Author: Lucy Lola Lawoyin Publisher: ATR Bookworks ISBN: 978 978 906 6285
The tears of the widow are, at the onset, over the loss of her husband, torn from her arms by the unfeeling marauder called death. Her wails and sobs express sorrow that words cannot describe, that no mortal can really begin to accurately imagine. It is devastating, heart-wrenching and hope-draining.
Unfortunately, the world’s customs conspire to pile even more misery upon the bereaved; traditional belief systems held on to by many societies including some in Nigeria, strip the widow of the rights she enjoyed while her husband lived. They are cast down from the place they had by their husbands to the lowly position of virtual slavery, subject to the whims and caprices of heartless in-laws. In some cases, they are treated worse- they are totally cast out from their husband’s estates.
In The African Widow, Lucy Lawoyin tells the all too familiar story of the widow’s suffering at the hands of in-laws. But this account is unique, adding to the sad tapestry of tales describing the travails of the African widow. The book details the experience of a woman, Gbemisola, whose husband died when the couple seemed to be on the cusp of achieving great things. The descent downhill following his death was sharp, with the family of her late husband moving to exploit his absence by depriving her of her rights to her late husband’s estate. She struggled with feelings of rejection from society, and depression and anguish on the inside.
Beyond the gloom and despair however, The African Widow hints at what is possible when widows find strength in bonding together. Gbemisola’s later involvement with the Lydia Charity Mission, a widow’s advocacy organisation, gave her the opportunity to use her creative writing talent to reach out to fellow widows and the world at large.
The author, in telling the story of Gbemisola, draws heavily upon her own experience as a widow; Mrs Omolola has in fact recounted her travails and triumphs as a widow in the book. As might be expected, it presents her perspective; nevertheless, the universality of her kind of experience, as well as its emphasis on courage in the face of persecution, makes the book worth reading and learning from.
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