Trauma, economic hardship, heartless in-laws – The Story of Ghanaian Widows

They toil with their husbands to acquire property and wealth. But sometimes, they lose it all when their husbands pass on.

In some cases, widows in Ghana suffer abuse from their husbands’ families and years of suffering to raise their children all by themselves.

As the world marks International Widows’ Day today 23rd June, some Widows shared their stories with Joy News.

Grace Asaah
Grace Asaah’s husband died 15 years ago, leaving her with four children. Grace recounted that, she refused to drink some concoctions as part of widowhood rites because it was against her Christian beliefs. Her husband’s family abandoned her because of that.

“They threatened to send me packing back to my father’s house because to them, it was unacceptable for me to refuse to perform the traditional rites as part of my husband’s funeral. I stood my ground and they left me alone. But when the funeral was over, I was left all alone and it became so difficult for me to cater for my four children”, she narrated .

Grace had a female goat which she was rearing with the hope that it would reproduce and give her a source of income. But her husband’s brothers forcefully took the goat from her and used it for a sacrifice. They also took her husband’s farmland, claiming it belonged to the family. The family left her with just a small piece of the land on which she now farms, to feed her children.

Just like Grace, Baboma lost her husband 15 years ago. The had six children together, but Baboma was left to her fate to cater for them alone after her husband's passing. She spent time working at the galamsey mines, carrying loads and doing other menial jobs to survive.

Baboma
Baboma now sells kenkey to take care of her six children.

She told Joy News' Albert Sore, “when your husband dies, they (Husband’s family) tell you to choose another man within the family to become your husband. When you refuse, they will keep pestering you and if you hold your ground, they leave you alone but decide never to help you in any way. Anytime you have a problem like I am struggling now to educate my daughter, they won’t help you, simply because you refused to give in to their advances”.

What Grace and Baboma went through when their husbands died 15 years ago may look like old traditional practices but the situation has not changed much. Patience Apalazoya’s husband died only 3 years ago and her story is worse.

Patience
Just 3 days after her husband’s death, her brothers-in-law came in and took documents of all her husband’s properties including a house and a car. At the time of putting together this feature, Patience was still fighting to reclaim her husband’s properties in court.

Patience reflects; “It was when I joined them (Widows and Orphans’ Movement) that I got to know that several other widows were facing problems like mine. I used to think I was alone and I could not even eat properly but I soon learned that other widows were facing worst situations than mine”.

There are currently about 11,000 widows registered with the Widows and Orphans’ Movement in the three northern regions.

Grace, Baboma and Patience who have shared their stories are some widows being protected and empowered by the Widows and Orphans Movement (WOM).

Director of the WOM, Fati Abigail Abdulai says cases of widows’ properties being confiscated by their in-laws and cases of battery meted out to widows who stand up to fight remain issues that her outfit is battling with.

Fati Abigail Abdulai
She revealed that there have been instances where the WOM had to pay medical bills for battered widows. Miss Abdulai says the Movement is empowering the widows economically so that they are capable of fighting for their rights.

The trauma some widows constantly go through in the Upper East region and most parts of Ghana are mainly due to archaic traditional practices.

So what could traditional authorities do to get rid of these traditional practices or modernize them in order not to dehumanize women?

The chief of Pelungu in the Nabdam district, Naab Sierig Sore Sobil IV insists that chiefs must be firm and defend widows when disputes involving widows’ properties are brought before them.

Naab Sierig Sore Sobil IV
He said; “when cases like that are brought to my palace, I investigate to know the rightful owner of the property in dispute and if I find out it belonged to the widow’s deceased husband, I ensure she gets it back because widows need to be protected”.

Naab Sierig Sobil IV says the old traditional practices are being modernized by chiefs to ensure the dignity of widows is protected.

He indicated for example that in communities where widows are supposed to shave off their hair after the passing of their husbands, the widows can now offer small amounts of money in exchange for leaving the hair.

The chief believes that educating the older and uneducated elders in communities is the best way to changing these archaic traditional practices.

While there are legal options available for widows to fight for their rights, most of them shy away from using the law because they think it is expensive.

Legal practitioner with the Legal Aid Scheme in Bolgatanga, Richard Adazabra says although the lack of funds makes it difficult for the scheme to help everyone, their services are for free so such helpless women can come to the Legal Aid Scheme.

“We have our ways to find out if they are truly poor and cannot pay for legal services. Once they meet the requirements, we can offer them our services”, he added.

Patience whose story is shared above is being assisted by Lawyer Richard Adazabra to fight for her property in court.

She does not know her fate yet. She, however, advises all women who want to avoid what she is going through, to have joint accounts with their husbands and also persuade their husbands to prepare wills of testament.