Women Law and Power

Makanatsa Makonese

Description

Without adequate protection and consideration from the state, women were left out of Zimbabwe's Fast Land Reform Programme at the turn of the century. Leaving them to fight for land in a murky, convoluted system will not address women's rights to it. Giving specific ethical and legal attention to women's rights and needs is the only way to guard against land and other resources begin co-opted by the privileged and those with the requisite social, financial and political capital.
Some commentators have argued that Zimbabwean women were better off identifying with Zimbabwean men as as blacks in taking land from the former white farmers than to concentrate on their needs as women during the FTLRP. The primary battle was to take the land from the white farmer, after which a secondary battle by women to take land from men would ensue. Twenty years after the commencement of the FTLRP, the question remains whether the secondary battle by black women to take over land from black men has started and whether there are any chances that such a battle will ever be fought and won.

Informations

• Publié par: Weaver Press
• Date de parution: 25 juin 2021
• Nombre de lectures: 1
• EAN13: 9781779223975
• Langue: English
• Poids de l'ouvrage: 1 Mo

Extrait

Women, Law and Power:
Perspectives from Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Programme
Women, Law and Power:
Perspectives from Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Programme
Makanatsa Makonese
Published by Weaver Press, Box A1922, Avondale, Harare, Zimbabwe, 2021 < www.weaverpresszimbabwe.com > and Southern & Eastern African Regional Centre for Women’s Law (SEARCWL) Harare, Zimbabwe, 2021
© Makanatsa Makonese and SEARCWL, 2021
Publishing management: Weaver Press Cover Design: Farai Wallace Cover Photograph: by kind courtesy of Bio-Innovation Zimbabwe Printed by: Directory Publishers, Bulawayo
The publishers would like to express their gratitude to SEARCWL for their support in the development of this text.
All rights reserved. No part of the publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system or transmitted in any form by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise – without the express written permission of the publisher.
ISBN: 978-1-77922-396-8 (p/b) ISBN: 978-1-77922-397-5 (ePub) ISBN: 978-1-77922-398-2 (PDF)
Contents
Notes on the author
Acknowledgements
Preface
1. Introduction
2. Zimbabwe’s Land Policy, Law and Institutional Framework: From Colonialism to 2020
3. Women’s Land Rights as a Human Right
4. Impact of Violence on Women’s Rights to Access Land under the Fast Track Land Reform Programme
5. Power and Law at Family, Local and National Levels 76
6. Women, Power and Decision-Making for Access to and Control over Land
7. Conclusion
8. Bibliography
The Author
Makanatsa Makonese (née Nhengu) was born in Chivi District, Masvingo Province in 1974. She attended St Simon Zhara Primary School, Zimuto Secondary School and St David’s Bonda Girls’ High School for her primary and secondary education. She obtained a Bachelor of Laws Honours (LLBS) Degree from the University of Zimbabwe in 1997 and a Masters’ Degree in Women’s Law from the same university in 2008. Makanatsa holds a PhD in Law from the University of Zimbabwe’s Southern and Eastern African Regional Centre for Women’s Law, with a focus on women’s law, land rights and international human rights law. Her research interests are in the areas of women’s law, land law, environmental law, constitutional law and human rights law.
She has worked as the Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the Zimbabwe Human Rights Commission, Executive Secretary/Chief Executive Officer of the SADC Lawyers Association (Botswana and South Africa), a Senior Environmental Lawyer and Gender Programme Coordinator for the Zimbabwe Environmental Law Association, an Advocacy Officer for the Child Protection Society in Zimbabwe and as a Magistrate in Zimbabwe.
Makanatsa is currently the Deputy Chief of Party for the American Bar Association-Advancing Rights in Southern Africa Programme based in Johannesburg, South Africa. She has also worked with United Nations entities in Botswana, Zimbabwe and Uganda in developing national frameworks for the promotion and protection of women and girls’ rights and the promotion of gender equality.
Makanatsa is married to Stanley and they have three children, Mufaro, Ruvarashe and Farirai.
North-South Legal Perspectives Series
Professor Julie Stewart, Professor Anne Hellum and Professor
Patricia Kameri-Mbote (eds)
No. 1 Pursuing grounded theory in law: South-North experiences in developing women’s law (1998). Agnete Weis Bentzon, Anne Hellum, Julie E. Stewart, Welshman Ncube and Torben Agersnap. Mond Books/TANAschehoug.
No. 2 Women’s human rights and legal pluralism in Africa: Mixed norms and identities in infertility management in Zimbabwe (1999). Anne Hellum. Mond Books/TANO Aschehoug.
No. 3 Taking law to the people: Gender, law reform and community legal education in Zimbabwe (2003). Amy Shupikai Tsanga. Weaver Press.
No. 4 Human rights, plural legalities and gendered realities: Paths are made by walking (2007). Anne Hellum, Julie Stewart, Shaheen Sardar Ali and Amy Tsanga. Weaver Press.
No. 5 Women & Law: Innovative approaches to teaching, research and analysis (2011). Amy S. Tsanga and Julie E. Stewart (eds). Weaver Press.
