Women under presumption of marriage: a critical analysis of the law, practice and social implications of S. 160 of the law of marriage act NO. 5 of 1971

This study is based on the law pf marriage Act, NO.5 of 1971 on presumption of marriage. It examines the difficulties encountered by the courts in Tanzania regarding the interpretation and application of the law relating to section 160 of LMA. The study also looks into the society with a view to seeing the justification and applicability of section 160 of LMA. The problem has been to establish the legal intricacies underlying this type of marriage. Previous studies have shown lack of precise interpretation which has led to women and their children suffering from being kicked out of their homes, denial of matrimonial assets and in certain cases denial of inheritance. Through this research, it has also been proved that presumption of marriage is; this has resulted into the existence of two diverging is; this has resulted into the existence of two diverging interpretations. The first asserts that concubines regardless of how long they have lived together, can never become husband and wife without going through the ceremony and other formal procedures of a marriage. The other one puts it that, provided that a woman and a man have lived together for more than two years and have become reputable that they are husband and wife, then the law will take them as such without any forms and procedures. The second problem in this study is the difficulty for women to prove their legal position under section 160 of LMA. Thus, it has been suggested that Section 160 of the Law of Marriage Act of 1971 should be amended to accommodate the question of legal capacity to marry and to ensure that all rights of the woman and child in a presumption of marriage are safeguarded. This recommendation emanates from the observation that a significant percentage of Tanzanians today live butside legal marriage for reasons which range from economic to complexities of legal aspects relating to statutory marriage.