Widowhood and Psychosocial Challenges in Low-Resourced Communities in South Africa: Revelations from Ngaka Modiri Molema District of the North West Province in South Africa

Abstract

Unless the psychosocial challenges experienced by widows in low-resourced communities are unpacked and understood, efforts to offer them proper and befitting interventions for their experiences will remain scant in South Africa. This paper explores the psychosocial challenges faced by widows in Ngaka Modiri Molema, a district in South Africa’s North West Province with limited resources. Using a qualitative approach and an exploratory descriptive design, this study employed homogeneous purposive sampling to ensure inclusion of widows who have experienced the psychosocial challenges of widowhood in Ngaka Modiri Molema. In-depth interviews conducted with twelve widows provided data saturation. The data were analysed thematically using predetermined and emerging themes, critically discussed and compared to the existing literature. The findings revealed that there were endemic and unexplored psychological issues such as anxiety, stress and depression, whilst some social challenges such as property disputes, eviction from the land and stigma were experienced by widows in the district since the death of their husbands. This paper recommends relevant holistic interventions to ameliorate the psychosocial challenges experienced by the widows in the district.

1. Introduction

Researchers globally have identified a range of challenges faced by widows, with recent estimates indicating a worldwide population exceeding 258,500,000, a number that has risen by 9% since 2017 (Orwa 2023). Similar concerning patterns are observed across different contexts, highlighting the inequitable circumstances and psychosocial issues encountered by widows.

From a global perspective, widows in non-African countries have historically experienced unfair treatment. Despite reforms, such as addressing coverture laws in the United States and England that restricted women’s rights (Alvarez 2013; Lewis 2019), inequitable social practices persist. These issues are often parallel to, and sometimes provide context for, the ongoing discrimination and oppression of widows elsewhere, including regions that lack strong protective legislation.

Similarly, in South Asian countries such as India and Afghanistan, widows are also subjected to restrictive inheritance laws and social isolation, echoing the patterns of marginalisation documented globally. For example, inheritance rights are often conditional or denied, especially if the widow considers remarriage. Such cultural and legal restrictions reflect the broader discourse of widowhood challenges, reinforcing recurring issues across regions (Verma 2020; Ude and Njoku 2017; Bronstein 2015).

In Sub-Saharan Africa, the Women’s United Nations Report Network (WUNRN 2016) reports that in the region, many widows are evicted from their own homes and become destitute. In countries such as Nigeria, Zimbabwe, as well as Zambia, widows face institutional exclusion from decisions that have negative implications on their financial, economic, psychosocial and legal agency such as eviction from land, property, and businesses co-owned with the deceased husbands; in many cases, they are accused of having contributed to the death of their husbands, especially in instances where the husband died from Human Immunodeficiency Virus (HIV) and Acquired Immuno Deficiency Syndrome (AIDS) (Dube 2023). In Uganda, the deep psychosocial problems triggered by forced wife inheritance have been attributed to widows’ mental and physical ill health, as research found that widows suffer from depression, anxiety and other physical health problems (Namutebi 2024) That confirms that once they lose their husbands to death, widows in Sub-Saharan Africa suffer from ill health and become poverty-stricken as they simultaneously lose their marital homes, property and financial sources, and become homeless (Aderemi and Ogebe 2024; Namutebi 2024). This is evidence of how widows are oppressed as well as how their rights are violated. This is why the United Nations Women (2021) conclusively complained that throughout the world, widows have been historically reported as left behind without any substantial form of support, being rejected by societies and fighting for social inclusion and their rights.

South African widows are not spared from the problems facing widows elsewhere. For statistical purposes, the Statista Research Department (Statista 2025) recorded that during the year 2021, Stats SA reported that in South Africa, widows comprised the largest population among widowed people with 10.8%, while widowers made up a mere 2.9%. In Ngaka Modiri Molema District, where this study was conducted, there were 29,930 widows as reported during 2016 (Statistics South Africa 2018). It is estimated that due to the COVID-19 pandemic, widowhood figures could have exponentially increased.

Psychosocial problems of widowhood have also been reported in South African communities. Researchers such as Mabunda and Ross (2022) explain that rituals take centre stage in South African communities to promote healing, albeit with extremities that are at the expense of the psychosocial and mental health of the widows. In their arguments, the authors contend that some Black widows are separated from the rest of the family by using utensils that are specifically set for them, and their movements are restricted, signifying systematic isolation of widows with the illusion of healing due to ingrained and entrenched cultural dictates. The fear of bad luck, called “senyama” in Tswana culture in the North West Province, is also real.

Due to the fear of bad luck associated with widowhood, Tassie (2013) explains that rituals are performed on the widow with the aim of removing bad luck (“senyama”). In the Limpopo province of South Africa, Segoa (2020) observed that widows experience social exclusion as they are deprived of their rights to make their own decisions. Quite prevalent is the notion that widows are generally in a state of mourning and are not in a rightful mental state to make their own rational decisions. The community makes decisions on behalf of the widows as they are considered unfit to make their own decisions during mourning. Widows are taken as carriers of bad luck and experience untold psychosocial challenges in the province.

While many social problems in South Africa are frequently reported, the challenges faced by widows are often overlooked, under-reported and under-researched (United Nations Women 2021). Also, research addressing the conundrum of widowhood in South Africa is vehemently lacking (Sherlock et al. 2015), including those discussing widowhood in the North West Province. A few studies in the province that attempted to address the plight of widows are dated, failing to document the current challenges experienced by widows. In the Ngaka Modiri Molema District, known studies on widowhood among the Batswana population include those conducted by Manyedi in 2001 and 2003, and Greef in 2003, highlighting the experiences of widowhood amongst the Batswana people in North West Province. Additional dated studies are those by Dithipe (2005) and Nkomazana (2008), which sought to explain the psychosocial effects and coping mechanisms of Black widows among Batswana people in Mafikeng. These old sources show how sparse studies and the literature have been over the past 11 years on widowhood in the province, confirming the need for further studies. This study attempts to close the gap by focusing on psychosocial challenges experienced by widows in Ngaka Modiri Molema District, North West Province.

