Post-Colonialism, Gender, Customary Injustice: Widows in African Societies

Discrimination against widows on the basis of sex is argued to be prevalent in Sub-Saharan African countries, particularly in terms of their inheritance rights and the degrading burial rituals they are subjected to, in violation of the Convention on the Elimination of All Forms of Discrimination against Women (CEDAW). Focusing on the treatment of Nigerian widows, the author examines the roots of the problem: inequitable property regime, polygamy, loopholes in estate law administration, insensitivity/hostility of police, administration, and the judiciary, absence of laws addressing the problems of widows, and the unpopularity of wills. The author provides recommendations for law reform as well as spurring cultural change through the actions of women of the culture. [Descriptors: Marriage, International - Africa]