Luo Wife Inheritance

Luo Wife Inheritance is a custom practiced by the Luo people of western Kenya. In this practice, "if a man dies, one of his brothers or close relatives inherits his widow and must meet all of her marital requirements." The local name for the practice is "tero" or "Tero Cholla." As early as 1993, it was named as a factor in the spread of AIDS among the Luo.

In 1999, the Luo Council of Elders met and "drastically reformed" the practice of wife inheritance. (According to a 1999 article, "The Luo Council of Elders, a recently formed organization, said in February that wife inheritance should be reserved for widows who are not infected with the AIDS virus." ) However, the Luo Council of Elders has been criticized as merely a political organization that does not have the authority to speak for all Luos.

A year later, Provincial Commissioner Peter Raburu issued a ban on widow inheritance in Nyanza province, the homeland of the Luo.

A 2009 study found that "The sexual rituals surrounding death have also undergone changes to the point whereby most men are no longer interested getting married to the spouses of their brother. An offshoot of this change is the rise of a crop of men on the prowl, seeking to exploit women whose spouses have died. These men pretend to remarry the women but their aim is to have access to the resources in the hands of the woman left by her dead husband, and at the same time have sex with them. These men are locally termed “Professional Jater”, essentially translating to professionals in remarrying. Some people have called termed the practice of remarrying “wife inheritance”, however this term has no meaning to the Luo, for a wife was not seen as an object to be inherited. The Professional Jater, are characterized by their lack of material support for the woman they cohabit with, yet in the traditional practice of the Luo, remarriage was meant to ensure the woman got material support and her sexual needs were also met. There are also women who upon the death of the spouses do not remarry but maintain multiple sexual partners. In terms of the potential for the spread of sexually transmitted diseases, these present practices pose more risk. In one sense because the Professional Jater can move from one woman to another and if he is infected with a disease, then he can spread it, on the other hand a woman who decides to maintain multiple partners could also spread infection among his partners."

Wife Inheritance Tradition
According to one account from 1997:


 * "This is the ritual which ends the mourning. Right after this ritual, the surviving family members start their new life, and the surviving spouse starts his/her life with a new partner. Widows, in particular, must have a man in her mind as her prospective inheritor before the day of the tero cholla. If a husband died, the widow and her eldest son pay a visit to the home of the widow’s parents. They spend only one night there. The following day, before departure, a goat called cholla is slaughtered. Part of its meat is eaten by the widow’s parents and the rest is taken by the widow to her home.


 * "The widow’s prospective inheritor (sing. jater, pl. joter) sleeps in the widow’s house while she is visiting her natal home. When the widow returns, she cooks the meat she brought back. The widow and her inheritor eat the meat. They engage in sexual intercourse that night, and the man must prove that he is a real inheritor. Then, the inheritor starts building their new house, helped by the widow.


 * "A widow too old to have sex selects a man who is about her age. When she returns from her natal home, her inheritor prepares a fireplace for cooking. She cooks and they eat together. They spend the night without sex. But the inheritor must keep inside the house his belongings. This is done so that visitors may know that the old man and woman stay together and love each other. With a young widow, it is practically impossible for any man to inherit her and not have sex.


 * "If a wife died, the widower follows the mourning taboos only when she was the first wife. In that event, the husband takes his children to the deceased’s parents. They stay one night and return the following day. The children are given meat or a hen by their grandparents.

The parents of the dead wife sometimes give one of their unmarried daughters to the husband as his new wife. The daughter normally comes over to the husband’s home on the day of the tero cholla. She begins to live in the house and inherit whatever her sister had. If the husband marries some other woman, he should build a new house for her."

According to a second account:
 * "To inherit his third wife, Olonde said Luo ritual required him to spend the first night sleeping outside the door of the new wife's hut. The next night he slept with her, consummating the marriage.


 * "An inherited wife shaves her head, one of numerous "cleansing" gestures required to break the bonds with the dead husband.


 * "Even if the widow wants to marry someone else, Luo culture dictates she first be inherited. Once the inheritance is consummated, the woman can leave and marry outside the family."

Wife Inheritance and HIV/AIDS
The practice of tero has been connected to the high rate of HIV/AIDS among the Luo people. Some say there is a belief that the inherited wife and her new husband (jater) must have sex without a condom or else it does not satisfy the requirements of the funeral rites.

In 1993, Katitu Wamai, district commissioner of Siaya Wamai in western Kenya's Nyanza province, said that the spread of HIV/AIDS was directly related to the practice of wife inheritance among the Luo. His statement was met with a threat of legal action by Luo widows, unless he apologized.


 * "Speaking on behalf of the widows, Fatuma Okello from Kisumu, defended the practice of wife inheritance saying it played a significant role in Luo society.


 * "She said Wamai should realize that there are just as many AIDS deaths among the rival Kikuyu community where wife inheritance is not practiced."

