Rise from the Ashes: A Compelling Tale of Women Journeying through Widowhood
Foreward
One of the toughest battles humanity has fought is against dehumanization. Humans have been so unjust to fellow beings in times past and have continued to do so even in the 21st century. Many human beings are daily held in forced servitude and inhuman treatment.
Inhuman treatment in its multidimensionality has held back the world despite centuries of campaign against it.
The vulnerable have always suffered more because they lack the strength or means to stand up to their oppressors. As this continues to happen, many of us seem not to know or simply give no hoots about it at all.
It is therefore heartwarming that our dearest Dr Jumai Ahmadu has found ill-treatment of human beings reprehensible and dedicated her life to putting an end to it especially the very troubling phenomenon of widows mistreatment in Nigeria. In many communities, the abuse of widows is not only individual but communal.
It is systemic therefore quite difficult to tackle.
Our women are debased by many archaic, outworn and barbarous traditions like sleeping in a room with the corpse to prove that the woman did not kill her husband, not bathing for many weeks, cutting of hair, wearing black clothes, not eating well etc to mourn the dead. Stories of widows being forced to marry their late husbands’ relations, being abandoned to cater for young children and deprivation are what we hear of widows in our climes. Many people peddle their really warped and very dangerous notions about widows thereby not only slandering but also putting them in harm’s way.
Bringing to the fore all this in the book Rise rom the Ashes: A Compelling Tale of Women Journeying through Widowhood is such an astounding thing to do. The book has brought us face-to-face with the dehumanizing acts many widows suffer. The narrations are pitiable and quite touching.
What Dr Ahmadu has done is to perfectly capture the experiences of widows in a very lucid manner using the widow’s individual tales. Saddening as the stories are, the book as well gives us something to cheer about as it relates to the fact that it is not all lamentations by the widows. Some widows have risen from their shock, desolateness, pain and debasement to stardom. They have, of course, become role models. In fact, such widows are happier than even women living with their spouses.
This book will truly provoke even the hardest of hearts to rethink and ask themselves how fair their relationships with widows have been. Many will see the need to drop the false and uncharitable claims and think positively of the widow next door and give her a helping hand. On the whole, this book stands as a tribute to widows’ courage, an anthem for their resilience and a testament to the enduring power of the human spirit.
Reading it will encourage many widows to stand up to the reality of losing a life partner, put aside melancholy, gird their loins and take up full responsibility for their families. They can still find joy and live meaningfully.
Similarly, this work will make individuals, nongovermental and governmental organizations to do more to help widows. The general public is also expected to drop the stereotypes and malicious they circulate about widows.
Rise from the Ashes has come at the best of times and I give acclamation to Helpline Foundation for the Needy and its founder, Dr Ahmadu for this monumental work. Not only widows but humanity is also generally made better by this. I implore all gender activists, policy makers, law enforcement agents and the general public to read this book and make good use of the lessons therein.
Dr Ramatu Tijjani
Former Minister of State, Federal Capital Territory.