In addition to the paucity of research, deliberate interventions for the plights of widows in the North West Province are lacking. In Ngaka Modiri Molema, where this study was conducted, scanty and purported interventions for the plight of widows in the district are weak. Further, there is a lack of protective specific provisions in legislation for alleviating the challenges that widows experience, despite South Africa being a democratic and rights-oriented country (Commission on Gender Equality 2017). There is a palpable absence of legislative and socially oriented interventions for widows, making this cohort suffer significant challenges during mourning. This legislative and practice gap paves the way for our judgement and view that legislation in South Africa seems to be selective and does not serve to cater for the needs of vulnerable widows.

The research question that prompted this study was as follows: what psychosocial challenges are experienced by widows in the Ngaka Modiri Molema District? This research question emanated from the fact that the district has many widows who apparently experience a host of problems during mourning, with a lack of interventions. The aim was to explore and describe the psychosocial challenges experienced by widows in Ngaka Modiri Molema District in North West Province, South Africa. The aim was achieved through the shared experiences from widows as primary sources of information and key informants, as they had the knowledge needed to assist in answering the research question.

2. Theoretical Framework

Widows’ psychosocial problems need to be understood from certain theoretical positions and angles. In this paper, we adopted the eclectic feminist theory and the social constructivist theory to explain the experiences of widows in African communities after the deaths of their husbands.

2.1. Eclectic Feminist Theory

The eclectic feminist point of departure is that there is no single feminist theory that can explicitly explain the social phenomenon. It holds that researchers can draw upon multiple feminist strands to explain gender and inequality in low-resource African communities (Mikhaylova 2025). Following this line of thought, the psychosocial problems experienced by widows are complex in nature and can be explained from various feminist theoretical positions. The question of property disinheritance, for example, is attributed to discriminatory laws and institutional practices from a liberal feminist perspective (Tamale 2020). Social feminists, on the other hand, view property disinheritance as a type of systemic abuse against women and a reflection of power disparities that are sustained by patriarchal family structures, which are also socially acceptable methods that uphold women’s inferiority within the communities (Omo and Omonemu 2024). Marxist feminists share that denying women of the deceased husband’s property rights deprives women of economic independence, ensuring that they remain controlled by the patriarchal household (Federici 2019). They argue that it is a form of economic exploitation and reproduces women’s class vulnerability (Makama 2019). Radical feminists argue that widowhood property disinheritance is “violence against women” rooted in patriarchal domination by traditions, norms, and kinship practices to enable men to have control over society and its resources (Dube 2017).

In this paper, we echo the need to embrace an eclectic feminist theoretical perspective to provide critical, multidimensional and intersectional comprehension and explanations of women’s psychosocial problems in Ngaka Modiri Molema District. Other ways of comprehending the complex intersectional problems of widows, besides the eclectic feminist position, may not guarantee this critical understanding of their plights from a multidimensional viewpoint.

2.2. Social Constructivism

The social constructivist theory was instrumental in comprehending how widows experience psychosocial problems after the death of their husbands in low-resource African communities. The widows’ experiences after the death of their husbands become an individual experience as these experiences vary across geographical spaces, time and circumstances (Teater 2020). Social constructivist theorists concede that realities and experiences vary across individuals, and that each person’s historical experiences, social and cultural values, and context are crucial in understanding their perspective and interpretation of their world experiences. As a result, social constructivists boldly argue that there is no better way to understand what others go through than if they can give explanations of their experiences in their own personal positions (Teater 2020). This paper posits that social constructivist theory serves as both a way of understanding the psychosocial problems faced by widows after the death of their husbands in Ngaka Modiri Molema as well as a befitting theory for the qualitative approach used in the methods of this study.

3. Materials and Methods

This study employed a qualitative research approach to describe the psychosocial challenges experienced by widows. Creswell (2017) shares that a qualitative research approach is used for generating non-numeric data to understand and explore social problems. The researchers opted for a qualitative research approach due to its capability to use open-ended questions that elicit in-depth information, illuminating personal experiences of widows on the psychosocial problems they experience in Ngaka Modiri Molema (Bhandari 2021). The qualitative approach also befits and works in tandem with the social constructivist theory, focusing on the personal experiences of widowhood, which this study adopted.

As guided by the views of Hunter et al. (2019), this study employed an exploratory descriptive design to explore the psychosocial problems of the widows, gain a deeper understanding whilst providing new information about the phenomenon, and subsequently add new knowledge to the existing repertoire. This design also allows the research participants to contribute towards change by adding clear indications of experiences of the widowhood phenomenon through contextualising their experiences. This research design facilitated the contribution of new information on existing studies on widows and their precarity as marginalised people within societies that proscribe their identities through oppressive cultural and traditional veils.

3.1. Sampling Procedure and Sample Size

Purposive sampling was used in this qualitative study to explore the psychosocial challenges experienced by widows in Ngaka Modiri Molema District. According to Taherdoost (2016), purposive sampling is a non-probability technique which focuses on the judgement of the researcher. In addition, during the selection of participants, purposive sampling assisted the researchers in selecting participants by homogeneous sampling, as the participants of the study were widows. Homogeneous sampling is used when the researcher wants to target a group of people who share the same characteristics (Laerd Dissertation 2012). This means that the study focused on women who were widowed and who may also have experienced the psychosocial challenges of widowhood, such as unfair treatment by in-laws and their own families during the mourning period.

