Widowhood rites: Matilda Amissah-Arthur explains why she stopped wearing black after 3-months

Matilda Amissah-Arthur, the widow of the late former Vice President Kwesi Bekoe Amissah-Arthur, has recounted how she defied the widowhood rite of wearing black attire for a year as a symbol of grieving one’s departed spouse.

She believes that times have changed and for that matter, widows must not be forced to wear black for a whole year since the men (widowers) are not obligated to do same.

“I took it off after three months, in my book I made a point that, people should be left to do things as they want to…wearing black doesn’t equate how sad you are or how you are grieving,” she revealed.

“Yes, black is a sign of mourning, in the olden days women did not work so if they are wearing black a whole year, there was nothing wrong because they didn’t have to go to the office or something,” she added.

She added that there is no end to grieving the demise of a loved one, as such not wearing a black attire for one year does not prove she stopped mourning her husband after 3months.

Matilda Amissah-Arthur believes that the black attire drains the widow by adding to her pain. She again made mention of the unfavourable weather condition which isn’t suitable for black attires.

Another widowhood rite Mrs Amissah-Arthur believes is outmoded is that of bathing before 6:00pm.

“We are told that a widow should have their bath before 6pm at night…the fear was that at night you would hurt yourself when you are going to have your bath or some insect or snake can bite you. Now we all live in homes where we have bathrooms inside the houses so really this does not hold,” she explained.