Widows in Ghana are still going through inhuman and degrading treatments making their future bleak especially for young widows.

A Ghanaian woman who looses her husband to death is expected to go through certain rites and rituals to prove her innocence or otherwise of the husbands death. These rites are what we call the widowhood rites.

These rites and rituals are often inhuman in nature and very degrading and trample upon the fundamental human rights that every human being is entitled to enjoy. Article 12 of the 1992 Ghanaian Constitution talks about the basic fundamental human rights, and therefore no body should deprive a fellow human being from enjoying his or her rights.

Although, there are many legislations and human rights conventions both local and international such as the Convention against Torture and other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment or Punishment(CAT) and the Convention of the Elimination of all forms of Discrimination against Women(CEDAW) which were adopted by a United Nations resolutions 39/46 10 December 1984 and 34/180,18 December 1979 and which were entered into force on 26 June 1987 and 3 September 1981 respectively, are all but a few of the conventions yet the situation facing widows in Ghana is grave and needs immediate attention.

When a Ghanaian woman looses her husband or is widowed, especially in the northern part of Ghana, she looses the rights and security she gained and enjoyed in her marriage. For example, life becomes very difficult and unbearable for women in Upper East Region, immediately after they are widowed, they are subjected to inhuman and degrading rituals such as being stripped of their clothes and forced to wear leaves over their private parts. These women are forced to remain in this state until the funeral is over, during which the widows are also forced to do other things to determine their state, thus whether they have been faithful or not. These other rituals include sitting on a mat all night wearing only leaves, and surrounded by black ants. If they are bitten by the ants, they are deemed to have been unfaithful. Furthermore, the widows are made to stand while two other women throw water at them. One of the women will throw boiling water and the other cold, and if the widow is scalded, then it is also an indication that the widow had been unfaithful. It is unbelievable to hear of such practices because one wonders how an individual can sit in the midst of ants and expects the ant not to bite her. It is equally astonishing to expect ones body not to burn when hot water is thrown at her.

Even though these practices contravene section 278A of the criminal code of 1960 which state: ‘Whoever compels a bereaved spouse or a relative of such spouse to undergo any custom or practice that is immoral or grossly indecent in nature shall be guilty of a misdemeanour.’ Yet perpetrators of such acts always go unpunished.

Perpetrators of these acts argue that it is their custom, tradition and culture and must therefore obey them to avert the wrath of the gods and its accompanying catastrophic consequences on their families and descendants yet unborn. But what these people are failing to acknowledge is that culture is dynamic and keeps changing, therefore, the way we used to do things some decades ago is not the same today. Hence the need to vary and embrace modernity in our cultural practices.

Additionally, Article 26 of the 1992 Ghanaian Constitution also prohibits the performance of customary practices that dehumanise or are injurious to the mental and physical well-being of humans. Of great concern, especially in the context of communicable diseases, are the harmful, degrading and life-threatening traditional practices as part of burial rites.

It is also an undeniable fact that, widows are forced to drink the water that their husbands’ corpses have been washed in, in some communities in Ghana. Yet Ghana is one of the few countries in Africa that has enacted specific legislations in this area, in the 1989 Amendment to the Ghana Criminal Code, yet there is no record of any prosecutions and the amendment is not well known or understood. What really beats my imagination is that the men are never subjected to these same or similar degrading rituals when they become widowers. Is it because men are supernatural human beings? The puzzle behind this mystery is yet to be unraveled.

Quite recently, there was a report in the Women’s World Page of the Daily Graphic dated April 5, 2008, which has caused much concern to human rights organizations. The report was on the three elderly widows being locked up for nine years in the Kintampo North District of the Brong Ahafo Region of Ghana. These widows were all married to the late Nana Kwaku Dimpo II, chief of New Longolo in Kintampo North.

