I know many of us are familiar with the word Levirate and for the purpose of those who are hearing the word for the first time, I will try as much to break it down for us to know what it stands for. Levirate's marriage in a nutshell connotes the type of marriage that allows a brother to marry the wife of his younger/elder brother after losing him to death.
I want to believe we all get the gist now with that layman interpretation, when you as a guy have a brother either he is older than you or you are older than him, when such a brother died, Levirate marriage allows you to take possession of his wife. I can see how you (my reader) feel when you get the gist but on a more serious note, this is happening.
I don't know much about other cultures, so I can't really say if it exists for real outside my culture but this is a part of my culture that I don't really like or in support with, although it is fast going into an extinction now because civilization has helped to open our eyes to so many things that were hidden in the past.
When we say culture is our way of life and what actually differentiates us from one another, there are some families that hold strong belief when it comes to Levirate marriage and they believe that anybody from the family that goes against it will definitely face the consequence. To them, once a woman is married to their family, she doesn't have the right to marry any man outside their family if she eventually lost her husband which is their own son.
I am proud of my culture and I can say it anywhere but the custom that binds levirate marriage is not what I really like about my culture. Although when you try to ask the elders in the family or in the society why the emphasis is made on levirate marriage, they always have some things to say such as;
They don't want another man to take possession of their late son children
They want to take care of their late son's wife and children.
And many more... To them, they believe if the deceased brother marries the wife, everything the deceased had worked for when he was alive will be well managed.
I am glad this part of the culture is now going into extinction because many men whose choices are one wife were victims of levirate marriage and before they knew it, they have the second wife they never love or plan for.
With Love,
@Oxygen02