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Periodical article | Leiden University catalogue | WorldCat |
Title: | The AIDS Epidemic and Women's Land Rights in Tanzania |
Author: | Manji, Ambreena S. |
Year: | 1999 |
Periodical: | Recht in Afrika = Law in Africa = Droit en Afrique |
Issue: | 1 |
Pages: | 31-49 |
Language: | English |
Geographic term: | Tanzania |
Subjects: | customary law land law women law AIDS Law, Human Rights and Violence Health and Nutrition Peoples of Africa (Ethnic Groups) Law, Legal Issues, and Human Rights Health, Nutrition, and Medicine Cultural Roles agriculture |
Abstract: | Land is the single most important asset for women in Tanzania, as in other countries with substantial rural economies. This article deals with the relationship of Tanzanian women to land, drawing on field research in the Muleba district of Kagera and an investigation of cases involving land disputes in the courts. It traces the ways in which women are theoretically able to acquire land, the gap between theory and practice in women's access to land, and the constraints facing women in their ability to own, control and manage land. It notes that the current policy debates in Tanzania on land reform fail to confront the issue of women's land rights. It outlines the historical evolution of land tenure to show how the dominant interests of males came to deprive women of secure access to land. Women's current position of insecurity and dispossession and the need for women's land rights have been brought into sharp focus by AIDS, a 'widow-creating disease'. With few exceptions, widows are able to secure their futures only by reference to others, such as brothers-in-law or other members of the deceased husband's clan. A case for extending rights to land to women can be argued on the basis of welfare, efficiency, equality and empowerment. Notes, ref., sum. |