Levirate Marriage and the Family[ ]“keep” the widow, since they have the right to retain her children re-
gardless of her decision and she has no claims on the family’s property.
This might explain why Luo widows choose to enter into levirate unions.
Regardless of how limited such a union might be, and how few benefits
are conferred on the widow by virtue of entering into the union, the Luo
women interviewed by Potash have no other options.
Economic factors are clearly involved in decisions regarding levirate
unions. Like the Luo, the Nandi of Kenya are a patrilineal and patrilocal
group. They are also polygynous. Marriage is considered a once-in-a-
lifetime event for women; divorce is rare and cannot take place without
the return of bride-wealth. Remarriage is not an option for women, and
there is official communal disapproval of widows taking lovers outside
of levirate unions. It is considered a man’s duty to enter into a sexual re-
lat ionsh ip w it h h is brot her’s w idow i f she is of ch i ldbea r i ng age; t he lev i r
is expected to fat her children who are credited to his deceased brot her’s
lineage and to provide economic assistance to his brother’s widow and
children.
Despite cultural similarities between the Luo and the Nandi, and
shared social approval of levirate unions, Regina Smith Oboler found
that few Nandi widows engaged in levirate unions.^28 A number of fac-
tors may account for the avoidance of such unions. The Nandi are fairly
prosperous and widows are often able to hire labor; thus they need not
rely on the help of a levir. Significant property rights are assigned to
Nandi women at the time of and during marriage; widows often have
economic resources of their own. Despite official disapproval of wid-
ows who take lovers from outside their husbands’ kin, in reality such
relat ionships have no socia l or economic consequences. A l l of a w idow’s
children, regardless of the identity of their genitors, are considered the
children and heirs of her late husband. Given their greater economic and
sexual freedom, Nandi women might understandably be less interested
in levirate unions than their Luo counterparts.^29
Levirate may be an attractive choice even for a widow with multiple
options. In his study of Dukawa widows, Frank A. Salamone describes
a society that is egalitarian, a community in which women are equal
partners in marriage.^30 While levirate is employed in Dukawa society,
Salamone argues that it is by no means an indication of the powerless-
ness of or lack of choices available to women.