Swaziland women secure right of land ownership

It is hard to find a government policymaker or an official with a donor agency or social service non-government organisation who does not consider the empowerment of women as a condition for poverty alleviation in Swaziland. Just as steadfast are traditional authorities, such as the chiefs under whom 80 percent of the population live, who consider women's minority status not only sanctioned by custom and, they insist, Biblical passages, but essential to social order.

Suspicion of gender equality persists, despite the presence of two women cabinet ministers and a dual monarchical system that gives considerable power, such as the approval of cabinet ministers, to the Queen Mother.

Increasingly, Swazi women are testing the constraints of their legal and customary status in this conservative kingdom by seeking to own land. "Land ownership is the sine qua non of economic empowerment," says Gladys Dlamini, a businesswoman in the commercial town Manzini, Swaziland's largest population centre. "When a woman obtains title deed to a property, she is beyond the authority of oppressive husbands," Dlamini feels. "She has independence, which is precisely what terrifies the traditionalists in our patriarchal society."

Just how women may obtain land on which to build shops, cultivate crops, and construct workshops for the activities of women's co-operatives takes ingenuity when the laws are against women ownership of property. Some women who have been successful call it a cat and mouse game. "Women are legal minors in Swaziland," says Doo Mary-Joyce Aphane, the kingdom's National Co-ordinator for the women's legal advocacy group Women in Law of Southern Africa. "They cannot own land without the consent and co-operation of husbands or male family members, like adult male children. They cannot enter into contracts without the same male support. So, in effect, it is the men who own the land, even if the women buy it. The women cannot have their names registered as the owners of title deed. But there are ways around this."

Another attorney, Fikile Mthembu, former mayor of Manzini, says, "The law recognises land-holding corporations. These are registered with government, and are approved as long as the directors are Swazis. It is therefore not an individual who owns a piece of land; the legal entity is the corporation."

The most common way of obtaining land in Swaziland is through the Kukhonta system, whereby the male head of a household pledges allegiance to one of 350 palace-appointed chiefs. In return, he is given a piece of land to build homestead structures, a field to cultivate crops, and free grazing land for cattle. Four out of five Swazi families live under this latter day feudal system. Until recently, women were not permitted to undergo the Kukhonta rituals, and receive Swazi Nation Land. By custom, when a husband dies, his property is taken over by his brother. Women in Law has many cases of women who are thrown out of their homes when relatives assume ownership.

But some chiefs are permitting women to settle in their areas, without husbands, as part of economic co-operatives. Chief Malunge of Nyangeni, in central Swaziland, says, "Joblessness in the rural areas is a critical problem. The days when families can subsist on a small maize crop are over. There are school fees to pay for children, medical bills, bus fares, everything. We have no large-scale agriculture or industry to give jobs in the countryside, but these new co-operatives are providing revenue."

Malunge recently granted three hectares of land to a group of 30 women to raise tomatoes, a new cash crop for export that will take advantage of trade agreements Swaziland has with Taiwan and the European Union (EU). A visit to the co-operative Botamatisi BaNyangeni finds women watering vines of ripening tomatoes, and applying home-made insecticide from roots and herbs whose recipes have been handed down from their mothers.

"My husband does not have a job," says Phetsile Ngwenya, her head wrapped in a bright yellow scarf that contrasts with the field of vivid green tomato vines. "The money I can earn with my sisters at this co-operative is the only cash income we may see this year." Ngwenya is not concerned that her group does not own title deed to their co-operative's land. "The chief gave this to us, and as long as we are working here, nobody can take it away." Indeed, as anthropologist Hilda Kuper wrote in her seminal study, Swaziland", "amongst the Swazi, land is not owned, but is granted on the basis of utility. Those who use the land are entitled to it."

Financing for women's co-operatives comes from various donor and government agencies both in Swaziland and abroad. Aid is funnelled through a Manzini NGO Umtapo WaBomake. Gladys Kunene, the agency's Director, says, "The money is in the form of non-interest loans, which must be repaid by the women so we can re-circulate the funds for other projects. The repayment rate is 90 percent. This is a remarkable rate, and it shows both how hard the members of these women's co-operatives work, but also how carefully we consider each project's viability before we assist."

Having a place on communal Swazi National Land to set up a co-operative is not the same thing as owning a home or a title deed for an urban plot to start a business. Women and Law of Southern Africa gives advice to women on how to own homes and businesses to follow the route recommended by an official of the organisation, Fikile Mthembu, and start a legally-recognised landholding corporation. One Mbabane resident who did so, Thembi Matsenjwa, found property ownership liberating. "I no longer have to pay rent for my hair styling salon. I was able to buy a property cheap that was being auctioned off because the owner did not pay his taxes, and I've developed it to rent out additional space to a photographer's studio and a shoe repairman."

The kingdom's political observers feel that an expanding number of middle class women property owners will inevitably lead to greater demand for increased women's rights. "Political rights for women are tied to economic rights and success, because a motivated class of workers and entrepreneurs will be empowered," says Doo Aphane. "Tied to this are social improvements such as longer life spans for women, and population control that comes with reproductive health rights."

Success stories for women's co-operatives and business ventures may not make some traditionalists feel less threatened by the empowerment of women, but may convince others of the obvious benefits of universal land ownership, benefits in evidence in the tomato fields of Nyangeni and the quietly expanding number of women business owners in towns.