The practice was instituted as a means for the widow to have someone to support her and her children financially and to keep her late husband's wealth within the family bloodline.
The practice has existed in varied cultures and historical periods and is a current custom in several Sub-Saharan Africa nations and ethnic groups.
There are many formal and informal rules concerning the inheritance of property, particularly land for rural women, that inhibit stable economic conditions.
In many Sub-Saharan regions, such as within the Ovambo culture of Namibia, formal and informal structures of gender inequality force widows to sacrifice their independence for inheritance traditions within the late husband's family or externally.
Many modern legal systems in Sub-Saharan Africa, such as in Tanzania, have attempted to combat the customary law that enforces structures of inheritance and disinheritance.
However, poor application and enforcement of the modern legal systems ensures that customary law remains the default in countries such as Ghana, Nigeria, Tanzania, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
A severe lack of state welfare provisions, such as healthcare, childcare systems and education, encourage widows to find other modes of financial stability.
The Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada depicts a common situation in the following summation of expert evidence provided to them:[3] ...if the man died without the couple having had children, it would be much more likely that the family [of the deceased husband] would challenge the widow's inheritance rights...
[4] These grabbing traditions are prevalent in Angola, Botswana, RotC, DRC, Eswatini, Ivory Coast, Ghana, Kenya, Lesotho, Malawi, Namibia, Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal, Tanzania, Uganda, Zambia and Zimbabwe.
A Retrospective Examination" (2015), Joseph Olukayode Akinbi notes that modernization has improved the situation of Nigerian women by preventing certain aspects of widowhood rites in some cases.
For example, if a woman works in a bank or company, it is less likely that she will be forced to wear black for a year or not leave her house for a month, practices that are part of widowhood rites in some communities.
[11] "Cleansing" is a form of ritual purification rites being culturally prescribed for women after the death of her husband and often involving forced sexual intercourse with a male "inheritor" of the widow.
The practice has not been systematically outlawed across Sub-Saharan Africa but rather is encouraged in many rural communities such as the Luo in Kenya and Tanzania and the Igbo in Nigeria.
The rituals are frequently traumatic violations in which widows may be forced to drink the water in which their dead husband's body was washed and are coerced into sex with a relative or inheritor.
In Tanzania, widows are given equal rights to inheritance under the constitution, but customary law overrules the nation's legislation, especially in rural areas.
Namibia has seen legislation changes in the past decades to account for women's rights after the death of her husband, especially in the proposal of the Communal Land Reform Act of 2002.
Secondarily, brothers of the widow's late husband were more reluctant to partake in "cleansing" rituals due to the high mortality rate of the disease.
[19] Professional inheritance and "cleansing" traditions have been linked to the spread of HIV/AIDS in Kenya, and in many African countries, including Uganda, Malawi, Zambia, Ghana, Senegal, Côte d'Ivoire, Republic of the Congo, Democratic Republic of Congo and Nigeria, Widow inheritance is commonly viewed as contributing to the rapid spread of HIV.
If a widow has not been inherited by her brother-in-law but is rather a professional widow-inheritor, her risk of contracting HIV increases as she must find a partner to engage with in the ritual.
[11] Many widows are aware of the greater risk for HIV that they face by engaging in "cleansing" and inheritance rituals, but the pressure of cultural expectations and ensuring livelihood needs are met complicates their ability to avoid contracting the disease.
Health officials in Malawi unsuccessfully banned widow "cleansing" but persuaded some traditional leaders to encourage condom usage and punish cleansers who force women into unprotected sex.
[2]: 64 If a widow is disinherited or homeless after the death of her husband, she faces risks of acute malnutrition, rape, prostitution, debilitating and fatal diseases, and exposure to adverse weather conditions.
In those scenarios and others that involve professional widow inheritors, children grow up with the absence of a father figure, and these can be damaging to mental health and development.