[01] Samuel O. Chukwu-Okoronkwo, Department of Mass Communication, Abia State University, Uturu, Nigeria.

Culture is no doubt ascribed as the distinctive characteristics of a society. It is the society’s guiding principles of human behaviour and existence as transmitted by same society. Culture for what it stands, therefore, is supposed to bear on the auspicious wellbeing and progressive development of the society and its people. However, a critical consideration of the agelong-universalized dehumanizing and obnoxious widowhood rites culture in Africa has consistently predisposed it as impeding than facilitating meaningful rehabilitation of widows in our society. This worrisome development has continued to draw wide outcry from sundry concerned quarters, occasioned perhaps by the influence of western civilization and Christianity. However, while this dastardly practice seems to yield to these concerted condemnations by jettisoning most of its obnoxious features in some parts of the continent, it has defied every iota of refinement and remained static in most predominant others, despite the dynamics of modern society. This paper, therefore, explores the potentials of theatre in de-institutionalizing widowhood practices’ inherent threats to the dignity and ‘womanity’ of womanhood in our various cultures in Africa; thus projecting it as a veritable development communication tool.

Culture, Conscientization, Development Communication, Theatre, Widowhood Rites

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