JENDA: A JOURNAL OF CULTURE AND AFRICAN WOMEN STUDIES ISSN: 1530-5686 Issue 7 (2005) REVIEW: WOMEN AND LAND IN AFRICA

Edited by L. Muthoni Wanyeki. Women and Land in Africa: Culture, Religion, and Realizing Women’s Rights. Zed Books Ltd., London, 2003, Paperback, 384pp, ISBN: 1842770977

Mary Nyambura Muchiri

My interest in reading this book was stirred by the fact that my mother passed away last November, and I have been involved in the issue of land inheritance which has turned out to be different from my wildest guess. I think anyone interested in human rights, and women’s rights in particular, will find the book interesting to read as well as very informative.

The first part of the book discusses in some detail, the land tenure systems of seven African countries that include Cameroon, Ethiopia, Mozambique, Northern Nigeria, Rwanda, Senegal and Uganda. The second part is devoted to the discussion of key land rights issues recommendations as well as reports of two workshops held to discuss the women’s access to and control over land in Ethiopia.

The most interesting thing for me was the great similarity of the conclusions of the studies, despite the fact that the internal composition of the countries is very different in terms of ethnic groups and land laws. The following comment about Uganda applies to all the other countries in the study:

Today, throughout Uganda, women have the statutory legal right to inherit land. But the degree to which they can exercise that land right in practice is constrained by several factors, foremost among which are the necessity for male mediation and the dominance of customary practice. (Wanyeki 2003: 247)

In all the countries studied, except Ethiopia, the historical context is similar. Before the interruption of the traditional life by colonialism, the laws governing land acquisition were based on the right of “burning or the axe.” Whoever cleared the forest had the right to use the part cleared and pass it on to his clan or sons, in patriarchal groups, or her clan or daughters in matrilineal communities. Ethiopia did not experience colonialism and so the traditional system has persisted with little alteration, as will be explained later.

With the advent of colonialism came three other systems of land ownership, one of which was the statutory law that, in most places, declared some land to be “crown land,” which could only be accessed thorough the colonial government. The owner had to be registered and issued with a land certificate (title deed). Such land was either freehold or leased for 99 or 199 years, after which it would revert back to the government.

The second was the Sharia law introduced whenever the land was conquered by Muslim Jihadists, such as in Northan Nigeria. In Islamic jurisprudence, conquered land is land acquired through a jihad. All pre-existing laws found among the conquered peoples should continue to operate, provided they do not contradict the sharia. In Maliki law, conquered land should not be purchased, sold, hired or given out as a free gift without a fatwa (religious sanction). Conquered land is designated state property and placed under the custodian of the emir or any head of the Muslim community. (Wanyeki 2003: 153)

The last complication came as a result of the introduction of Christianity in Africa. While missionaries did not seek to change the land laws, their insistence on monogamy as the only acceptable form of marriage has had far reaching effects, especially on women’s ability to own land. This is how the Maguzawa people perceive the situation.

Rather than build upon Maguwaza norms and improve the status of women, Christian organizations have adopted a conservative Christian doctrine on women’s status. According to a pastor, “women are like sheep, they have to be organized by men” (Ibrahim 1997: 21). Furthermore , by ruling out divorce in Christian marriage, the church is unwittingly condoning the abuse and exploitation of women and promoting male domination, while taking away the only weapon women have to escape unhappy marriages. The monogamy that the church promotes is not based on equal partnership but on the subservience of women to men. Thus Maguzawa women have opted for traditional marriage (with polygamy) rather than Christian marriage (monogamous). (Wanyeki 2003: 171)

With this complex interaction of the four systems, women have lost on every account. The following summary on Uganda touches on the main reasons why, no matter what the law says, the women end up as the losers. This is based on (Wanyeki 2003: 273-4), but explanations are summaries of the main issues from the whole book.

• Sharing decision-making about land: women are almost always left out when decisions are made on accession, use or transfer of land due to the low status accorded to them in most African traditional societies.

• Sharing labor: although women are 50-52% of the total population of most of the countries in Africa, and they do 70% to 80% of the work on land, they often have no say as to how the produce should be used, except what is consumed by the family. Surplus money accruing from their labor is controlled by men who are seen as the heads of households.

• Inheritance of land: most women are uninformed about their rights, because of low education levels, and even when they know, they are reluctant to insist on them because of cultural taboos associated with such independence.

• Conflict resolution: if women want to challenge male relatives, for example widows, they have to depend on local councils made up almost entirely of men, who will more often than not, be sympathetic to their male friends. They may not have the kind of money required by modern courts, so they end up giving up the fight.

• Human rights violation: most men do not think of women as full humans, but rather as part of their property, for example in polygamous marriages the more wives the more prosperous a man is thought to be. Consequently, the land rights do not apply to women, even when they are the heads of households, as widows, divorcees or as second or third wives. Moreover, many traditional marriages are not recognized as statutory and the women do not qualify even as wives.

• Religious views about women: Traditional, Muslim and Christian men all take advantage of the existing systems to exploit women for fear that if women become economically independent, they will lose their authority. For example, although Sharia law does say that women should inherit half of what their male counterparts get, they usually side with tradition that denies women any inheritance.

What Does the Future Hold?

The case of Ethiopia is perhaps a pre-taste of what is to come. The two workshops reported came to the conclusion that there was need to “systematize advocacy” through: identifying issues, developing solutions, building political will, negotiating change and evaluating the process and results of the negotiation. (Wanyeki 2003: 333). This process will only be possible with the help of the international community and in the interest of human rights.

In Uganda another factor is affecting tradition as it has always existed:

Whereas the justification for giving daughters smaller shares than sons of parental estates was that girls were likely to get additional shares from their marriages, some parents had a contrary argument. They contended that it was easier for sons to acquire property and that this could not be said of daughters who faced many constraints and had fewer opportunities to accumulate property.

To some extent, daughters are gaining recognition as useful members of families. They are given “rewards” for faithfully caring for their parents or for being able to complement family needs through labor and money. Their usefulness is compared to that of sons and male heirs who are viewed as irresponsible and opportunistic . . . for selling all the land bequeathed to them. . . . Increasingly, parents are also giving their daughters shares of their estates on grounds of marriage becoming unstable. (Wanyeki 2003: 251-2)

A final trend already visible in Rwanda is the fact that land will become so scarce that it will stop being a women’s issue, but a human issue, since even some men will not be able to own land. Moreover, it is a fact that there are many women and child- headed households among the returning refugees and those most affected by HIV/AIDS epidemic. “According to the 1996 socio-demographic study, 34 percent of households nationwide are female headed, . . . and in Butare prefecture this rises to 43 per cent.” (ONAPO 1998: 44). If all these factors continue to be ignored, sooner or later there will be a crisis that will force everyone concerned to look for solutions to one of the worst violations of human rights that continues to oppress women in the whole of Africa.

Citation Format:

Mary Nyambura Muchiri. “Review: Women and Land in Africa: Culture, Religion and realizing Women,” JENDA: A Journal of Culture and African Women Studies: Issue 7, 2005.

Copyright © 2005 Africa Resource Center, Inc.