The number of participants in the study, referred to as the sample size, was not determined beforehand by the researchers. Kibuacha (2021) explains sample size as a target group from which the data is collected. The sample size in this study was determined by reaching data saturation, a principle in qualitative research that helps to attain sufficient quality data (Hennick et al. 2019). To achieve data saturation, participants were interviewed until there was no new information emerging from the data they provided. According to Braun and Clarke (2013), sample size in qualitative data is normally small, and in this study, the researcher interviewed twelve (12) widows.

3.2. Data Collection Method

Data collection was performed using face-to-face semi-structured individual interviews to enhance the flow of the interviews and elicit significant information from the widows (Lune and Berg 2017). The semi-structured interviews allowed for flexibility between the researchers and the participants (Adams 2015).

To observe proper research ethics for data collection, the interview guides used were in English and translated into Setswana (the language spoken by the local people in North West Province in South Africa) for participants who did not understand English. The interview guide used open-ended questions, and themes were identified from those questions. An audio recorder was used together with descriptive notes during the interview sessions for reflection and follow-up questions. Also, descriptive notes were written to record accurate information for the participants who declined to be recorded. Data recorded was subsequently transcribed, supplementing the notes taken during the face-to-face interviews. During the interviews, safe spaces were used and made available at the offices of Kgaratlhelo Foundation and Omolemo Care Centre, with clearly labelled stickers “do not disturb” on the doors where interviews took place. The researchers sought permission to conduct the study from the Department of Social Work and North-West University’s Health Research Ethics Committee (HREC) with ethics number NWU-00121-23-A1. The Health Research Ethics Committee granted ethical clearance before the researcher sought permission from managers of the targeted non-governmental organisations.

In the study, numerals were used instead of the real names of participants to ensure anonymity. The widows were then named as Participant 1 to 12. The widows were informed that the researchers would not share the information and that the information would be published without revealing their personal information.

3.3. Data Analysis

Data from the interviews were analysed manually (Hennick et al. 2019) and thematically (Belotto 2018). Bhandari (2021) shares that thematic analysis involves paying attention to themes that emerge from the participants’ information. Data were analysed using six steps summarised by Creswell (2017) as familiarising oneself with the data through the reading of the transcripts, generating initial codes through summarising and compressing the data into small chunks of information with meaning, searching for themes, reviewing themes, defining themes, and eventually reporting the findings of the research through a closely monitored process to prevent deviation from the research ethics.

The initial codes were generated through familiarisation with data transcripts (stage 1) from the word-for-word interview audio-recorded data with the sole purpose of finding the relevant recurring key words (stage 2), which were named as codes (stage 3) (Naeem et al. 2023). More abstract and summarised themes were then developed through reviewing the initial codes (stage 4), which then transitioned into more clearly defined themes (stage 5), after which a conceptual way of presenting the data into the research report (stage 6) was eventually developed (Naeem et al. 2023).

Throughout the process, three researchers were involved in the analysis process, applying reflexivity by keeping journal manual memos to ensure that they stayed focused on the information of the participants and set aside pre-existing biases and personal beliefs (Braun and Clarke 2022).

4. Findings

4.1. Biographical Information of Widows

In this study, the widows shared their biographical information during interviews to identify the background of widows who were affected or experienced challenges after the death of their husbands. In addition, this information helped to clarify and identify patterns in what other widows around the world, who have the same back-ground, experienced after the death of their husbands by comparing the findings to the existing literature. During data collection, widows shared their biographical information as presented in

Table 1. Biographical information of widows.

	Age	Employment Status	Residential Area	Education Level	Number of Children	Size of the Family
Participant 1 (RMM)	58	Cleaner	Dinokana Village	Standard 9	2 girls and 1 boy	5 (includes aunt)
Participant 2 (RMM)	57	Casual worker	Dinokana Village	Grade 11	3 girls and 1 boy	6 (includes grandchild)
Participant 3 (RMM)	39	Butchery manager	Dinokana Village	Grade 12	2 girls	3
Participant 4 (RMM)	50	Professional teacher	Motswedi-Gopane	Bachelor of Education	1 girl and 1 boy	4 (includes grandchild)
Participant 5 (RMM)	48	Salesperson	Borakallo Section	Grade 11	1 girl and 1 boy	3
Participant 6 (RMM)	43	Unemployed	Zeerust Location	None	3 girls	4
Participant 7 (RMM)	54	Cleaner	Ikageleng Location	Grade 12	2 boys	5 (includes aunt and her child)
Participant 8 (RMM)	58	Professional teacher	Zeerust Location	Bachelor of Education	3 girls and 1 boy	6 (includes helper)
Participant 9 (MM)	53	Unemployed	Borolatuku Section	ABET (adult basic education and training)	4 girls	15 (includes 10 grandchildren)
Participant 10 (MM)	56	Unemployed	Zonderwater Section	ABET (adult basic education and training)	2 boys and 1 girl	17 (includes 3 adopted children and 10 grandchildren)
Participant 11 (MM)	53	Cleaner	Lonely Park	Standard 2	2 boys and 1 girl	3
Participant 12 (MM)	48	Clerk	Lonely Park	Grade 12	1 boy and 2 girls	5 (includes uncle)

Source: Tiro and Dube (2025).

below. The following table illustrates the biographical information of widows who participated in the study, which includes age, residential area, education level, number of children and family size.

From the information collected, it emerged that most women affected by widow-hood are in their middle ages of 29 years old to 58 years old and have not reached retirement age, meaning that they were still economically active. This is supported by Carlson and Schweizer (2020), who explain that regarding age differences, the most affected widows are likely to be from middle age to elderly, while those who strive to maintain their lifestyle for a long period are commonly young widows. This shows that from 39 to 58 years, women in Ngaka Modiri Molema are likely to suffer the loss of their spouses before their retirement ages, even though they are economically active. This study, however, was unable to gather the exact number of years since the death of the widows’ husbands to know exactly at what age women became widows.