No. 6 Water is Life: Women’s human rights in national and local water governance in Southern and Eastern Africa (2015) Anne Hellum, Patricia Kameri-Mbote, Barbara van Koppen, et al. Published by Weaver Press in association with: Southern and Eastern African Regional Centre for Women’s Law (SEARCWL) at the University of Zimbabwe and the Institute of Women’s Law, Child Law and Discrimination Law, Department of Public and International Law at the University of Oslo.
No. 7 Women, Law and Power: Perspectives from Zimbabwe’s Fast Track Land Reform Programme (2021). Makanatsa Makonese. Weaver Press in association with Southern and Eastern African Regional Centre for Women’s Law (SEARCWL) at the University of Zimbabwe and the Department of Public and International Law at the University of Oslo
Herewith the presentation of the Series at UiO webpage.
https://www.jus.uio.no/ior/forskning/omrader/kvinnerett/publikasjoner/north-southlegal-perspectives-series/north-south-legal-perspectives-series.html
Acknowledgements
This book is the culmination of many years of my proud academic association with the Southern and Eastern African Regional Centre for Women’s Law (SEARCWL) at the Faculty of Law, University of Zimbabwe. These years, and this book, would not have been possible without the guidance and support of Professors Julie Stewart, the Director of SEARCWL and Anne Hellum, Director of the Institute of Women’s Law (University of Oslo). Thank you for holding my hand through my Masters’ and PhD studies, for guiding the writing and publication of this book and for so generously reading the many drafts that I dropped before you on this journey. I would also like to thank Professor Patricia Kameri-Mbote, of the University of Nairobi, Faculty of Law for reading the final manuscript and for your constructive comments which encouraged me to think beyond the obvious.
I have lived a privileged life of being raised by two exceptional mothers; Betty Takaidza and Felistas Dzidzai Nhengu. Thank you for unreservedly believing in me and for telling everyone who cared to listen how proud you were of me. Your encouragement and love throughout my life gave me the drive to work hard and to push many boundaries.
My husband Stanley and my children Mufaro, Ruvarashe and Farirai, thank you for being my everyday cheerleading team, for the wonderful fun-filled days we have shared in our home and for holding me close when the going got tough. Thank you for giving me the space to read and write and for pulling me from my desk for a drive to the mall or a stroll on the streets of La Montagne to give me time to rest.
My late sister Rudo Belinda, I am certain that you are smiling from heaven, and pleased to see this book finally published. You were always such an inspiration, and you never hid the fact that you were proud of me as your big sister. The heavenly cheerleading team is getting bigger everyday with you, amai , baba and our brothers Munyenyiwa, Hokoyo and Thompson, applauding from beyond the clouds.
To my young sisters Sekai and Harugumi, my older sisters Ottilia and Bessie and my brothers Julius and Collins, thank you for being there for me and for reminding me every time that “tiri vana vaTicha Nhengu” (we are the children of Teacher Nhengu). Mai Tafadzwa and Mai Hesed, thank you for being part of this winning team.
My nieces and nephews, thank you for being my friends and for your interest in my work. This has kept me on my toes, knowing that there is such a huge squad expecting results from me.
To the Fabulous 40s, thank you for laughing with me, for crying with me and for keeping me sane as I juggled numerous assignments and the vagaries of life.
Last but not least, I am grateful to Irene Staunton and her team at Weaver Press, for painstakingly editing the manuscript and for the brilliant final product.
‘Men should think twice before making widowhood women’s only path to power.’
Gloria Steinem
‘To my two mothers: Betty Takaidza and Felistas Dzidzai Nhengu.’
Preface
Growing up in my village, we had a very close relationship with the land and the natural resources found on it. I learnt to handle an ox-drawn plough before I was ten years old, to weed the fields and to harvest the crops, to guard the fields from the quelea birds and baboons and the occasional bush buck that would sneak in as soon as the round Bambara nut pods began to form. In good seasons, the time for zhezha 1 marked the peak of good nutrition in the village, with fresh food in abundance. After harvesting, we were assured of new clothes, school uniforms and shoes as proceeds from the sale of crops trickled into the household chest following delivery to the Grain Marketing Board (GMB). 2 Part of the money from the sale of crops was reserved for school fees and emergencies until the next harvest. In both the rainy and dry seasons, we picked seasonal wild fruits and gathered insects from the valleys and the mountains, which were a critical component of our daily nutritional allowance. We therefore always believed that as long as we had the land and the rivers, the grass and trees, the mountains and the anthills, we would always find something to eat.
By the time I was leaving the village for university in 1994, however, the land was showing signs of fatigue due to population increase, incessant drought and general environmental degradation. Instead of trees, there were bushes and shrubs, the rivers were silted and the wild animals that we once chased from the fields had become a rare sight. My male cousi