• It is barbaric, akin to killing of twins in the olden days —Igwe Nnamani

• This belief system is vicious, should be abolished where it still exists

• It is immoral, does not achieve anything —Imo monarch

• It is satanic, dethrone monarch whose community allows this —CLO

• It is an abomination, a taboo, very unhealthy —Enugu monarch

• It is embedded in Igbo tradition, custom and culture —Ezeonwuka

By Anayo Okoli, Vincent Ujumadu, Nwabueze Okonkwo, Ugochukwu Alaribe, Chinedu Adonu, Chinonso Alozie & Ikechukwu Odu

RECENTLY, there was an outrage over a complaint from a widow in a community in Ihiala Council Area of Anambra State, who alleged that she was being forced by the family of her late husband to drink the water used to bathe her husband’s corpse to prove her innocence.

This followed an allegation by some members of the family that she killed her husband. This is one of the wicked and humiliating treatments given to widows in some parts of Igboland.

How do Ndigbo see this practice?
The traditional ruler of Likke Iheaka Autonomous Community in Igbo-Eze South Local Government Area of Enugu State, Igwe Christopher Nnamani described such practice as unacceptable in any civilized clime. The monarch likened the practice to killing of twins in the olden days and urged communities where the obnoxious practice exists to abolish it forthwith.

He said that the practice was used in the olden days to dehumanize some widows who may be innocent of the allegations their deceased husband’s kinsmen or relatives leveled against them. Frowning at such practice, the monarch said no human being should be subjected to such inhuman act, insisting rather that the dead should be allowed to fight and revenge if there was any foul play in their death.

Igwe Nnamani tasked the human rights community to take it up and drag any community where the practice still exists to court for crime against humanity.

“This belief system is vicious and equivalent to those days Africans labelled twin babies evil creatures and killed one of them. The practice should be abolished where it still exists.

“The dead should fight for himself or herself. If the widow is behind her husband’s death, let him fight her from the spirit world. Suspecting someone to the extent of giving her water used to clean the corpse of her deceased husband to drink to prove her innocence is wicked and barbaric and should not be encouraged in the Igbo society and the world at large,” the monarch said.

On his part, the traditional ruler of Ihim Autonomous Community in Isiala Mbano Council Area of Imo State, Eze Oliver Ohanwe charged Igbo communities where such practice happens to report to their monarchs anybody doing that.

The monarch said he was sure that no traditional ruler would support such practice again, adding that it used to be the practice many decades ago but no longer happening this time around. 

“This is no longer in practice. This is what we saw in the olden days and I think nobody does it again. I see it as barbaric. It is immoral, it does not achieve anything. In fact, check very well nobody is allowing such a thing happen again.

“Because this is senseless, I want to advise those who see such a thing happening to report quickly to the traditional ruler of the community and the monarch will stop it. I am saying it that no reasonable traditional ruler will allow such a thing to happen,” the monarch said.

On the strength of the evil nature of such practice, the Civil Liberties Organisation, CLO, has advocated for the dethronement of traditional rulers of communities where it is in practice.

CLO added that such communities must be made to pay fines to the government, stressing that stringent measures must be put in place to discourage such evil practice.

Describing the practice as satanic, CLO stated that to force anyone to drink water from a corpse is akin to passing a death sentence on the person. It also urged traditional rulers and other community leaders to ensure that widows are not maltreated in their communities.

CLO, in a statement by its Chairman, Aba Unit, Prof. Charles Chinekezi, said people who engage in such practices must be arraigned and jailed by the court, as it constitutes grave infringement on the fundamental human rights of the citizenry.

“It is satanic for anybody to wash a corpse and force another person to drink the water for any reason. To ask anyone to drink water from a dead body is akin to passing a death sentence on the person. Anybody who drinks such may never survive it. The practice is cruel and should be condemned by all right thinking persons.

“It is one of the many anti- widowhood practices that must be abolished. It is not part of Igbo culture, but just the evil imagination of some people. It is a grave infringement on the fundamental human rights of the citizenry. Even the courts at all levels in several rulings have condemned the practice as inhuman.

“Those who practice it and even the persons they force to drink it are aware that it is evil. No family or community should condone such practice under any guise. It doesn’t achieve anything. You can’t prove anybody’s guilt or innocence through such evil methods. This practice is due to illiteracy, ignorance and lack of fear of God.

“People who engage in this practice should be arrested and jailed without an option of fine. It is a criminal offence. Traditional rulers of communities where such practices are condoned should be dethroned and be made to pay a fine to the government. Such stringent measures are needed to discourage this evil practice.

“Most of these practices take place where the siblings or family members of a wealthy man want to intimidate a widow out of her husband’s property and cash. Otherwise, what reasons can one proffer for engaging in such practice?”

