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Can the Law Secure Women's Rights to Land in Africa? Revisiting Tensions Between Culture and Land Commercialization

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  • Lyn Ossome

Abstract

This contribution is concerned with the challenges of securing women's rights to land in Africa in the context of contemporary land deals through a discussion of three distinct but interrelated problems in the framing of women's land rights discourses. First, this study discusses the interface between rights and "custom" to highlight the inherent distortions of African customary law. Second, it argues that liberal formulations of the law are limited by a set of assumptions regarding women's position in the political economy. And third, this discussion discursively assesses the debates in the literature regarding the efficacy of law in protecting women's rights to land. The discussion proceeds from a critique of two approaches to promoting gender equity in land tenure systems: the institutional approach, which deals with women's formal land rights; and the political economy approach, which deals with the structural nature of women's traditional relations to land.

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  • Lyn Ossome, 2014. "Can the Law Secure Women's Rights to Land in Africa? Revisiting Tensions Between Culture and Land Commercialization," Feminist Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 20(1), pages 155-177, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:femeco:v:20:y:2014:i:1:p:155-177
    DOI: 10.1080/13545701.2013.876506
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    References listed on IDEAS

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    1. World Bank, 2009. "Awakening Africa's Sleeping Giant : Prospects for Commercial Agriculture in the Guinea Savannah Zone and Beyond [Le réveil du géant assoupi : Perspectives de l’agriculture commerciale dans les sava," World Bank Publications - Books, The World Bank Group, number 2640.
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    1. Serene Ho & Valérie Pattyn & Bruno Broucker & Joep Crompvoets, 2018. "Needs Assessment in Land Administration: The Potential of the Nominal Group Technique," Land, MDPI, vol. 7(3), pages 1-16, July.
    2. Bahati, Ibrahim & Martiniello, Giuliano & Abebe, Gumataw Kifle, 2022. "The implications of sugarcane contract farming on land rights, labor, and food security in the Bunyoro sub-region, Uganda," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 122(C).
    3. Adams, Timothy & Gerber, Jean-David & Amacker, Michèle, 2019. "Constraints and opportunities in gender relations: Sugarcane outgrower schemes in Malawi," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 122(C), pages 282-294.
    4. Olivia Howland & Dan Brockington & Christine Noe, 2020. "Women’s Tears or Coffee Blight? Gender Dynamics and Livelihood Strategies in Contexts of Agricultural Transformation in Tanzania," Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South, vol. 9(2), pages 171-196, August.
    5. Joseph I. Uduji & Elda N. Okolo-Obasi, 2018. "Corporate Social Responsibility Initiatives in Nigeria and Rural Women Livestock Keepers in Oil Host Communities," Working Papers of the African Governance and Development Institute. 18/060, African Governance and Development Institute..
    6. Ghimire, Puspa Raj & Devkota, Niranjan & Marasini, Tek & Khanal, Ghanashyan & Deuja, Jagat & Khadka, Umesh, 2024. "Does joint land ownership empower rural women socio-economically? Evidence from Eastern Nepal," Land Use Policy, Elsevier, vol. 138(C).
    7. Lyn Ossome & Sirisha C. Naidu, 2021. "Does Land Still Matter? Gender and Land Reforms in Zimbabwe," Agrarian South: Journal of Political Economy, Centre for Agrarian Research and Education for South, vol. 10(2), pages 344-370, August.

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