Cameroon is observing the annual United Nations 16 Days of Activism Against Gender Violence, which run from November 24 to December 10 and this year focus on the rights of widows.

In Cameroon, many women who lose their husbands suffer humiliation and are forced to undergo dangerous traditional rituals to prove they didn’t cause their husbands’ deaths. Twenty-six year old Marie Noel Nnanga lost her husband last year. She said that like other widows, she was forced to go through cruel traditional rites still practiced today in her Beti ethnic group.

She sid a woman is not allowed to bath from the moment her husband dies until he is buried. She said some are forced to stay naked in their room with no food. This isolation can last for months. She said widows are punished as if they were responsible for their husbands dying.

Cameroon has close to 300 ethnic groups and an abundance of customs and practices. Some of these customs are harsh to women but staunchly defended in many communities here.

Awemo Mathiew, notable of the Bafut chiefs’ palace in northwestern Cameroon, said the rationale for many traditional widowhood rites is to purify the widow of the bad luck brought about by her husband’s death.

“These are traditional practices that we inherited from our forefathers and we must conserve them. We will never change them and we will make sure that our children continue practicing them… A man has some different powers that were given by the ancestors so the first person to consult traditionally is a man. It is said that what a man can do, a woman can also do. But in our traditions there are certain things our ancestors kept that women cannot touch,” said Mathiew.

Educating traditional communities on the rights of women and how that can fit in with customs is a long process.  

Cameroon Minister for Women’s Empowerment Marie Theres Abena Ondoua said such traditions disrespect the woman and relegate them to secondary roles in society from the time they are born.

“We are in a country where our society is still deeply rooted into tradition. It is still endemic. It is normal to give a child to marriage before she is even conceived and that is a very bad practice which does not permit the young girl to go to school or to become a normal adult because when you are given away to get married before you are even born, what is your future?” said Abena Ondoua.

Abena Ondoua said the government and activists are working to sensitize families with a variety of programs to help them understand that girls have the same rights as boys. She believes that with education starting at an early stage, such practices will be stopped within a generation.

Cameroon is signatory of the Convention on the Elimination of Discrimination against Women adopted in 1979 by the U.N. General Assembly.

The International Federation of Women Lawyers reports that despite laws in place to protect women and criminalize acts of violence against them – including widowhood rituals – Cameroon, like many nations, fails to enforce the laws.  Activists say along with education, there must be a political will at the highest levels to act.
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