In terms of employment, this study found that most of the widows (8 out of 12) were employed. Therefore, widowhood had no impact on the possibility of accessing employment in the Ngaka Modiri Molema District. However, it is important to mention that during the mourning period, their work schedules were affected as widows were not allowed to return to work during that time. This inevitably reduces income during the mourning period. However, most widows were from rural areas (9 out of 12), constituting seventy-five per cent, while a few (3 out of 12), constituting twenty-five per cent, were from urban areas.

It also emerged in this study that a low level of education plays a role in terms of widowhood rights, as lack of knowledge exerts an impact on interpreting laws. This study found that the majority (7 out of 12) of widows had a lower level of education and did not complete high school. Lower educational levels have implications for widows’ knowledge about personal rights to ameliorate abuse. To indicate the importance of proper education, Pemuta and Alubafi (2016) found that in Cameroon, there were 500,000 widows residing in villages, of which 90% of them did not know their rights because they were illiterate. The implications are that the high level of illiteracy in rural areas makes it difficult for widows to have knowledge about rights and access to legal resources needed when they experience widowhood challenges. Further, lower levels of literacy have implications for accessing better employment opportunities due to the competitive nature of recent job markets.

The number of children that widows have, as well as their gender, plays a role in many cultures, as a boy child is perceived as more important than a girl child. This study found that most widows had more girls than boys, further alienating the widows from any prospect of inheriting their deceased spouses’ properties. This is supported in the literature, where Dube (2022) states that when there is a high number of female children in the household, the in-laws are likely to treat the widow unfairly when it comes to property inheritance. In the cultural and traditional matrix of South African society, having a girl child has massive implications with regard to property inheritance, where the male gender is preferred.

Furthermore, family size has an impact on the livelihoods of widows, as it emerged in this study that most widows who had low education levels resulting in economic hardships experienced difficulties with providing for their big families. Stewart (2016) explained that having more than one child in a household can cause financial complications and poverty. In addition, Sabitha and Kumar (2023) explain that single parents, including widows, are compelled by poor circumstances to remove their children from school to work due to large family sizes because there is not a large enough source of income to provide for all of them. In such cases, they remove their children from private and expensive schools to public schools to reduce the costs associated with many children and a large family.

4.2. Psychological Challenges

This study explored psychological challenges that widows experienced during widowhood. These psychological challenges manifested in different dimensions, and as a result, this theme had subthemes as disclosed by the windows. These subthemes were categorised as emotional challenges, experiences of mourning, treatment of widows by their in-laws and mental issues experienced.

4.2.1. Emotional Challenges

Emotions that widows normally regaled are different poignant moments on the loss of their spouses. Most of the widows go through traumatic experiences, which lead to hurtful emotions. It emerged from the study that the status of widowhood brings pain to some widows. The following vignettes encapsulate these views:

“…being a widow is not something you can easily say I am a widow, it’s painful…”

(Participant 1)

“It is too painful in a way that you wish you are dreaming…”

(Participant 3)

“Eish… It is too hurtful to be a widow.”

(Participant 5)

“It is hard, and it is painful being a widow. You remind me of the things I went through.”

(Participant 10)

From the emotional challenges they shared, widows in this study expressed painful emotions due to the loss of their husbands. The painful emotions come with psychological unreadiness for the mourning periods, which are usually longer, exacerbating feelings of losing their husbands. According to Imafidon (2018), widows face traumatic experiences that bring painful emotions after the loss of their husbands due to the inhuman treatment they are subjected to in different cultures. The above-mentioned study shows that the inhuman treatment that widows face during mourning makes widows fail to mourn peacefully. Consequently, from those different challenges, widows experience painful emotions emanating from the experience of losing their husbands.

4.2.2. Mourning Experiences of Widows

The majority of widows go through different psychological experiences during mourning, which in aggregate constitute bad treatment from their families and communities. The treatment of widows varies, as disclosed in the following verbatim submissions:

“…My mourning period was bad. I was asking myself what my family’s problem that time was, but due to mourning, I just kept quiet.”

(Participant 3)

“Was not treated okay during mourning, the community… treated me like I don’t exist in their lives when I was mourning.”

(Participant 8)

“I had bad experience honestly… my husband’s family were fighting me over my house and everything that was inside like I was not married to him…”

(Participant 10)

From the above submissions, most widows had bad mourning experiences. Families distanced themselves from them. Therefore, lack of support had an impact on widows’ grieving period as communities and families distanced themselves. The United Nations Women (2021) highlighted the story of a Central African Republic widow called Hawa, who exposed how her family distanced themselves from her during her mourning period. These instances of alienation hinder the widows from going through therapeutic grief that culminates in mental complications.

4.2.3. Mental Health Issues During Mourning

It emerged in this study that most widows experienced serious mental health issues manifesting as stress, depression, trauma, isolation and loneliness. Serlachius et al. (2020) explain that psychological problems that widows experience culminate in mental issues that cause chronic illness. Some widows regaled the following information:

“Yoh, I can say it was traumatising… witnessing fights between my children. On the other hand, the two of them got involved in a car accident. Yoh and that time I was still mourning…”

(Participant 2)

“…I went through depression… The community hurt me the most because this was my second marriage, and I became a widow twice. They did not care I am still mourning; they gossiped about me…”

(Participant 7)

“I ended up being admitted several times at the hospital. I had anxiety and was too stressed which resulted in stroke…”

(Participant 10)

“I developed low self-esteem. I started to isolate myself more. I was scared to stay outside the house… maybe in veranda.”

