THE CHURCH AND HARMFUL TRADITIONAL PRACTICES AGAINST THE RIGHTS OF WOMEN AMONG THE NSUKKA PEOPLE OF NIGERIA
ABSTRACT
This work has its thrust as the harmful traditional practices against the rights of women among Nsukka Northern Igbo people and the role of the church in solving these problems. There are lots of problems which women encounter in a patriarchal world. These problems have caused a great havoc among them. They are generally detrimental to the health, psychological and social well being of our women whose fundamental human rights are also violated. These practices are widespread among most Nigerian ethnic groups and usually considered as normal part of life events. However, attempts to improve the status of women have brought them to the limelight as part of the problems of development designed to sustain patriarchy, gender inequality in our contemporary society and the control of women’s production and reproduction. These harmful traditional practices include specifically: female gentile mutilation (FAM) harmful delivery practices (HDP), widowhood practices (WP), child marriage and teenage pregnancy (CMTP), intergenerational transfer of resources (ITR) and wife battering (WB). There is no gain saying the fact that all these problems threaten the self-actualization of our women. These problems are not well dealt with instead people regard them as conventions. The researcher made use of primary and secondary sources of data collection as the researcher’s methodology as well as participant observation and the work was organized in a descriptive analytical style in the interpreting the data. The researcher discovered among other things that it was ignorance and the desire to protect their culture and traditions among the people that made them perpetuate these harmful traditional practices which are dehumanizing and frustrating. The research also revealed that these practices can also facilitated the spread of HIV and AIDS among the people if not checked. The implication of the findings is that if the people will be enlightened on the evil effects of these practices, then these practices will be things of the past. This is because these practices are more prevalent in the rural areas where most of the dwellers are illiterate and most women are as a consequence ignorant of their rights.