According to their custom, the widows had to be kept indoors or locked up until the final funeral rites of their late husband were performed, which could only occur once a new chief was enstooled. However, there is a dispute among the family members of the late chief, and a new one has not been installed. That means… Hmmm your guess is as good as mine.

These poor widows, aged 70, 80 and 90 respectively are kept under poor conditions, and are not allowed to leave their house for any reason. Their right to freedom of movement is trampled upon with impunity as they must be in their small, single room by 6pm and in which they share a mat, yet are not allowed to communicate.

However mother luck has decided to smile on these three unfortunate widows as they have once again gained their freedom after nine years of imprisonment without committing any offence.

Widowhood rites make widows vulnerable to serious sexual abuse, as was revealed in Ghana’s Country Report in the document: Empowering Widows in Development: 10 Country Report. A 23 year-old widow from the Volta Region of Ghana recalls: ‘I was raped by two or three men who were sent by my brother-in-law to get me to leave the house. My husband’s brother had already taken my son, but my little daughter was only 4 years old and she witnessed this terrible thing that happened to me. No one wanted to help me. Later, when I lay bleeding on the floor, my brother-in-law came and shouted through the door that it would be worse for me if I reported what had happened.’

Another widow also narrated how her daughters aged 12 and 13, were raped in turns by two brothers. ‘How will they be married now?’ she asked. Child marriage still occurs in rural Ghana, and when young wives are widowed, they face bleak future, as widows are seen as bad luck, and so they may have difficulty finding a new husband.

The luck of support for widows generally also leads to an increase in child marriages, since some destitute widows find themselves finding husbands for their young girls to enable them acquire bride price of cattle.

Despite these disturbing situations and the seemingly hopeless future for widows in Ghana, there is however some hope as Widows Rights International (WRI), a non-governmental organization working to improve the situation for widows in the northern part of Ghana, has recently reported two successful outcomes to its workshops.

The first is an agreement reached by the chief of Kongo and his elders not to strip widows naked during funerals and end the practice of making widows drink any concoctions. This was the result of a workshop held at Kongo, a village close to Bolgatanga in the Upper East Region of Ghana. They also agreed that after the death of the husband, the widow and her children should use the husband’s property and when a widow’s daughter gets married, a portion of the bride wealth or the cows should be given to her mother.

The second positive result concerns a widow name BA, who was her husband’s second wife and a mother of three. Three years ago her husband died after a short illness. During his lifetime, BA’s husband built six rooms for himself and his two wives. Life became very difficult for BA after the demise of her husband and subsequently moved to town to look for a job to take care of her children.

BA’s life was given a face lift as the Widows and Orphans Ministry trained her in baking bread. One day she decided to visit her in-laws and clean her rooms. While she was sweeping, her husband’s brother came in and asked why she had come to the house. He beat her mercilessly that she had to go to the hospital. She later reported the incident to the ministry and her husband’s brother was arrested and imprisoned. Two months later he was given the option of paying a GH¢ 50 fine or spending a further six months in jail. This has served as a deterrent to lot of in-laws who are in the same practice.

Also worth mentioning is the ban on widowhood rites that human rights activists condemn as dehumanizing by the Paramount Chief of Bongo Traditional Area in the Upper East Region, Naba Baba Salifu Aleemeyaarum. These practices include forcing widows to strip naked in public during the funeral rites. Widows are encouraged to report such practices to the appropriate quarters for necessary actions. The government is also encouraged to make the laws bite since such practices are criminal and should be handled with the contempt that it deserves.

Although the 1992 Ghanaian Constitution bans discrimination on the grounds of sex, widows are still discriminated against in Ghana. There is the need for better protection for women immediately after bereavement, to ensure that they are not subjected to degrading practices that violate their human rights, and also enable them to benefit from their late husband’s property to cater for their children.

Widowhood rites are definitely gendered, and it is as if only women should grieve when their partners die. Why do we as a people consistently fail to implement the laws we pass to protect the vulnerable in our society? Hmmm… Some body out there should help me answer this all important question.