(Participant 12)

In lieu of the findings, the majority (9 out of 12) of widows in this study experienced serious mental issues that amplify the development of low self-esteem and depression. To support these findings, Davis (2021) illuminates that the intense feelings and emotions emanating from grief can affect the confidence of widows and develop into depression and low self-esteem. The implications are that many widows isolate themselves even after mourning, which further amplifies mental issues.

In addition, other widows explained that they were traumatised during mourning due to the uncomfortable traditional practices imposed on them, compounding problems rather than accelerating the healing process. Ezeh (2022) observes that losing a spouse through death, accompanied by challenges that hinder one from dealing with their loss, can culminate in stress, depression and post-traumatic stress disorder (PTSD). We concur with this finding that losing a spouse to death can lead to psychopathology, especially when grief is accompanied by challenges that prevent widows from adequately dealing with their loss.

Additional mental problems, such as feeling powerless and lonely during mourning, were found in this study. This indicates the need for support, which widows rarely find. Ghaith et al. (2020) share that widows who experience loneliness attribute this feeling to a lack of support from people close to them. Families that do not support the widow during mourning aggravate the grieving period of widows, which may end in complicated grief. Muthangya (2019) adds that other widows go through depression caused by grieving, which causes sleeplessness, insomnia and may eventually cause serious health issues such as stroke. For example, Participant 10 was still recovering from a stroke that impacted her during mourning. The findings verify that widows go through unchecked mental health issues from the challenges they experience after the death of their husbands, which may be detrimental to their health.

Furthermore, mental issues may result in health problems. This was the finding when widows were asked to articulate mental issues they experienced during mourning. From the articulations of the widows, it emerged that the mental issues that they faced caused health problems, which they lived with. This was captured below:

“…Witnessing my children fight over their inheritance was depressing and stressing, I even ended up having diabetes”

(Participant 2)

“The stress was too much for me, I ended up getting too sick and admitted to hospital. My eldest daughter had to take me to stay with her at her house so that she could take care of me during mourning.”

(Participant 9)

“…I ended up being admitted several times to the hospital. I had anxiety and was too stressed and had stroke. I am currently having effects; I can no longer do much work because it affected my left parts of the body…”

(Participant 10)

Most of the widows in this study were able to open up about their problematic health conditions caused by mental health issues. According to Perkins et al. (2021), mental issues like stress, depression, anxiety and PTSD can cause health conditions such as stroke or heart attack. Fegundes and Wu (2021) also found that widowhood mental health problems can accelerate the risk for morbidity and mortality in the first eighteen months of the husband’s death due to heightened risks of cardiovascular diseases. The psychological challenges that widows faced during mourning emanated from their families and communities, who abandoned support and rather fomented disputes over inheritances for widows. Therefore, the findings show that widows had painful psychological problems resulting in chronic physical illnesses, which continue to impact their daily lives.

4.3. Social Challenges

In this study, widows highlighted social challenges as negative events arising from how society treats them (Darlong 2021). Some of these social challenges can be categorised as religion and belief systems, stigma and discrimination, property inheritance issues, homelessness, inability to provide for own family and unfair traditional norms and practices. In the succeeding sections, widows shared different social challenges experienced after the death of their husbands.

4.3.1. Religion and Belief Systems

Belief systems and religion play a role in mourning; hence, others mourn culturally, while some do not mourn due to their Christian beliefs and others do. The widows in this study shared their belief system they followed during mourning as follows:

“…we have different beliefs at home. My children are Muslims. I attend a church called Engel. They normally call it Forah. It is a Christian church but at my home we are from Batswana culture. But I mourned according to Batswana cultural beliefs. I wore black mourning clothes and did not leave my house for a year.”

(Participant 2)

“I am a Christian; I am a Bishop at the Apostolic church, but I also believe in culture. I mourned dressed in blue and mourned for a year…”

(Participant 5)

“I am a Christian. I attend Z.C.C (Zion Christian Church). I was not wearing mourning clothes due to my Christian belief.”

(Participant 4)

“We are Christians in my house. We attend… True… Voice church. At my church we mourn by wearing… a head scarf only which is blue and white in colour and isolate our selves for 6 months to 12 months period depending on you as an individual.”

(Participant 10)

“We are Christians at home, we attend AFM. I did not mourn culturally; I did not mourn drinking traditional herbs or mourning dress as others do. I just isolated myself for 12months.”

(Participant 8)

In this study, most participants mourned their deceased spouses following the Batswana cultural norms, even when they were all Christians. This confirms that culture is practised more during widowhood than Christianity. An oppressive culture, which can exacerbate psychosocial problems during mourning, takes precedence over religion, which is normally used for healing. It is also clear that the unfair mourning practices are derivatives from culture. The studies by Manala (2015) and Tululope (2016) amplify the different cultural norms that widows adhere to in order to dissuade them from social and family gatherings, which then amplify the feeling of loss and loneliness.

Interestingly, the available literature confirms that Christians adhere to and revert to their cultural norms during widowhood rites. This implies that culture is respected and has an impact on the healing processes. Enekeme (2015) highlights that mostly other cultures take advantage of widows by ill-treating them and denying them their rights during the mourning process. The findings show that culture has an impact on the challenges that widows experience, specifically that culture becomes a condoned avenue and a subtle way of oppressing widows.

4.3.2. Property Inheritance Issues

Most widows in this study shared that they experienced property disinheritance issues, while in South Africa, there are marriage laws that are supposed to protect them from such social challenges. Seithati (2018) explains that the Recognition of Customary Marriages Act 120 of 1998 regulates that when a widow is married in accordance with customary law, she is eligible to inherit her husband’s property. In the study, it was identified that this legislation is not applied as most widows experienced their property disinheritance without recourse. The widows in this study shared their experiences related to property inheritance and stated the following:

“…my children were fighting over two cars that their father left. It was like those cars were not supposed to be mine. It was for them. But I kept quiet because I was mourning, and they took that advantage.”

