Maasai women fight for the right to own land

What you need to know:

Many people have grievances in the villaeg. It was after all an opportunity not to be missed since the International Centre for Research on Women was touring two villages in Simanjiro. They had with them guests from cities — journalists.

Simanjiro. About 130 km from Arusha off the Simanjiro plains, lies Sukuro Village where many residents are Maasai.

Many people have grievances in the villaeg. It was after all an opportunity not to be missed since the International Centre for Research on Women was touring two villages in Simanjiro. They had with them guests from cities — journalists.

The women spoke hesitantly to the guests, and then delivered their point, sometimes falteringly, but in the end, often with a sense of triumph. They all had pertinent concerns.

They had for years been hearing about land rights on radio, but they have never seen its impact in their lives. Actually they believe land rights are special for urban women.

The oldest woman sitting next to me was among many women who had been discriminated against. She wears three or four cotton sheets, commonly known as Maasai sheets. A scarf on her head shades her opaque almond-shaped eyes as she sits with her head resting on her hands, hard-skinned, feet moving in and out of torn plastic flip-flops.

The 45-year-old widow, Sion Mereldei, had never owned land of her own.

Even as the village council gave Ms Mereldei a plot together with a letter showing ownership, a man invaded it claiming that customs never allow women to own land.

“After my husband passed away more than 10 years ago, I had nowhere to go with my seven children. I suffered a lot. Fortunately, the village council decided to give me land which, however, was grabbed by a man who refused to give it back to me simply because I am a woman,” said Ms Mereldei.

Despite the fact that she reported about it to the village leaders, the man refused to give back her land.

“I had to leave the land for him. But I am glad that the village allocated me another stretch of land where I am currently living. I wish I owned a title deed. Having it would have assured me of safety, for I can use it to appeal if something similar occurred in future. Currently, I am not sure whether another man will come to grab my land. If he comes I don’t have anything to prove that the land belongs to me,” she said.

Out of 7,200 women at Sukuro Village, only one owns a customary title deed. All other women in the village have no title deeds.

It was revealed that one is required to have at least Sh300,000 ($182) to own the proprietorship paper. The huge amount makes it impossible for Maasai women to obtain them as they have no source of a reliable income.

They never own livestock or land which they could sell to obtain funds to purchase the title deed.

Village executive officer Omar Hashim, told us that customs restrict women from owning livestock or land. What a woman owns is milk obtained from cows.

It was revealed that even as local leaders struggle to change outdated customs, the challenge remains the lack of working tools.

“We have no single motor vehicle, not even a motor bike that can enable us to move from one hamlet to another to create awareness on the importance of allowing women to own land,” said Mr Hashim.

Mr Hashim said his office was striving to help women acquire land; another challenge remains high fees charged to obtain the title deed.

“We would like the government to reduce the cost of acquiring a title deed so as to enable poor women to access them.”

Even as village leaders have initiated a programme to assist women to own land by providing them with a land recognition letter, still some of their husbands take away the granted land.

According to Mr Hashim, having a title deed is the only way to help women against land discrimination.

“It is better to state clearly in the Constitution that women must be allowed to own land. The Constitution must be specific on women’s land rights. ”

Women in the village believe that the few changes that have led to some women being granted village recognition and land ownership letters became possible because the executive officer comes from another clan.

Thirteen women were interviewed whereby all of them revealed that they see the importance of owning land as it will, among the things, help them act as collateral when looking for loans.

“I wish I could get my own land. Currently, I depend on my husband for everything. I don’t own even a goat. When I need some cash I have to tell my husband. He may give me or not. My life is tough and I am very poor as you can see,” said another woman, Penina Edward.

With the assistance of the Ujamaa Community Resource Team a private organisation that helps women in Simanjiro – Sukuro women formed a Women’s Rights and Leadership Forum in 2005 to help advocate for women rights. Despite having such a forum, still men are refusing to let women own land.

Ms Margaret Moisari, 55, said she has been hearing about land rights on radio, but she has never seen the impact on rural women.

“The government is helping women in urban areas. No one takes rural women highly. We have never seen a national leader visiting us for years now; we are suffering alone and we have no one to run to. Even women rights organisations are based in urban areas, without the help of the resource team we could have been in a terrible situation.”

Another visited village was Kitiangare. Though a smaller centre than Sukuro, its main economic activity is as well livestock keeping.

Kitiangare appears to suffer the same fate, although there was a new alignment in its case.

Village executive officer Jacob Lendee, told the delegation that Kitiangare is a new village, just four years old, and that is why it doesn’t have any statistics.

“I don’t have the total number of people in this village, for that matter I have no statistics on the number of women who own land,” said Mr Lendee.

Mr Lendee together with the village chairman Joseph Lekele seemed not to mind the issue of women’s land rights.

“We are yet to allocate any land to women. As you can see the village is still very young. We may consider doing so in the future,” said Mr Lekele.

The leaders, however, cautioned that next time such a delegation visited the village they must go with more serious issues that will leave benefits to at least 10 people.

“We are wondering how a group of people can spend so much fuel, time and money to hire a car just to come and talk about women land rights. I urge you that next time you come you must come with many issues that can benefit at least 10 people,” said one of the leaders.

However, speaking to women in the village it was established that they suffer the same problems as their counterparts in Sukuro.

Comments from lawyers

Ms Faudhia Yassin, an advocate with the Women’s Legal Aid Centre, urges that to ensure women land ownership rights are observed, the draft constitution must state clearly that “every woman has the right to own land”.

Ms Yasin said: “The constitution must protect women on land rights; the mother law must say clearly and openly that women have the right to own land.”

Tanzania law state generally that every person has the right to own land and be protected.

by the laws of the country.

“Even the draft constitution is too general. It doesn’t mention a woman direct. I urge that the constitution must be specific and state clearly that women have right to land ownership.”

According to Ms Yassin, discrimination denies small-scale female farmers the same access men have to fertiliser, seeds, credit, membership in cooperatives and unions, and technical assistance.

“Women very often have very limited rights even to the land they farm. If you make an observation you will notice that societies which denies women right to own land have high number of malnourished children, such a society will be facing regular food shortage.”

Pastoral Women Council (PWC) legal officer Melau Alais, who is based in Loliondo, asked the government and Tanzanians at large to remove all discriminatory provisions in the law and state openly in the constitution that women have the right to own land.

“Mentioning direct will help overcome discrimination among women hence accelerate the achievement of gender equality in the country,” said Mr Alais.

The legal officer also urges the government to increase rural women´s access to education and economic opportunities, which will allow them to increase their productivity and their substantial contribution to food security.