Chiefs in Zambia´s Central Province commit themselves to give women better access to land

Women from more than 50 villages in Zambia’s Central Province gathered together last week to give a piece of their minds to their chiefs. Nervous but certain the women asked for better access to land.

Being cramped like sardines on the back of two vans racing through potholes and clouds of dust that leaves your throat felling like sandpaper is no big deal to the 42 women singing “Nkuyuma-yuma.”(You have to be strong). It´s going to take more than eating dust to demoralize them today. They would have gladly walked four hours home singing “Nkuyuma-yuma. Nkuyuma-yuma,” had the ride not been available.

 
The women are heading home to small nameless villages outside Kapiri Mposhi in Zambia's Central Province after giving a piece of their mind to their chief. This ordinary sunny but freezing Friday is extraordinary for this group of women for whom having an opportunity to express themselves in public is unusual, let alone doing it to their chief. The issues the women have come a long way to raise are to do with land: land which they work on and sweat for everyday, but which they have no power over or legal right.

Hear our cry
“We please urge the chief to hear our cry. Some of our men are not even involved in the hard work and farming of the land. It is us who work on the land. Yet when the crops are harvest and ready for sale they take everything. We are not consulted. We do not even see the money,” the head woman of the group tells the chief while kneeling down at his feet.
“When our husbands die, we are chased from our land even if we have been living on it and farming it for years. We are seeking your intervention to allow us to be part of the local leadership. Women need to be included on the land certificates, so we have right to the land we work and live on."

Surrounded by advisors and village Head Men, Chief Nkole hears the womens’ requests as they one by one kneel before him.
“I recognise that what you have come to tell me today is very important for the development of our communities. You work on the land and you should share ownership of the land with the men,” Chief Nkole told the women. Without making any promises, he committed himself to work for better access to land and land ownership for women in his communities.

Slow changes
Nchimunya Eric Chiyombwe, Davies Chafye and Mwamba Chanda are the men who made the visit to the chief’s palace possible. They are three out of the four coordinators responsible for implementing the Women Land Rights Project (WLRP), a project developed in partnership with ActionAid (previously MS Zambia) and its partners Zambia Land Alliance, Young Women in Action and Young Women Christian Association. The Women Land Rights Project was launched last year; its objective is to increase access and ownership to land for rural women in Zambia.

“We have organized a series of social dialog meetings between women from the communities we work in and their chiefs. The chiefs hold great power in rural areas. If we can involve chiefs in our work a lot can be achieved as the communities listen and rely on their traditional leaders and their guidance,” explains Davis Chafye who is the WRLP Central Province coordinator. “But it has been a long year, in which we have been banging our heads against the wall. Many of the chiefs we have tried to involve in the project do not believe that women should own land. I remember thinking last year that this project could not change anything. But after many lobby meetings we are slowly recording change in some traditional leaders’ mindsets.”

New land certificates
The previous day Davis Chafye and his colleagues also drove around with overcrowded cars through holes and dust. This time in Mkushi area where another group of 40 women met chiefs George and Joseph Musada from Chitina Chiefdom. The two chiefs are amongst those, who initially were critical of the project, but are now supportive and urge men to support women land rights.
“Please help us Chief. Make sure that we, the wives, are included when our husbands ask you for land, so we are able to take care of our children,” Christine Chitina pleaded to the chief.
Chief Joseph Musada surprised the women and the WLRP staff by presenting new land certificates, which recognize both husband and wife as owners of land.

“Everybody who wishes to change the old certificates, which only give ownership to men, can now do so,” said Chief Joseph Musada and continued: “The next step is to encourage the men in our communities to agree to share ownership of the land with their women.”

Chief Joseph Musada from Mkushi surprised the women and the WLRP staff by presenting new land certificates, which recognize both husband and wife as owners of land.

“It is a breakthrough. We are so thrilled that we have gotten through to some of the chiefs. We cannot change the practices that stand in the way of women access and right to land if the traditional leaders in the communities are not on board,” says Nchimunya Eric Chiyombwe, who is the National Coordinator of the Women and Land Rights Project.

After two intensive days in Zambia’s Central Province, Nchimunya Eric Chiyombwe, Davies Chafye and Mwamba Chanda are heading off to Southern Province where they have plan three new social dialogs between women’s groups and chiefs. Nchimunya Eric Chiyombwe explains that the next step in the WLRP is to train the women in advocacy so they themselves can lobby for their land rights and continue the WLRP activities themselves.