CLO urged family members who may have issues about the death of their loved ones to approach the law courts and refrain from such evil and unhealthy practices of forcing people to drink water from a corpse.

For the traditional ruler of Ogrute Autonomous Community in Igbo-Eze North Local Government Area, Enugu State, Igwe Wilfred Ogbonnaya Ekere, the practice is condemnable, not something to encourage at all.

According to Igwe Ekere, it is an abomination, a taboo and an unhealthy act, stressing that Igbo-Eze North Council of Chiefs had banned the act in all the communities in the area.

Speaking on its unhealthy nature, he said that if the man died of HIV, the woman would also die after drinking the water used to bathe the dead body. He said that the water used to bathe a dead person is very poisonous.

The monarch said that anybody found encouraging such obscene act in his community should be severely dealt with as the traditional rulers and elders in council has banned it.

“In this 21st Century, will someone ask a widow to drink water used to bathe her dead husband to prove her innocence? It is a disgrace, an abomination. You cannot see such act in Enugu-Ezike. The council of traditional rulers with elders in council banned this act decades ago.

“Let me tell you, it is not advisable health-wise to ask someone to drink water used to bathe a dead body to prove her innocence because if the person died of HIV, anybody that drinks the water will contract the same virus. People that bathe dead bodies do not talk while doing that because if the water enters their mouth, they will have mouth odour in the next generation. Such things cannot happen in Enugu-Ezike. We banned it and anybody caught in the act will be punished heavily,” Igwe Ekere warned and advised any part of South-East condoning such act to desist from it, saying that it is left for God to judge if any person takes away the life of a fellow human being.

However, Chief Rommy Ezeonwuka said such a practice is quite embedded in Igbo tradition, custom and culture. Ezeonwuka contended that the practice is quite in order, useful and should be continued as it would help to checkmate the excesses of women who kill their husbands indiscriminately for self-aggrandizement.

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According to the proprietor of Rojenny Games Village, Oba, “women are so shallow-minded that they can even kill their husbands just to acquire their wealth.

“Look at what is happening in Europe and Asia where Nigerian men in Diaspora who married from those countries are usually killed by their wives for the sake of taking possession of their wealth and even children without allowing the children to come back to Nigeria,” he said.

On the hygienic aspect of the practice, Ezeonwuka stated that the water does not have any harmful effect. He said that if a woman truly has hands in the death of her husband, the oath would deal her a deadly blow but if she has no hand in the death, her innocence would save her from the harmful effect of the oath.

In his contribution, Chief Damian Okeke-Ogene described the practice as obnoxious. He said there are many other ways to find out whether a woman has hand in her husband’s death or not rather than forcing her to drink water used in bathing her husband’s corpse.

Okeke-Ogene, who is an executive member of Ohanaeze Ndigbo, disclosed that at Ohanaeze level, such an obnoxious practice has been banned. He said any woman subjected to such a practice has the right to go to human rights groups or International Federation of Women Lawyers, FIDA for protection.

Generally, it is believed that such practice is inhuman and condemnable. Times were when a widow would be compelled to sleep in the same room where the dead husband was kept until it was buried. It was during such period that the dead man’s relations would force the widow to brief them on their brother’s accumulated wealth and the reason for doing that where the lifeless body of her husband lay was to inject fear in her so that she could not hide anything from them.

Many people who were not even in a good relationship with their late brother would become spokespersons for their late brother and they are the ones that would put their late brother’s wife on the defensive. If the woman does not have a strong support from either her maiden home, or some people among her husband’s family, she would be made to suffer greatly. When the widow proved tough to handle by the family members, all sorts of humiliating actions, including forcing her to drink the water used in bathing her husband’s corpse, were meted to her.

A community leader in Okija, Mr. Andrew Okeke said it is not a norm that a widow is forced to drink such water, adding that it is only when there is verifiable evidence that she had a hand in the death of her husband and the widow still continued to deny, that such punishment was meted to her.

“Such a thing no longer happens. It can never happen this time as most people are Christians and are enlightened. But this is not to say that a widow cannot be questioned if she was known to be maltreating her husband badly before his death. In such a situation, the widow is only reprimanded and not to the extent of forcing her to drink the water used in cleaning her dead husband’s body,” Okeke said.

He added that there are even plans to relax some of the ways the widow is treated on the day of the husband’s burial. “For instance, we want to stop the habit of keeping the widow in seclusion while the burial is taking place. She should be allowed to attend to people who came to commiserate with her, instead of keeping her on a spot and she would just be watching”, Okeke said.

He also said that there are plans to stop the habit of allowing women from the community married outside the area encircling the widow and shaving her head openly as if she committed any offence.

“Shaving or not shaving would not bring back the dead man and I do not see any reason why it should be a major ceremony on the day the widow is still mourning her loss,” he added.

Vanguard News Nigeria