(Participant 2)

“…my husband had a business… a bakery… Him and his friend were distributing bread to shops, like Sunbake bread… So after he died… my husband’s family, they were fighting me over it. I decided to step aside because he did not own it alone…”

(Participant 3)

From the findings, widows were deprived of the right to own properties even when their marriages were legal and recognised according to the customary law of South Africa, which states that they are the rightful owners of the properties left if they are still alive. This is a concrete illustration of the unfair treatment that widows experienced. Widows’ children and families of the deceased husband fight over the properties left behind by the deceased, showing that widows are not culturally recognised as the right people to inherit properties after the death of their husbands in the Ngaka Modiri Molema District (International Religious Freedom Report 2020). This brings into question the South African justice system in terms of the protection of widows who were legally married but have their jointly owned properties taken away from them. This paper argues that there is a gap that must be filled by jurisdictions in terms of legal marriages and property inheritance. The spirit of the law must be enforced. Legislation exists but does not serve to protect widows from such injurious actions of dispossession.

4.3.3. Homelessness

Of the 12 widows in the study, 8 shared how they became homeless after the death of their husbands. Many widows become homeless after the burial of their husbands, as their homes are taken away by the deceased spouses’ families. In most cases, widows are evicted from their own homes. Participants shared different experiences of becoming homeless, stating the following:

“My husband’s family tried to chase me away from my own house. They were fighting me to leave my house. The reason they wanted to kick me out was that, they claimed, my children were not their son’s biological children…”

(Participant 5)

“I was evicted from my own house by my husband’s family.”

(Participant 10)

“…I experienced how it feels to be evicted from your own house.”

(Participant 11)

It emerged in this study that most widows (8 out of 12) experienced eviction. To show that the treatment of chasing widows away from their own houses is becoming a norm, Kimeu (2022) discloses the experience of one widow who lived in the east of Kenya. During mourning, she was evicted by her in-laws from her own home. The eviction was intentionally enforced to eliminate her from inheriting her husband’s property. The Human Rights Watch (2017) documented various evidence from the Zimbabwean context where widows lost their property due to evictions by in-laws and were told to “leave with nothing as they came with nothing” into the marriage setup. This shows that evicting widows from their properties in low-resource communities is rampant and needs to be checked to prevent further injurious injustices on widows.

4.3.4. Stigma and Discrimination

This study found that many societies have negative comments about widows who mourn culturally (wearing traditional mourning clothes). For example, Tululope (2016) observes that widows are accused of having bad luck or are called witches because of the superstitions related to mourning. In this study, the widows echoed the following information:

“…I was ill-treated by my in-laws as if I am a disease… When I was mourning, they got angry at me because I did not want to wear mourning clothes for my husband and do all the cleansing.”

(Participant 1)

“I only faced ill-treatment of being contagious, called names and even laughed at by the community members. I even isolated myself more because of them. They even used to call me “moswagadi o bollo” (hotly contagious widow).”

(Participant 6)

“…They claimed I will transfer my bad luck to my son… They think people who mourn like the way I did end up killing their own children or making my son sick.”

(Participant 12)

It emerged in this study that widows are regarded as contagious, and they can be treated as carriers of bad luck, especially when they are not cleansed after the death of their spouse. Tassie (2013) mentions that rituals are performed to remove bad luck that some societies believe to be associated with widows. However, even when there are widows who are cleansed after the death of their husbands, they are still treated as contagious. This leads to widows being stigmatised and discriminated. Tassie (2013) condemns rituals performed on widows to remove bad luck that they are a travesty of social justice that only serves to isolate widows and stigmatise them. These unfair practices exacerbate psychological problems as widows are still perceived as contagious even when they have undergone the cleansing rituals.

Discriminatory practices are also noted and associated with widowhood. In this study, widows shared how they were treated during mourning by their families and the community at large. Widows in this study shared that they experienced discrimination by being excluded from family and social gatherings. Widows averred the following:

“Other extended family members when they have wedding celebrations or lobola negotiation, they don’t treat me fairly. They always discriminate against me by saying I am a widow; I am not supposed to be involved in wedding plannings and even lobola negotiation”

(Participant 7)

“…My own family discarded me because I did not want to mourn culturally. They even isolated me from family gatherings. When there is family gathering, they don’t involve me or engage with me.”

(Participant 8)

Most widows in the study experienced isolation as they were excluded from family gatherings. Manala (2015) stated that in Batswana and other cultures, widows are often accused of murdering their own husbands, which is one reason used to isolate the widows. Social exclusion leads to widows isolating themselves further due to the development of low self-esteem. Stigma and discrimination of widows may culminate in poor mental health, such as depression, trauma and anxiety attacks.

4.3.5. Inability to Provide for Own Family

Widows were asked to articulate how they were able to provide for their own families in such complexities of psychosocial issues surrounding them. The responses from the widows indicated that they had limited abilities to fend for their children and families alone after their husbands had died and lacked the support they needed to fully meet the needs of their families and children. Enekeme (2015)’s findings support this observation and claim that families and societies often reject the widow by not providing them with the support they need during mourning. The vignettes below confirm this ostracisation:

“The other challenge we had was that my husband had no savings left for us to take care of ourselves… it was difficult for us to maintain ourselves”

(Participant 7)

“My husband was the only one working, after he died, I was also failing to take care of my children hence my brother stepped in that time and shared food with me, and I was not even receiving grants for the children…”

(Participant 10)

From the study findings, it emerged that widows struggled to take care of their own families. After the burial of their deceased husbands, widows are often unable to continue caring for their own children, including themselves, as they often have inadequate financial resources to meet family needs. This is often associated with abandonment and isolation from people close to the widows after the death of their husbands (Kamunyu and Makena 2020).

