Sue Telingator says a former Peace Corps volunteer teacher in Namibia, she experienced firsthand the devastating effects of family land grabs on widows and their children after the husbands' deaths



Sue Telingator says a former Peace Corps volunteer teacher in Namibia, she experienced firsthand the devastating effects of family land grabs on widows and their children after the husbands' deaths

Land Grabs in Africa

Published: June 17, 2004

To the Editor:

Re "Africa's Homeless Widows" (editorial, June 16):

As a former Peace Corps volunteer teacher in Namibia, I experienced firsthand the devastating effects of family land grabs on widows and their children after the husbands' deaths. Often, my students would drop out of school when their families were forced off land.

When I returned to the United States to do more scholarly research, I found that customary laws in Africa were originally meant to keep land ownership in the family through patrilineal succession. In recent years, this law has become a widow's greatest anguish.

Deeply ingrained societal beliefs take centuries to reform. While education is helpful in fostering change, it will take courageous and independent African women willing to step outside of the strictures of their cultural mores to demand equality for themselves and their families.

It will also take the commitment of the international community to ratify international legal instruments like the Convention for the Elimination of Discrimination Against Women to help courts override customary laws.

SUE TELINGATOR
Washington, June 16, 2004