In 2008, the Centre for Widows and Children Assistance (CWCA) in Tanzania received a grant of US$10, 000 from AWDF. This grant enabled the group to do training on women’s land rights for local government leaders, widows and youth in Kisarawe district
Discrimination against women through customary law prevails in Tanzania, particularly in the regions where land is fertile, productive, and a scarce commodity. Since land in the areas of Kilimanjaro, Kagera, Mara, Dodoma, and Iringa is a highly valued resource (because of cash crop production) it remains under male control and is distributed through patrilineal inheritance practices.
In general, customary law prohibits women’s land ownership or entitlement, but allows them to work on the land, provided they give all profits to their husbands. CWCA Executive Director Utti A. Mwang’amba noted that when the one-year training programme funded by AWDF started, there were only four women representatives in the 7 village land councils in the pilot villages. That situation has now changed and all the 7 village land councils have a minimum of 3 women representatives as required by the law. In areas like Kibuta, women now chair these councils. Currently, women chair three out of seven village land councils.
Presently, men are unable to sell a plot of land without the consent of their wives. A 70-year-old woman won a land dispute case at the high court even though she lacked legal representation. CWCA provided coaching to her on how to present her case in the court. The copy of the court ruling was provided as evidence and a copy was given to the AWDF monitoring and evaluation team. [1]
AWDF’s grant to CWCA enabled the organization to attract more donors including the KIOS Foundation, which meant that the legal education program could be extended to cover ten wards in the country. Additionally, the Foundation for Civil Society in Tanzania provided funding to develop a manual of Statues/Acts in the local language to be used by the village land councilss to enable them understand the law and make good judgments.
CWCA also benefited from a consultancy contract from Concerned Worldwide to train ward tribunals in three districts. In all 721 were trained in women’s land rights. This also led to some women legalizing their marriages as it has an impact on the sharing and owning of property. Documents available also indicate that most women are now able to speak publicly and participate actively in their communities.
Through AWDF’s support the organization has also trained 60 local government leaders, women, youth, representatives of disability and HIV&AIDS groups from Kisarawe district. The training focused on issues of application of customary rights of orphans and land dispute machinery (composition of courts dealing with land issues). The training sought to enlighten the trainees on the procedures for hearing of cases, making judgments and record keeping.
By: Ewurama Nyarkoh
Communications Intern
[1] In the high court of Tanzania land division at Dar es Salaam. Misc. land appeal number 57 of 2007.
The article by E.Nyarkoh on the activities of CWCA of Tanzania, though summarised made good reading. It also brought out, one of the common problems that women in Africa are passing through. The article indeed shows that with a little financial effort, women can challenge discrminatory tendercies that is found at all leveles. Am quiety impressed that a 70 year old woman (widow) can face ‘the learned’ and win the cae in the High Court. It is a job well done.
The problems in Tanzania are similar to Zambia where widows, by law (Intestate Succession Act) can not inherit or lay a claim on traditional land. Meanwhile 95 percent of land in Zambia is customary. And so….widows have nothing to inherit…..But as I said with a little financial effort, more women will have access, control and use of land.
Bravo CWCA, great intervention towards the plight of women on the African continent. I hope the institution can secure more funding to scale up such initiatives in other parts of the country.
The land problem notwithstanding, there are lotsof other abuses against women and girls that need redress. Women are more than marginalized in almost all spheres of life in Africa. In rural Uganda for example, land inheritance by women and/or girls is a ‘taboo’. Widow expulsion upon the demise of the husband continue unabated.
All these forms of violence against women need civil society to rise up and conduct community sensitization campaigns and dialogues in addition to capacity building geared towards creating empowerment for women and girls.
I wish to thank AWDF for the support ….
Arnold
Better HAG Uganda