The Role of Traditional Leaders in Promoting Womens Ownership of Land in Mansa District, Zambia

Abstract

Women across the continent of Africa and Zambia in particular continue to face various challenges and one of the topical issues is land ownership. Despite their major contribution to food security and economic growth, they remain landless. Traditional leaders as custodians of customary land have a role to play in women’s ownership of land in Mansa District. The purpose of this study anchors on seeking gender equality in land distribution of land and recognise women as equal partners in development and governance of the country. The study was informed by liberal theoretical framework which takes women’s lived experiences as the point of analysis and seeks gender equality of both sexes in the public spheres. In sampling participants purposive and snowballing sampling methods were instrumental and the choice of participants and location was informed variations in knowledge, experiences, and participants in understanding the socially constructed nature of the women’s reality in land ownership. In gathering data, 8 focus group discussions were held, 3 key informants were interviewed and 4 in-depth interviews were conducted. This primary data formed the basis for answering research question, data analysis, conclusion and recommendation. The findings revealed that women’s experiences across the chiefdom were relative in land ownership. The low levels of education, sensitization and strong cultural presence continue to render women landless. Most female participants strongly indicated to be culturally oppressed and oblivious of their land rights than men. Although most women from the urban chiefdoms exhibited high levels of awareness than those in rural chiefdom, majority of them did not register to have full ownership of land. Chiefs, the findings revealed, have put across various mechanism in advancing women’s land rights such as, issuance of certificate of ownership among others. From the findings, it was however concluded that women are still ignorant of their land rights and due to strong cultural presence, patriarchy nature of this matrilineal chiefdoms, and resource scarcity limits the full implementation of Chief’s mechanism to advance their ownership of land. Additionally, these mechanisms are not enough and lack enforcement which equally and consequentially continues to render women landless, passive and subordinate in land ownership. Data analysis resulted in the recommendations that largely call upon traditional leaders to scale up and expedite their work as well as change the way customary land is governed so that women equally benefits from land distribution.