RELIGION BULLETIN-AFRICA: Culture and Religion Limit Women’s Access to Land

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Nana Rosine Ngangoue

ENTBE, Uganda, May 3 1998 (IPS) - Women’s access to land in most of Africa is blocked by obstacles linked to religious and cultural beliefs that even stymie non-discriminatory property legislation in those countries where such laws exist.

“Cultural and religious beliefs exercise significant dominance over state laws, rendering them inapplicable,” says Patrice Bigombe Logo, a researcher at the University of Yaounde II in Cameroon.

Uganda’s inheritance law, for example, states that all the children – male and female – of a deceased person must share 75 percent of the latter’s estate. When it comes to distributing the land, however, many families give priority to the sons, even in cases where they apply this provision. In other cases, people are unaware that the law exists and they apply customary law, which excludes women.

In Cameroon, too, women find it difficult to obtain land, according to Bigombe, who was one of the participants in an Apr. 24-25 conference here on ‘Women and Land in Africa’.

A study he co-authored on women and land in Cameroon found that while custmary law recognised and guaranteed women’s right to utilise land, it also enrenched barriers to their acquiring it.

“Women are kept out of land management because of the division of labour that exists in traditional societies,” the study found. “The men produce cash crops products such as coffee and cocoa…women specialise more in food crops.”

In most traditional societies in Africa, women do not have the right to inherit land, but only to use that of their husbands or families. Analysts point out that most forms of religion seem to work against the values of equity, justice and peace.

“They (religions) are often used to legitimate and condone many types of violence and inequalities, to justify the oppression of women, child abuse and the persecution of minorities and dissidents within the communities of believers,” argued Professor Abdullahi An-Na’im of Emory University, in the U.S. town of Atlanta, Georgia.

In Africa, traditional religions contribute to the restriction of women’s right to benefit fully from the land. In fact, such religions tend to be very rigid towards women, whom they require to be submissive to men, and where inheritance is concerned, they do not recognise women’s right to inheritance.

“Back home in Cote d’Ivoire, most of us are animists and according to our beliefs, women have no inheritance rights,” said Eugenie Odehouri, a teacher in the Ivoirian capital, Abidjan.

“In my case, I had to borrow my young brother’s name to inherit a field of limes when my father died. Had I not used that trick, I would not have gotten anything,” added Odehouri, who also participated in the conference, financed by the Ford Foundation.

She explained that, even when parents defied tradition and left a bit of land for their daughters, the latter often did not accept it “for fear of being bewitched by their uncles or aunts”. “Rural women are still under the influence of mystical beliefs which prevent them from blossoming and enjoying their rights,” she added.

On the other hand, a Muslim woman has a right to inherit land from her parents, according to the study on Cameroon co-authored by Bigombe. She gets half of what her male counterpart receives, the idea behind the disparity being that her husband provides for her.

However, according to Ibrahim Hamza, a researcher at the University of Sokoto in Nigeria, a Muslim women may not sell her land without the approval of her brother or husband.

In many societies, women who inherit or are given land to work usually do not have the right to grow cash crops such as cocoa, coffee and vanilla – which bring in much more money – on the land of their spouses or parents. Then again, husbands sometime sell the land without asking their wives’ opinion.

Cases where women buy land are rare, delegates heard at the conference. Participants argued that, inasmuch as tradition and religion block women’s access to land, they also need to be involved in any initiative aimed at change.

“Discrimination against women in the area of land rights can only be eliminated through a transformation process in which the individual African cultures and the guadians of these cultures participate in this change,” said Florence Butegwa of Associates for Change, a Ugandan non-governmental organisation.

Abdullahi agreed. He said that while religion can be a source of resistance and sometimes opposition to changes linked to a culture of human rights, its basic norms and legal structures can become a precious resource for cultural change that reinforces human rights.

The Entebbe Conference was held mainly to evaluate a project begun in 1996 by Emory University to explore the relations that exist between religion, law and human ights in he context of ultural transformation in Africa.

The project covers Cameroon, Ethiopia, Nigeria, Senegal and Uganda.