Fighting culture to end land grabbing

As the remains of her husband were lowered down into the grave on August 19 2008, so ended the peace of mind Justina Banda had enjoyed when he was alive.

Now Banda of Ulaya Village, T/A Khosolo in Mzimba, has a spiteful eye on her in-laws who took away her four-acre piece of land which, she thought she would depend on with her three children.

As if that were not enough, the husband’s family continuously threaten to evict her from her marital home.

“One day they came at night to remove iron sheets from my house and evict me from my home. Fortunately, the chief ruled in my favour after I reported the matter.

“But this has not stopped them from insulting and threatening me. The only offence I have committed, they say, is that I am a mtengwa, meaning that I have no share in the deceased estate.

“This has robbed me of my peace and happiness. I lost my parents so I have nowhere to go as the land that my parents owned was shared among my brothers,” she explains.

While Banda and her children are living with the pain of losing the head of their house, Chrissy Kanyinji from Kalemba Village in the same district is suffering from effects of divorce.

She had been married for 17 years.

“We divorced because he wanted to marry another woman. But I left without any property and at my parents’ home there is no share of land for me,” she says.

Mzimba is known for its patriarchal system, where men only are given power and importance. Because of this tradition, women do not usually get a share of land from their clan. Even when chiefs distribute land to people, women are not considered.

“This tradition needs to be abandoned because it is promoting violence against women. Many women here are abused for cultivating on land which is perceived to belong to men. We want land to be distributed both to men and women,” says Khosolo Women Forum chairperson Margaret Nyirenda.

However, Mzimba Heritage Association general secretary Aupson Thole says people who grab deceased property, including land, should not hide behind culture.

“Instances where in-laws claim deceased land should be understood as property grabbing, and such people should be punished. The Ngoni culture does not discriminate against women on issues of land. Every woman gets a share of land from the husband she marries,” he says.

T/A Khosolo, while stressing the point that the Ngoni culture does not condone property grabbing, concedes that this could be rampant in his area because of mixed cultures.

“My area shares boundaries with other districts such as Nkhotakota and Kasungu. It’s possible that this could be happening here,” he says.

ActionAid women’s rights manager Wezi Moyo says the Constitution has given equal rights and the freedom to own land to both men and women.

“If cultural beliefs come in the way of a woman’s right to land, then it is her responsibility to report this,” she says.

M’mbelwa district commissioner (DC) the Reverend Moses Chimphepo advises that women should follow proper procedures when marrying.

“Otherwise, the rules of inheritance stipulate that the property is for the wife and children in the event that the husband dies. When the wife wants to remarry, the property will be left for the children,” says the DC.

Noticing the challenges women face in the district, ActionAid International Malawi, a global anti-poverty agency, is training women using a system known as Regenerated Freirian Literacy through Empowering Community Technique (Reflect) to help them know and claim their rights.

“Reflect is a methodology that aims at empowering people to identify their problems and find solutions under the guidance of the laws that stipulate their rights,” says ActionAid Khosolo Local Rights programme officer Wongani Mugaba.

Maybe one day, the knowledge gained from Reflect will help the likes of Banda and Kanyinji to claim their right, thereby granting them peace of mind.