The Widows of Ukerewe and the Ritual They Can not Escape — International Points

by Kizito Makoye (ukara, tanzania()Friday, April 04, 2025Inter Press Service

UKARA, Tanzania(, Apr 04 (IPS) – The evening after her husband was laid to relaxation, 24-year-old Vivian Magesa sat within the dimly lit brick-walled home, surrounded by ladies from her late husband’s household. She had spent the previous few days in mourning, wrapped in a white shroud, her head shaved as customized dictated. However because the hushed voices of her in-laws crammed the room, Magesa realized her grief was removed from over.

“It’s time,” one of many older ladies instructed her, pulling her up by the arm. Magesa’s coronary heart pounded. She knew what got here subsequent. She needed to be cleansed.

On Tanzania’s Lake Victoria’s Ukerewe Island, the place the Kerewe, Jita, and Kara ethnic teams dominate, widowhood shouldn’t be merely about loss—it’s a transformation, a passage that calls for rituals to separate the dwelling from the useless. And for a younger  girl like Magesa, whose husband perished in a grisly boat accident whereas fishing, it means submitting to a observe deeply ingrained into the island’s tradition: widow cleaning—a sexual ceremony that forces ladies into intimacy with a relative of their deceased husband or, in some circumstances, a complete stranger, all within the identify of purification.

A ritual steeped in worry and custom

In Ukerewe, as in lots of elements of sub-Saharan Africa, widowhood is seen as a religious contamination. It’s believed that if a widow doesn’t endure cleaning, the spirit of her deceased husband will hang-out all the bereaved household, bringing misfortune and even dying. To forestall this, custom dictates that she should sleep with a widower from her late husband’s clan and later with a person outdoors the village—somebody who has no connection to her or the household.

“That is the way it has all the time been completed,” mentioned Verdiana Lusomya, an elder from the Kara group. “With out cleaning, a widow is untouchable. She can’t prepare dinner for her youngsters. She can’t work together freely with others. The curse have to be lifted.”

However for a lot of widows, the ritual shouldn’t be a alternative. It’s a decree, enforced by household stress, worry of ostracization, and, in some circumstances, outright coercion.

A widow’s dilemma

For widows like Magesa, refusal shouldn’t be a straightforward choice. “Once I mentioned no, they instructed me my youngsters would lose their proper to inherit land,” she instructed IPS. “They mentioned if I refused, I’d deliver unhealthy luck to my household.”

One other widow, 42-year-old Jenoveva Mujungu, confronted an identical ultimatum. She stood her floor for 2 years, clinging to her Christian religion, however the stress by no means ceased. “In the long run, I did it,” she admitted. “Not as a result of I believed in it, however as a result of I used to be uninterested in being handled like an outcast.”

In some circumstances, ladies who refuse the ritual are expelled from their marital properties. Their belongings are thrown out, their youngsters taken away, their connection to the household severed.

“It’s a type of punishment,” mentioned Prisca Jeremiah, an activist from the Mwanza-based Upendo Ladies’s Rights Group. “The message is obvious: comply or endure.”

The lads who revenue from custom

In Butiriti village, Ukerewe district, the Omwesye—or village cleansers—carry out the ritual for a value. They’re typically males with no formal jobs, generally alcoholics, paid a small price or given livestock for his or her service. “A few of them are soiled, unkempt,” mentioned one widow, her voice crammed with disgust. “They do it for the cash, not for the custom.”

One group well being employee on the island famous that some cleansers try to guard themselves by inserting herbs right into a widow’s physique earlier than intercourse, believing it can protect them from illness. However the widows endure the results, typically creating infections.

The well being penalties of widow cleaning

Well being specialists warn that widow cleaning is a gateway for HIV/AIDS and different sexually transmitted infections. With no safety used and with some cleansers concerned in a number of rituals, the observe fuels a silent well being disaster.

“Widows are already susceptible,” mentioned Furaha Sangawe, a basic medical practitioner at Nansio District Hospital. “This ritual makes them much more so. It exposes them to ailments, trauma, and lifelong psychological scars.”

A group torn between change and custom

Regardless of the rising consciousness of the ritual’s risks, change is sluggish. Many on Ukerewe nonetheless consider that skipping the cleaning ritual brings unhealthy luck. Elders argue that the observe ensures that household land stays inside the clan and prevents widows from remarrying outdoors their husband’s lineage.

However a rising variety of ladies, emboldened by schooling and activism, are pushing again. Some are turning to the church for symbolic cleaning, in search of blessings from monks as a substitute of submitting to intercourse with a cleanser. Others are merely refusing.

“I’ve not been cleansed, and I’m nonetheless right here,” mentioned Miriam Majole, a 69-year-old widow who defied custom. “Nothing unhealthy has occurred to me or my youngsters.”

Organizations like Kikundi Cha Mila na Desturi Ukerewe (KIMIDEU) are working to teach communities concerning the harms of the observe. However the struggle is uphill. At the same time as consciousness grows, worry holds many ladies in its grip.

A future with out widow cleaning?

For Magesa, the evening of her cleaning was one of many darkest in her life. “I felt like I had died a second time,” she mentioned. “However I didn’t have a alternative because the stress was so excessive?”

Now, she speaks in hushed tones about her hopes for her twin daughters “I need them to have a special life,” she mentioned. “I pray that sooner or later, this ritual will probably be a factor of the previous.”

As Tanzania modernizes, the battle between cultural custom and human rights intensifies. For now, on the distant island of Ukerewe, many widows stay trapped in a cycle they can not escape—a ritual carried out not for his or her therapeutic, however for the consolation of those that refuse to let go of the previous.

IPS UN Bureau Report,

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