4.3.6. Unfair Traditional Norms and Practices

Isolation and physical confinement of the widows after the death of their husbands are some of the cultural practices among the Batswana people, practised as a means of mourning their deceased husbands. Some widows in this study shared the traditional practice that widows must “pass” as cultural norms regulating the ways of mourning for a deceased spouse (Manala 2015). In many instances, cultural norms that are invoked for widows become noxious ways of oppressing and depriving them of their rights. Participants regaled the following information:

“…I can say the traditional norm of being isolated from people was hurtful and it even con tributed to my depression.”

(Participant 3)

“…Other extended family members when they have wedding celebrations or lobola negotiations, they don’t treat me fair, they always isolated me. They always discriminate against me saying I am a widow; I am not supposed to be involved in wedding plannings and even lobola negotiation.”

(Participant 7)

“…They even isolate me from family gatherings. When there is family gathering, they don’ involve me or engage with me.”

(Participant 8)

“…Due to not being allowed to go around while mourning or leaving my house I couldn’t attend our court case.”

(Participant 9)

Most widows in this study highlighted how isolation and physical confinement as cultural norms exposed them to unfair treatment and prevented them from continuing with their normal lives. This shows that in some traditions, cultural norms for mourning such as isolation and physical confinement oppress widows because it becomes a curfew for the widows, with everyone else in the family continuing with their normal daily lives. This is a symbol of the entrenchment of discrimination and rejection in family and community. This confirms what Fraser and Nwadinobi (2018) found, that other harmful cultural practices include rejection and social exclusion by the community to the detriment of the widows’ psychosocial well-being. Research has revealed that widows are excluded from family gatherings and social activities to exacerbate isolation as they are viewed as carriers of bad luck (Segoa 2020). This results in orchestrated and institutionalised social exclusion, which is widely exonerated by families and community members.

5. Discussion

In lieu of the findings of this study, there were key findings regarding the psychosocial problems emanating from the widows’ loss of their husbands. Key thematic issues in this study were biographical information of the participants and psychological and social issues which were exhibited in several ways, which this paper classified as emergent themes from the data provided by the participants.

5.1. Biographical Information of the Participants

The emergent themes regarding the biographical information of the participants are that most of the participants were middle-aged (39 to 58 years), even though this study could not establish at what age the widows’ husbands died. This implies that middle-aged women in Ngaka Modiri Molema District may experience widowhood. While widowhood typically brings negative experiences, these women may find ways to support their children as they are in the economically active age groups. The lower educational levels, however, impacted the type of work the widows were engaged in. Most of the widows worked in low-paying jobs because of lower educational levels. This explains why they struggled to raise their children, as indicated in the study findings. These findings are also similar to those of Carlson and Schweizer (2020), who found that widowhood affects mostly women from middle age to the elderly.

In terms of Erik Erikson’s psychosocial human development stages, middle adulthood is associated with resolving a conflictual stage of development in generativity versus stagnation (Cherry 2025). When this stage is successfully negotiated and achieved, human beings nurture and see their children develop into adults and build a sense of unity with their partners (Cherry 2025). As depicted by the findings of this study, many widows in Ngaka Modiri Molema District struggled to resolve this stage as they faced difficulties in raising children and, without partners, needing to build trusting relationships. This typically contributed to the psychological problems experienced by widows at this stage of their life development.

In lieu of the findings, most widows lived in villages where it was difficult to access resources needed to deal with their psychosocial issues emanating from widowhood. It was difficult to access legal and psychosocial interventions for their problems. This was also coupled with strong traditional beliefs of rural people on customs and traditions that were not favourable for the widows to seek recourse from their problems. This can be seen as an intersection of multiple factors such as gender, traditional norms, poverty and underdevelopment from a social feminist perspective (Omo and Omonemu 2024). Liberal feminists argue that traditional practices in rural areas undermine women’s sense of agency and reinforce social norms that justify gender subordination (Tamale 2020).

Another significant finding from the biographical information of the participants was that they had children of which the majority were girls. The gender of widows’ children plays a role in many cultures as boys are perceived as preferred heirs to their deceased fathers’ properties compared to girls. This explains why widows struggled with inheriting property after the deaths of their husbands in Ngaka Modiri Molema District as this belief persists. Radical feminists see this practice as rooted in patriarchal power structures that are enforced to produce systemic gender inequality in rural communities, which further perpetuates male dominance and control of resources (Dube 2017).

5.2. Psychological Problems Experienced by Widows

From the findings of this study, an arsenal of psychological problems is experienced by the widows in Ngaka Modiri Molema District. Psychological problems such as emotional issues, mourning experiences and mental health issues were experienced. It is important to note that the psychological problems are intertwined, and one problem might lead to or develop into another.

In this study, widows expressed experiencing painful emotions emanating from the loss of their husbands, which led to mourning. However, widows could not mourn the loss of their husbands normally as their families abandoned, isolated and thwarted the need for emotional support, leading to feelings of loneliness. From a social constructivist theoretical perspective, this is a result of socially constructed culture, norms and practices that mandate families to isolate the widows to ensure that they are cleansed from the culturally feared bad spirit of the dead husband, which needs cleansing (Teater 2020).

Soon after the deaths of their husbands and whilst mourning, there were also property disputes, which made mourning unpeaceful, which elongates the grief and mourning period for widows, resulting in depression. Property disputes and stripping widows of their homes, which radical feminists argue is a patriarchal cultural mechanism for controlling women and resources by men (Dube 2017), exacerbate feelings of hopelessness and helplessness among widows. Marxist feminists condemn this and argue that it represents long-standing economic deprivation for widows to ensure women’s dependence on men and an affirmation of control over women by patriarchal households (Federici 2019).