Asenath Odaga, a lecturer at Kenyatta University, added that the practice, which "provided material support and comfort for the widow" was "also not necessarily linked to sex," since an elderly widow could be symbolically "inherited" as well. However, the practice still met criticism from a bishop and members of Kenya's parliament. Also criticized was "a related Luo practice in which when a wife dies, the husband demands another girl from his in-laws as "compensation." In most cases, his new wife is the deceased's younger unmarried sister."

Those who defend the practice say that wife inheritance ensures that widows will be monogamous. By 1998, with the debate unresolved among the Luo, some women refused to be inherited.

Cleansing
Some articles also mention "cleansing" a widow "by forcing her to sleep with a madman or social outcast to ward off evil spirits before her new husband enters her bed" as a risk factor for HIV/AIDS.


 * "The cleansing starts three or so days after a husband's burial, depending on the clan. And a stranger is sought to stay with the widow overnight and have sexual intercourse. Selected community elders will stay awake overnight to make sure the actual thing is done.


 * "The stranger must be an insane person because it is believed that once you cleanse, then you would never be normal again because you will carry with you all the evil burden from the clan.


 * "Another trick is to make the stranger drunk on traditional liquors to confuse him such that he wouldn't know what is going on and will be forced into the act. Today, this practice is commercial. The people who perform this act ask for as much as Ksh 10,000 (130 US dollars) to perform the ritual."

Related Sourcewatch articles

 * Luo
 * Nilotic Languages
 * Nilo-Saharan Languages

External Resources

 * Immigration and Refugee Board of Canada, Kenya: Traditional marriages among the Luo in Kenya including polygamy, consent of parties involved, and treatment of women in the community, 20 April 2001, KEN36634.E.

External Articles
2010s:
 * Kawango E. Agot, Ann Vander Stoep, Melissa Tracy, Billy A. Obare, Elizabeth A. Bukusi, Jeckoniah O. Ndinya-Achola, Stephen Moses, and Noel S. Weiss, “Widow Inheritance and HIV Prevalence in Bondo District, Kenya: Baseline Results from a Prospective Cohort Study." PloS ONE 5(11):e14028. Doi:10.1371/journal.pone.0014028, November 17, 2010.

2000s:
 * Karl Vick, "Disease Spread Faster Than the Word; Uninformed Rural Kenyans Try to Make Up for Lost Time," The Washington Post, July 7, 2000.
 * Agai Yier, "Kenya; MP Accuses Chiefs Of Aids Drive Sabotage," Africa News, August 8, 2000.
 * "Kenya; End Debate On Widows, Urges Ex-MP," Africa News, October 5, 2000.
 * Vincent R Okungu, "Kenya: Culture No Longer Helpful In Averting Disasters," AllAfrica.com, 29 January 2001.
 * The East African Standard, "Kenya; 'My Life With Inheritor No. 3'," Africa News, November 14, 2001.
 * The East African Standard, "Kenya; To Inherit or Not to Inherit?," Africa News, November 14, 2001.
 * The East African Standard, "Kenya; Why Practice Endures," Africa News, November 14, 2001.
 * The East African Standard, "Kenya; Tradition Spurs Spread of HIV/Aids in Communities," Africa News, November 14, 2001.
 * Ambasa-Shisanya CR, "Widowhood in the era of HIV/AIDS: a case study of Slaya District, Kenya," Journal of Social Aspects of HIV/AIDS Research Alliance, 2007 Aug;4(2):606-15.


 * Samson O. Gunga, "The politics of Widowhood and Re-Marriage among the Luo of Kenya," Thought and Practice: A Journal of the Philosophical Association of Kenya (PAK), Premier Issue, New Series, Vol.1 No.1, June 2009, pp.161-174.

1990s:
 * Horace Awori, "Kenya: Wife "Inheritance" and the Spread of AIDS," IPS-Inter Press Service, September 15, 1993.
 * Chege Mbitiru, "Wife Inheritance Blamed for Spreading AIDS," The Associated Press, December 13, 1993.
 * Okeyo TM, Allen AK., "Influence of widow inheritance on the epidemiology of AIDS in Africa," African Journal of Medical Practice, 1994 Mar-Apr;1(1):20-5.


 * Manoah Esipisu, "Kenyan tribe pushed to change its customs: Some of the ancient traditions of Kenya's Luo people are under threat as they face pressure to conform to Western ideals," The Weekly Journal, June 1, 1995.
 * Terry Leonard, "Critics Seek To Break Kenyan Tribe's Practice of Wife Inheritance," January 29, 1996.
 * Ann M Simmons, "Column One: Kenyan Widows' New Fear; Many Womein in the East African Nation Are 'Inherited' by Male In-Laws Who Marry Them After Their Husbands Die. Opponents of the Ancient Custom Say It's Fostering the Spread of AIDS," Los Angeles Times, February 25, 1998.
 * "Kenya; Poverty, culture afflict fight against HIV/Aids," Africa News, December 22, 1998.
 * Ravi Nessman, "Generations of Tradition Under Attack in Kenya," Seattle Post-Intelligencer, April 14, 1999.
 * John Oywa, "Kenya; Raila criticised over wrangle," Africa News, May 25, 1999.