts short such high hopes. the death of a husband not only robs the bereaved woman of expectations in marriage, but also exposes her to some obnoxious practices which seem to be a cultural norms and socially accepted practice in Igboland. These obnoxious practices are drinking the water used in washing the corpse, shaving of hair, ritual seclusion, crying at interval, disinheritance if without a male child, etc. This paper therefore attempts an expository study of some of these obnoxious practices in Nanka. it is a theoretical paper that analyses the role of the Catholic Church in eradicating these widowhood practices. the method of data collection is in-depth interview with 15 respondents who are between the ages of 50-80, and also analysis of existing literature that relates to the study area. The findings of this paper is that some of the obnoxious practices are still in existence in Nanka. The paper recommends ethical teaching and involvement of Faith Based Organization (FBO) in the fight against the widowhood obnoxious practices.
Keywords
Widowhood, practices, obnoxious, tradition and Culture, Nanka, Nigeria.