Widow drags mother-in-law to court over fine

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9 months ago

A 22-year-old woman of Ndola, Zambia, has narrated before a court that she was charged K1000 by her in-laws because her late husband was found unshaved when he died.

Doreen Ngulube of Masala Township sued her mother-in-law for refusing to cleanse her from the time her husband died.

She sued Beauty Matipula of Kabwe Road for not cleansing her from the time her husband passed on in 2018.

Doreen said when her husband died, she was pregnant and she was found with a case because her husband died unshaved.

She said as such her late husband’s family refused to cleanse her.

The case came before Kabushi Local Court, with the presiding magistrate, Mildred Namwizye sitting with Evelyn Nalwizya.

According to Zambia Observer, Doreen said her husband’s family charged her K1,000 and she faced challenges in finding the money, but later managed to pay.

She said when she asked to be cleansed last year in November, her in-laws told her that it was rainy season and that they could not carry out the ritual.

Later, she was advised to travel to the village so that the cleansing could be done from there.

“I told them that I did not have transport money and my late husband left me with two young children and I could not afford to find food and look for transport at the same time,” she said.

In her testimony, Matipula said according to their tradition, when a man dies unshaven, the wife is charged and she has to pay.

Matipula said the family would not have cleansed her because she was pregnant when their son died and they had to wait until she gave birth, according to the family’s tradition.

The court ordered Matipula to have her daughter-in-law cleansed within 30 days failure to do so, the law would take its course.