Widowhood Practices: Forcing Widows to Drink ‘Corpse Water’ Must Stop

By Leo Igwe

The Advocacy for Alleged Witches urges state and traditional authorities to take measures against harmful widowhood practices. This appeal has become necessary following an incident in Imo state where relatives tried to force a widow, Mrs Chika Ndubisi, to go through a harmful ritual in Awo-Omamma, in Oru East Local Government Area. The Advocacy for Alleged Witches commends the Imo state government for promptly intervening and ensuring that this widow, accused of killing her husband through magic, did not drink the water used in washing the corpse.

Some days ago, a local advocate drew the attention of the AfAW to this unfortunate development. AfAW quickly notified the police, the Imo state chapter of the International Federation of Women Lawyers, the National Human Rights Commission, and other civil society organizations. Today, we have it on authority that the state government successfully intervened and rescued the widow.

In some parts of southern Nigeria, women are subjected to harmful widowhood practices when their husbands pass away. They are often accused of being responsible for the death and forced to drink the water used in bathing the corpse to prove their innocence. This ritual leads to their death or health damage. 

AfAW has recently intervened in similar cases. In Mbano, also in Imo state, AfAW is supporting a widow, Regina, who was subjected to a similar ritual. Luckily, Regina survived. In Ebonyi state, AfAW is assisting another widow, Nnennaya Donatus-Chukwu, who was subjected to similar abusive treatment. In this case, the police intervened and charged the perpetrators in court. 

AfAW urges the public to be vigilant when people die, especially when men and husbands pass away in families and communities. People should alert authorities to any accusations of witchcraft or any attempt to force widows or females to go through this obnoxious ritual. Forcing widows to drink the water used in washing a corpse is a harmful traditional and cultural practice. 

State authorities should strive to protect vulnerable women and widows in the region. The police and courts should diligently investigate and prosecute those involved in this horrific act. They should punish perpetrators to serve as a deterrent to others.

No to forcing widows to drink the water used in washing a corpse.

No to harmful widowhood practices in Nigeria. No to trial by ordeal.

Leo Igwe directs the Advocacy for Alleged Witches

Leo Igwe

Leo Igwe (born July 26, 1970) is a Nigerian human rights advocate and humanist. Igwe is a former Western and Southern African representative of the International Humanist and Ethical Union, and has specialized in campaigning against and documenting the impacts of child witchcraft accusations. He holds a Ph.D from the Bayreuth International School of African Studies at the University of Bayreuth in Germany, having earned a graduate degree in Philosophy from the University of Calabar in Nigeria. Igwe’s human rights advocacy has brought him into conflict with high-profile witchcraft believers, such as Liberty Foundation Gospel Ministries, because of his criticism of what he describes as their role in the violence and child abandonment that sometimes result from accusations of witchcraft. His human rights fieldwork has led to his arrest on several occasions in Nigeria. Igwe has held leadership roles in the Nigerian Humanist Movement, Atheist Alliance International, and the Center For Inquiry—Nigeria. In 2012, Igwe was appointed as a Research Fellow of the James Randi Educational Foundation, where he continues working toward the goal of responding to what he sees as the deleterious effects of superstition, advancing skepticism throughout Africa and around the world. In 2014, Igwe was chosen as a laureate of the International Academy of Humanism and in 2017 received the Distinguished Services to Humanism Award from the International Humanist and Ethical Union. Igwe was raised in southeastern Nigeria, and describes his household as being strictly Catholic in the midst of a “highly superstitious community,” according to an interview in the Gold Coast Bulletin.[1] At age twelve, Igwe entered the seminary, beginning to study for the Catholic priesthood, but later was confused by conflicting beliefs between Christian theology and the beliefs in witches and wizards that are “entrenched in Nigerian society.”[1] After a period of research and internal conflict due to doubts about the “odd blend of tribalism and fundamentalist Christianity he believes is stunting African development,” a 24-year-old Igwe resigned from the seminary and relocated to Ibadan, Nigeria