There was, however, a concern among the widows that the psychosocial challenges experienced led to health problems. Akinbi (2015) shares that some challenges amongst widows expose them to health risks, and this is a serious health threat. This highlights how harmful psychological challenges can become further complicated, again calling for serious measures to protect widows from such intricate psychologically related health risks.

5.3. Social Problems Experienced by Widows

A host of interacting social challenges also permeates the fragile lives of widows in Ngaka Modiri Molema District. In the district, widows are entangled in social problems such as religion and belief systems, stigma and discrimination, property inheritance issues, homelessness, inability to provide for their families and unfair traditional norms and practices.

This study found that most widows follow Christianity as their religion, which normally opposes traditional practices and norms and depends heavily on prayers for dealing with belief issues and sacred matters such as death and spiritual cleansing. However, in this study, widows found themselves forced to practice unfair traditional practices and norms, such as wearing black clothes and isolating themselves for a year, which forced them to abandon Christianity and practice cultural traditions and practices. These cultural practices take precedence over religion and are embedded in such a way that widows find it difficult to resist because of their sentimental nature within the context, cleansing the spirit of the dead husband. This is what radical feminists see as a systematic limitation of women’s power to make choices as a means for controlling them, thereby dehumanising them (Baloyi 2017).

Further, widows face stigma and discrimination in the community. Widows are believed to have bad spirits of the dead, which influences people in the Ngaka Modiri Molema to discriminate and isolate them because they are unclean from the spirit of their dead husbands (Dube 2017). The widow is forced into isolation and limited interaction with family and community members. Ironically, this is also the time when families decide which heir to give the deceased husband’s property. Due to isolation, the widow cannot participate in decision-making, and she is technically excluded from such decisions (Dube 2017).

The implications of excluding widows from property inheritance decisions are that the property is taken away from the widows, who end up becoming destitute and homeless and unable to support their children and themselves. Marxist feminists bemoan this as men’s tireless effort to control resources and forms of economic exploitation and reproduce women’s class vulnerability (Makama 2019).

6. Limitations of the Study

One limitation of this study was the sensitive nature of the issues discussed with the participants. For example, one widow had to withdraw from the study after discovering that she had unresolved trauma from her widowhood experiences. The participant was sent for pre-arranged counselling, and the mediator (service provider) found her a volunteer replacement to continue with the data collection process. The volunteer was among the widows whose participation involved giving her full information about this study and allowing her to think about her willingness to participate in this study for at least three days before she could sign the consent form to participate. The process was time-consuming as it ensured that the participant’s decision to take part in the study was ethical.

The other limitation encountered during data collection was that some participants in this study did not want to be recorded for various reasons that including insecurity. The researcher tried to solve these misgivings by assuring them that the recorder was safe, but they were adamant, and the researcher ended up complying. This complicated administration matters for the researchers by using note-taking procedures during the interview process, which had the potential to miss some of the information the widows provided during the interviews. However, the participants were voluntarily keen to be contacted again if the researcher felt that some of the information could be missing.

This study engaged a small sample, which presents challenges in the generalisability of the findings from this study. The researcher sees this as emanating from the small sample sizes that qualitative studies generally engage. The data, however, was rich from a sampling strategy that was informed by data saturation to enable analysis and reach meaningful conclusions. However, there is a need for bigger sample sizes and for national surveys for future research.

7. Conclusions

In lieu of the study findings, various conclusions have been drawn. The first study conclusion is drawn from the personal information of the widows and, subsequently, the psychosocial challenges they faced. The conclusion that can be drawn is that the phenomenon of widowhood in Ngaka Modiri Molema is common amongst middle-aged women. They are within an economically active age group, despite being let down by low educational levels, as most of the widows reside in the rural parts of the district.

Another important conclusion is that widowhood brings a host of psychosocial problems emanating from minimal spiritual and social support, ill treatment by in-laws, culturally oriented isolation and property inheritance disputes resulting in untold psychosocial issues and mental health problems. This study concludes that such psychosocial issues culminate in physiological problems such as diabetes, high blood pressure and stroke amongst the widows. Some of the physiological issues become chronic problems for the widows.

8. Recommendations

Based on the findings of this study, various recommendations are made in relation to the psychosocial challenges experienced by the widows in Ngaka Modiri Molema. The various recommendations made are as follows:

Drawing from the psychosocial challenges identified, this paper recommends that community awareness and educational initiatives be implemented to address the treatment of widows in Ngaka Modiri Molema District and promote understanding of women’s rights, with particular emphasis on widows. Such initiatives can be led by NGOs in collaboration with relevant government departments, including the Department of Justice and Constitutional Development, Department of Social Development, Department of Health and the South African Police Services. The involvement of these governmental departments can foster stakeholder engagement and facilitate broader community outreach regarding the rights of widows. These efforts can improve the support for the integration of widows into society both during and after the mourning period.

This paper recommends that the active involvement of traditional leaders in the villages on improving their knowledge in legal and constitutional practices can assist in curbing the scourge of property stripping from the widows in Ngaka Modiri Molema District. Emphasis should be placed on the importance of having land allocation certificates and valid wills for married women to legally secure the land and property in the event of the death of their husbands.

This paper recommends a comprehensive review of existing legal frameworks and the development of targeted policies to ensure that outdated Acts are updated and new measures specifically address the protection of widows. It is essential to streamline and strengthen the implementation mechanisms for these laws and policies, as current frameworks are inadequate in safeguarding widows, and their enforcement remains insufficient. Enhancing these aspects may contribute to the creation of more effective, intentional and focused programmes to support widows.

Further research on a large scale is recommended to gain more detailed insights into the problems of widowhood, as this study focused only on a small geographical area. Such a large-scale study can generate enough data to generalise findings and draw conclusions that inform expansive geographical areas.