Abstract
Widowhood is an integral loss having devastating effects, leading to identity disruption.
Widowhood hinders the individual’s attempts to contribute towards social transformation, as the widow’s voice remains subdued. This study set out to explore the sociocultural experiences of African widows, within the wider study whose focus was on widows’ psychosocial experiences and their self-identity.
It looks at widows coping mechanisms and suggestions on how best to improve their lives.
Young woman visiting a loved one at the cemetery.
Introduction
Consulted literature on African widows revealed a concentration on their socio-cultural challenges (Ambassa-Shisanya, 2007; Mutongi, 2007). From these explorations, unique negative experiences that widows go through, underpinning ways in which the society is unfair, are featured (Koran-Okrah, 2015, Rosenblatt, & Nkosi, 2007). In these studies, ways in which widows cope and eventually deal with these issues failed to stand out.
In this way, the widow was portrayed as a voiceless silent victim awaiting the holocaust.
Studies on identity (Berzonsky and colleagues, 2007; Kopytoff, 2005; Sharma, & Sharma, 2010), failed to show a concentration on widows. Within this lack, no attempt was done to identify widow categories and how this relates to their identity and experiences. The present study, set out to relate a widow’s psychosocial experiences with her self-identity, hence addressing this gap.
The focus of this paper is on the socio-cultural experiences that African widows go through. This study is part of a broader research that sought to explore widows’ psychosocial experiences and their self-identity. The choice of socio-cultural experiences is based on the findings within which 175 out of 706 entries (24.78%) were in this category.
This revealed the importance of socio-cultural issues to the widow as expressed in her discourse.
The study chose to concentrate on widowhood. This is because, widow prevalence among women aged 15-49 years is given at 5.03% (Peterman, 2012), revealing a significant number of women undergoing or set to undergo this phenomenon. This prevalence goes to nearly 50% for those above 65 years (Lichtenstein and colleagues, 1996; Michael and colleagues, 2003). In addition to this prevalence, over 15% of households are managed by widows (ANSD, 2013). This means that the children that are in these households depend on the widow, showing the significance of widowhood in society. With this therefore, since widowhood is rated as an integral loss (Matlin, 2004; Lichtenberg, 2016; Vijay, 2010), more devastating than divorce, how widows cope and the suggestions they give on ways to better their lives are important to social transformation. This link was sparse in the literature hence the need for this study.
The concentration of this study brings to play the social as well as the cultural aspects affecting the African widow. “Widowhood practices are closely tied to cultural and traditional beliefs about death, ghosts, inheritance, feminine roles, family structure, and family relationship” (Miruka, and colleagues, 2015, p. 240). Based on this realization, cultural issues as well as social ones are key to the understanding of the widow’s experiences. It is based on this that the present paper concentrates on socio-cultural issues.
In this paper, the socio-cultural experiences are realized through the analysis of widow discourse. Within the widow’s sociocultural experiences, her coping strategies are given prominence, as well as the suggestions she gives on ways to improve the lives of widows. The role that others are meant to play to help her improve her life is also accentuated.
The findings of the study challenge the misconstrued stereotypical understanding of the African widow. Hence the results help enrich gender studies in relation to the widow. This grants voice to the widow as she tells social transformers how best she can be assisted to contribute to societal development.
Future Directions of Research
A deep concern of the participants was for their children. Widows stay strong and find purpose in life, in their children. They feel indebted to be there for their children. This commitment led them to constantly appeal for studies to be conducted in relation to children of widows.
Conclusion
While there are those that are widowed, almost all are affected by widowhood. Couples are privileged to be alive and with time could have one of the pairs widowed. Parents whose children are entering into marriage could find their daughters widowed at some point. This also applies to brothers and sisters who have married sisters. In any social set-up, be it at work or in institutions, widows are around us. This serves as a wake-up call to all to be informed on matters relating to widows.
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