RIGHTS-AFRICA: Outdated Values Keep Rural Women Landless

By IPS Correspondents Reprint | | Print |

Adel Arab

DAKAR, Apr 15 2003 (IPS) - Despite the important role they play in agriculture and food production, rural African women can neither buy land nor inherit it because of ancient traditions perpetuated by men.

According to the UN Food and Agricultural Organisation (FAO), rural women produce 80 percent of sub-Saharan Africa’s food crops like maize, millet and rice. They also produce 90 percent of secondary crops such as legumes, which are important sources of high-quality nutrition.

Khady Sow from Kaymor, a village 30 kilometres from Senegal’s capital, Dakar, says women’s role is to carry out the wishes of the men. ”This state of affair has affected land ownership,” she says. ”Women face a lot of problems in getting land, even if it could be a source of income for them.”

Problems of land ownership exist virtually in every country on the continent. According to Ali Abdoulaye of Vie, a non-governmental organisation (NGO), just being a woman is a problem in rural Songhai-Zarma in Niger.

Abdoulaye says, according to traditions widely accepted in that region, women are ”by nature fragile, delicate, unsuited to rough work or hardships. They also do not possess the physical strength to stand up to adversity. Because of this, women cannot champion the cause of the society or the family. And, for this reason, land ownership or preservation can hardly be left to women in the society”.

In Senegal, the constitution approved in Jan 2001 guarantees both men and women equal rights in the possession of property. Similar laws exist in other African countries. But the level of awareness of these laws is low in rural areas due to lack of education, high illiteracy rates, and the burden of tradition.

”Women don’t know what the laws are at the national level,” said Ndeye Soukey Gueye, the director of the Credit for Women of Senegal at a workshop on ”Rural Women and Land" held at Thies, 70 kilometres from Dakar, recently.

Despite the problems they face, rural women are not discouraged. One who did succeed in asserting ownership over land is Therese Mbaye, 40, from the village of Fandieng, near Thies. After a long battle with one of her brothers, she became the owner of a two-hectare farm. ”What I managed to do was real accomplishment because in my village, women never inherit land,” she said, smiling.

Still Mbaye occasionally runs into problems that a man never would. ”Since I only have one farm, I have to diversify my crops. Every time I ask some farmers if I can rent a farm from them, they categorically refuse, either because they don’t trust me, or because they’re afraid or even jealous,” she said. ”As women, we don’t have access to good land or credit.”

Nevertheless, Mbaye is respected in her village. ”I’m not only building a future for my children, but I’m also fighting the rural exodus. If I didn’t have this piece of land, my children would have been forced to look for work in the city,” she said. ”Before I get old or leave this world, I’m going to divide my land equitably between my sons and daughters.”

Eliane Najvos of DIMITRA Project, which works closely with Enda Third World, says rights groups "are trying to make the contributions of rural women more visible, and make political decision-makers aware of their concerns.”

”Women need a place in the sphere of decision-making. Out of 32 rural council officials, only three are women, in Senegal,” says Tine Ndoye, president of the National Network of Rural Women of Senegal. ”Women should become more knowledgeable about land ownership issues so they can communicate better with politicians and decision-makers”.

But Mariam Sow of Enda Third World says ”it’s the decision-makers who need to come down to earth to understand the problems facing women”.

”The comprehensive approach we’ve opted for, uniting men and women around land issue, has begun to yield fruits", especially in the Niayes region, 40 kilometres from Dakar, where women are beginning to inherit land according to Islamic law.

”Women’s landowning strategies should be just one part of a more comprehensive plan to modernise the countryside and improve living conditions in Niayes,” suggests Jacques Faye, a sociologist, who is based in Dakar.