PhD Theses

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Browsing PhD Theses by Author "Koda, Bertha Omari"

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    The gender dimension of land rights in Tanzania: case study of Msindo village, Same District.
    (University of Dar es Salaam, 2000) Koda, Bertha Omari
    This study aimed at investigating women's land rights in contemporary land tenure systems pertaining to Same District, north-eastern Tanzania. The main assumptions were that the Wapare customary land tenure system accords unequal rights to women and men due to the household-based gender roles stereotyping as influenced by the marriage institution and that current land tenure reforms are increasing women's land tenure insecurity. Both qualitative and quantitative data were collected from primary and secondary sources, using PRA methods and structured interviews. A case study of Msindo Village located in Same district, Kilimanjaro region, north-eastern Tanzania was purposively selected and used as source of primary data A total of 69 households (15% of total households) and 139 respondents (5% of total village population) were randomly selected for in-depth interviewing. Life stories of one married woman and two widows were also collected as source of qualitative data. Quantitative data was analyzed into frequencies and cross tabulation (simple statistics) using the SPSS package while qualitative data was manually processed and interpreted in comparison with the study expectations. Results from this study point to the fact that although women in patrilineal Msindo Village enjoy more land tenure security than others through inheriting both clan and family land contrary to the customary land tenure injunctions on women's land rights, their land holding status is precariously threatened by contemporary agrarian reforms as influenced by the current Structural Adjustment Programmes. The study further testifies to the close relationship between marriage and women's land rights and confirms the assertion that the stereo-typing of gender roles is a major factor influencing women's land rights at household level. It further reveals that the flexible and openended arrangements of negotiation provided by the Wapare customary land tenure system and which are beneficial to women are increasingly being threatened by land privatization and commoditization. The study further verifies the assertion that the increase in the number of female and single parent headed households poses a challenge to both patriarchy and contemporary land tenure rules thus encouraging the evolution in land transfers away from the stereo-typical patriarchy-defined transfer procedures. The analytical framework of gender roles' stereo-typing used in this study has broadened the perspective of women's land rights in a pillage setting. More knowledge has also been generated on the conflict between customary patriarchy and capitalist patriarchy as well on the emerging effects of this conflict on women's and men's land rights. The major conclusion reached is that women's access to land ownership and control rights together with existing female - male solidarity on land matters threaten the very existence of the patriarchal system which supports the perpetuation of male dominance. Furthermore, the relatively gender sensitive intra-household redistribution of land and the encouraging new direction towards equal inheritance rights between daughters and sons are suggestive of the eventual creation of women's economic independence. This is despite the strengthening of individual landed property relations whose exploitative nature tend to maximize the functionality of capitalist patriarchy.