Land rights education empowers Kisarawe women

06 April 2010, Tanzania Daily News
URL: http://allafrica.com/stories/201004010821.html

Dar Es Salaam:  There is a significant sense of change among women's lives in Kisarawe following public education on their land rights, saving them from cultures and traditions which had confined them to the fence of family property.

Findings from this oldest district of 100 years with 76 villages and 15 wards revealed an unfolding impact of public education on the lives of mothers who had suffered for years under disguises of culture and traditions whose character of succession were discriminatory against women.

The 'Daily News' pitched camp for two days in this district of 100,000 people to find out if local authorities are conforming to the principle equality between women and men under the watch of different village councils.

Innitially, significantly visible cases in the area highlighted majority women as traditionally disadvantaged sections of the coastal region who were being denied their fundamental rights to own land.

Replicated across both rural and semi rural parts of the country even after the passing of the 1999 Land Act, the land traditional framework was of a patriarchal nature intended to maintain the male dominance over women in land resource control and utilization.

Further enquiries, this week, across villages revealed scores of widows laying bare their ordeals of the time in the past when men and women were not entitled to equal rights to land and other land-based resources during marriage, dissolution and death of their spouses.

Women in the age group of 40 to 60 , who had suffered discrimination in inheritance of family property for decades, are now able to use the information empowerment about their rights to save their colleagues who face the ruthlessness of their in-laws over land when their husbands dies

Among them, one Grace Wawa,58,a resident of Marambo village, who lost her husband in 1992 and had her property confiscated by in-laws said many widows were initially wallowing in poverty and became destitute, as they had for a long time been culturally prohibited from inheriting this critical factor of production and source of wealth.

Others told of their experiences, having lost their husbands in 1980s, 1990s and were subsequently exposed to confiscation of property, including land by their in-laws, living them at the edge of whether to return to their parents homes regions away or at anyone's mercy.

"In many of our traditional settings, we were basically labourers who were not expected to lay any claim to property rights. In the long term, as it has shown for many of us clocking 60 years, the woman suffers marginalisation."she said while resting her small frame on the table.

"Interestingly, she adds, land activity was largely our preserve, the womenfolk,yet the rights to it were none of our business",said Wawa

Fifty eight year old Wawa, who has used her knowledge to form groups of hundreds of women across the area, said public education by village councils and civil society has enlightened hundreds of her folk. "Affected women had no where to run to those days as they suffered in silence for donkey years."she said melancholically.

The education from the government, local civil society as Development Concern(DECO) and Legal and Human rights Center seeking to reinforce women's rights to inheritance and acquisition of family land, started in the area three years ago.

"The campaigns are carried out to "encourage the abandonment of cultural practices that bar women from inheriting land" and to encourages citizens to write wills with the aim of averting conflicts over inheritance." said the Community Development Officer at ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children, Ms Grace Mbwilo

"It is that sense of freshness but the government and civil society still has to do more. Because with it, our society can begin to start seeing women not as passive actors, but those who can contribute immensely to economic growth by owning and controlling how this important asset is used. "she said

The land law, they said, had helped them spell out a clear system and offices where people now go to have their land disputes solved, at village council levels.

The Community Development Officer at ministry of Community Development, Gender and Children, Ms Grace Mbwilo said the radical move, which was initially facing resistance by forces supportive of cultures and traditions had confined women to the fence of family property, had gradually received acceptance as more women armed themselves with information on what their land rights are and where they can report in case of difficulties.

"We have to right the cultural and social economic wrongs that hinder the economic progress of women and other traditional disadvantaged groups, in all rural Tanzania",she said

Land rights issues which were initially seen to be putting tradition and modernity in a confrontation is currently gaining approval on either side as girls are viewed as stakeholders of their family land.

Early marriage for women,she noted, was an issue the government was confronting with the view to empower the female child in that respect as well.

"That low social and educational status of women in some societies prevent them from taking decision on their direction at given points in time, which in more cases than one, perpetuates them in poverty."said the ministry official.

This was eloquently put by the Executive director of a civil group in the area, Development Concern, Mr Robert Nyampiga that "the struggle for rights to land is bigger than the struggle to alleviate poverty."

He described the developments as "historic and important" and congratulated the village councils for fronting the cause that ensures equal rights to land for both men and women." He said that through out the country, women are reputed to produce at least 80 percent of the country's food and with at least 90 percent of their labour being channeled towards food production and processing.

The United Population Fund Programme Officer Ms Anna Holmstom said the principle of equality on assets such as land still needed further pushing to save mothers from ruthless handling when their spouses passed on.

Disturbing facts in the past were paying a grim picture of Tanzanian women only holding slightly over one per cent of land titles yet they form over 80 per cent of the workforce in the agricultural sector.

However, with such existing land law arrangement, it is now difficult for a man to sell or mortgage family land without the consent of his wife.

To protect the rights of women, the government passed a Land Act 1999, creating room for joint or spousal registration and documentation of land rights.

Before selling such land, the seller is required to produce evidence-spousal consent- that the decision had been agreed upon by his or her partner.

Traditions, customs and practices which discriminate women in matters of access, use and ownership of land have been outlawed by by the Land Act and this is evidently largely being implemented in Kisarawe, according to random surveys by Daily News.

In a country of 40 million people where poverty still largely has a female face-, measurably much still has to be done in many parts, where women are unable to own or inherit land due to restrictive practices under customary tenure, despite the presence of a binding legal framework.