Issues in Women’s Land Rights in Cameroon

edited by Lotsmart Fonjong

This book explores the customary, social, economic political and rights issues surrounding access, ownership and control over land from a gender perspective. It combines theory and practice from researchers, lawyers and judges, each with track records of working on women and rights concerns. The nexus between the reluctance to recognize and materialize women’s right to land, and the increasing feminization of poverty is undeniable.

The problem assumes special acuity in an essentially agrarian context like Cameroon, where the problem is not so much the law as its manner of application. That this book delves into investigating the principal sources and reasons for this prevalent injustice is particularly welcome. As some of the analyses reveal, denying women their right to land acquisition or inheritance is sometimes contrary to established judicial precedents and even in total dissonance with the country’s constitution. Traditional and cultural shibboleths associated with land acquisition and ownership that tend to stymie women’s development and fulfilment, must be quickly shirked, for such retrograde excuses can no longer find comfort in the law, morality nor in “modern” traditional thinking. The trend, albeit timid, of appointing women to Land Consultative Boards and even as traditional authorities, can only be salutary.

These are some positive practical steps that can translate the notion of equal rights into “equal power” over land for both sexes; otherwise “equality” in this context will remain an unattractive slogan.

Lotsmart Fonjong

Lotsmart Fonjong holds a PhD in Human Geography from the University of Yaounde, Cameroon and an M.A. in Development Studies, from the University of Leeds in the United Kingdom. He is Associate Professor of Geography and currently the Vice-Dean for Students’ Affairs in the Faculty of Social and Management Sciences at the University of Buea, Cameroon, where he lectures both in the Geography and Gender Studies programmess. He is the author of two books – Transforming Rural Space through Non-governmental Efforts in North-western Cameroon and The Challenges of Non-governmental Organizations in Anglophone Cameroon –, and seventeen scientific articles in international peer reviewed journals. He has won many international grants; been a visiting fellow to a number of universities in the United States and belongs to several learned societies.