RIGHTS OF WOMEN IN THE URHOBO FAMILY SYSTEM: A CONTEXTUAL ANALYSIS

Abstract

Women and the girl child has never occupied a significant place or position, within the Urhobo family system. Culture and tradition have not been kind to the Urhobo woman as a daughter or a wife. In the Urhobo family system, women are conditioned to think that they are lesser creatures than the men. In Urhobo land, women are brought up to take all the short comings of a man without complaining and this makes the lot of women to be lamentable. Traditionally, in the Urhobo family system, women and men alike have accepted the fact that men have rights and women do not because of the patriarchal structure of the system. Male behavior has been considered the norm and women have been viewed to some degree as inferior. Men are supposed to be the bread winners of their families, while the women compliment their efforts. However, in Urhobo land the reverse is the case; apart from few educated men who care for their families, the women in rural areas are the ones who bear the burden. Many Urhobo men, once they lose their jobs or when they are over fifty years, they abandon their first obligation of caring for their family, and their wives take over. Women in Urhobo societies are believed to be their husband’s property and it is unethical for them to acquire too much, especially in landed properties. This belief is, being
Ayika: Journal of Environment and Politics in Africa Vol. 3, No 2, 2021
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themselves properties of their husbands, they could not own properties. In cases, where she owned landed properties before marriage, all such are automatically transferred to her husband after marriage. The husband owns her and all her properties. Those who escape this kind of human rights violation are the highly educated females. The purpose of this paper therefore is to highlight some of the abuses of women’s rights in the Urhobo family system and how this abuses can be brought to a halt. The method adopted in carrying out this research, include: historical and phenomenological. The historical method has been used to gather secondary data about Urhobo people from books, articles and newspaper clippings. The phenomenological approach involved collecting primary data through oral interviews and participant observations. Using phenomenological approach, this researcher examined the data with a view to providing an explanation to them. Government and human right activists should enlist the cooperation of community leaders, traditional leaders and women in their efforts to alter or eradicate all harmful cultural practices. Community based education can also be implemented to increase public awareness of the negative consequences of all obnoxious practices towards the Urhobo woman or girl-child.