Performing Widowhood in African Songs

Abstract

Most Black African women whose husbands have passed away face cultural stigma. Most men and women within Africa’s patriarchal cultures use words such as “murderers,” “witches,” and “prostitutes” to describe and police African widows as they are deemed loose and sexually dangerous to society. Inevitably, African widows, female and male singers have used songs to depict widows lamenting being ill-treated and marginalised after the death of their husbands. Analysing a combination of female and male singers performing widowhood through songs raises the following questions: What are the popular thematic aspects of widowhood that female and male African singers sing about? How can one explain the imaginative differences that female and male singers authorise as they perform widowhood through songs? This current study uses Judith Butler’s concept of performative acts and gender constitution to identify, analyse, and evaluate what African women and men emphasise when singing about widowhood. A desktop approach is best suited to this task because the researcher used written literature derived from the library and the internet as primary and secondary sources. Convenient sampling enabled the researcher to select widowhood songs available in African society. A comparative gender perspective enabled an exploration of ways through which female and male singers have used old and new songs to comment on different experiences of widowhood. The findings of the study are that performing widowhood through songs reveals different, vested gender interests of performers. I argue that, beyond using songs of lamentation, both female and male singers creatively imagine and use linguistic metaphors that embed resistance discourses against the oppression of widows. The article contributes to African scholarship by arguing that, on one hand, singers emphasise the theme of vulnerability of widows, while on the other hand, interpreting the human condition of vulnerability of widows must reveal veiled voices of resistance to the oppression of widows in society.