Widowhood Practices in Nigeria and the Psyche of the Woman in Ben Igwe’s Against the Odds

One of the obnoxious patriarchal practices that tend to enslave the African woman is widowhood practices. A woman who loses her husband to death is treated like an outcast to the extent that she sometimes becomes neurotic. She suffers deprivation, lack and oppression in the hands of her inlaws who dispossess her of all that she had laboured for with her husband. In Ben Igwe’s Against the Odds, this paper observes that the widow who undergoes depravity degenerates to the point of lunacy; and she suffers mockery from her kinsmen and women. Using the feminist theory that encourages women to be strong and assertive, and the psychoanalytic approach which concerns itself with the psyche of the human mind, this paper condemns widowhood practices as it enslaves the woman. The Covid-19 pandemic that led to the worldwide lockdown took a toll on the widow who becomes helpless and vulnerable. The paper concludes that widowhood practices should be abolished completely as this is a patriarchal agenda to enslave the woman; because men who lose their wives do not undergo any ritual or maltreatment. Some aspects of style are also explored which are recurrent motifs in the novel to drive home the message.

Keywords: Widowhood, Patriarchy, Enslavement, Woman