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Sub-Saharan African women need economic empowerment in order to own land, states gender and society researcher

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Across sub-Saharan Africa, customary law is hindering efforts to reform land tenure and increase women’s access to and ownership of land.

Uganda’s constitution grants women equality and legal protection against discriminatory traditional practice, but there have been no reforms to the law and the constitutional provision has had little impact.

Despite the fact that women form the majority of subsistence farmers in Africa, and play a critical role in food security, they typically have limited control over land.

“Far fewer women own land than men,” says Fatou Diop Sall, the coordinator of a research project on gender and society at the University of Gaston Berger in Senegal,

“And often [women] have access to land only through male family members, marking them as dependent mothers, wives or daughters. In cases where couples divorce, or a man dies, women often run the risk of losing their entitlement to land.”

Sall says Senegalese law stipulates that men and women have equal access to land. But just as in Uganda, the reality on the ground is markedly different.

Regina Namukasa, a resident of Uganda’s Luwero district, fell victim to such discriminatory practices. After the death of both her husband and father, Regina was denied rights to their estates and evicted by her own family.

“It’s because of culture which dictates that girls are worthless and should get their share where they get married,” Namukasa told IPS.

She has turned to the courts to defend her rights and stands as a defiant exception to the rule in Uganda and elsewhere.

“I will not rest until I get my share, in fact even your very own brother can deny you a share because a girl should not not inherit property this is unfair,” she says.

To read the full story visit allAfrica.

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