UKARA, Tanzania (, April 04) -They Vivian Magesa, 24-year-old Vivian Magesa after her husband was rested, was surrounded by her husband’s family’s women on a dark brick wall, and mourning to mourn the last few days, and her head was stupid. I made a white voice in a voice. Sadness is not over.
One of the older women pulled her with her arm and said, “It’s time.” Magesa’s heart pounded. She knew what came next. She had to clean.
On the island of Victoria in Tanzania, dominated by Kerewe, JITA and KARA national groups, the widow is not just about loss. It is a phrase that requires consciousness to separate changes, livelihoods from death. And for young women, such as Magesa, who died in a rough boat accident while her husband was fishing, it means to submit a practice deeply rooted in the island culture. Widow Cleaning -A sexual consciousness that forces a woman who died of a woman died in the name of purification in the name of a totally unfamiliar person.
Steep consciousness in fear and tradition
Ukerewe, as in many areas of Africa, south of Sahara, is considered a spiritual pollution. It is believed that if the widow does not receive cleansing, the dead husband’s spirit will harass the whole family and bring unhappy or death. To prevent this, tradition instructs her husband’s clan to sleep with a man outside the village, that is, with her or her family.
“This has always been done,” said Verdiana Lusomya, the elder of Kara community. “Without cleansing, the widow cannot be touched. She can’t cook for the children. She can’t interact freely with others. You must listen to the curse.”
But for many widows, consciousness is not a choice. It is a law that is enforced by a family pressure, fear of rejection, in some cases completely enforced by force.
Widow
It is not an easy choice for widows such as MAGESA. “When I refused, they said my children would lose their right to inherit the land.” They said they would bring bad luck to their families if I refused. “
Another widow, 42 -year -old Jenoveva Mujungu, also faced a similar finalist. She was obsessed with Christian faith for two years, but the pressure never stopped. “In the end, I did it,” she admitted. “Not because I believed it, but because I was tired of being treated like deportation.”
In some cases, women who reject consciousness are expelled from marriage families. Their belongings were abandoned and their children took away their relationships with their families.
PRISCA Jeremiah, an activist of Upendo Women’s Organization, headquartered in Mwanza, is clear. Comply or suffer. “
People who benefit from tradition
Omwesye (or village cleanser) in the butiarewe butiriti Village of the Earth provides a consciousness of the price. They often did not have formal jobs, sometimes alcoholic addicts, small fees, or livestock for services. One widow said, “Some of them are not dirty and neat.” They do it for money, not tradition. “
A community health agent on an island pointed out that some cleansers believe they will insert herbs into the widow’s body before sexual intercourse and protect them from disease. But the widow suffers and often causes infections.
The health result of the widow cleansing
Health experts warn that the widow, Cleansing, is the gateway to HIV/AIDS and other sexually transmitted diseases. Since protection is not used and there are some cleansers related to various consciousness, this practice affects a quiet health crisis.
“The widow is already vulnerable,” said Furaha Sangawe, a general medical opening of Nansio District Hospital. “This ritual makes them more so. It exposes disease, trauma and lifelong psychological scars.”
Community torn between change and tradition
Despite the growing awareness of the risk of consciousness, the change is slow. Many people in Ukere still believe that skipping cleansing consciousness brings bad luck. The elders insist that this practice guarantees that family land remains in the clan and prevents the widow from remarriage outside the husband’s lineage.
However, the number of bold women is increasing by education and behavioralism. Some are heading to the church for serious cleaning, and instead of submitting sex with Cleanser, they are looking for blessings from the priests. Others simply refuse.
Miriam Majole, a 69 -year -old widow who ignored tradition, said, “I was not clean and still here.” “I didn’t have bad things for my children.”
Organizations such as Kikundi Cham Mila Na Desturi Ukerewe (Kimideu) are trying to educate the community for the damage of practice. But the fight is uphill. Even if the perception grows, the fear is in the grip.
The future without widow cleaning?
In MAGESA, her cleansing night was one of her darkest places. “I felt the second dead,” she said. “But the pressure was so high that there was no choice?”
Now she tells her twin daughters, “I want them to have a different life.” “I pray that this consciousness will be the past one day.”
As Tanzania is modernized, the battle between cultural traditions and human rights is strengthened. Many widows are now trapped at an unlimited cycle on Ukerewe’s remote island. The consciousness was not healing, but for the comfort of those who did not abandon the past.
IPS Un Bureau Report,
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