non-citizens. Hartmann succinctly describes the fabric of western patriarchal ideology as:
[A] set of social relations between men, which have a material base, and which, though
hierarchical, establish or create interdependence or solidarity among men that enable them to
dominate women. [T]he material base upon which patriarchy rests lies most fundamentally
in men’s control over women’s labour power . . . [It] does not rest solely on childbearing in
the family, but on all the social structures which enable men to control women’s labour.
Control is maintained by denying women access to necessary economically productive
resources.
46
The analysis made in this section reveals that in the case of an African, soil rights
are contemporaneously acquired with the acquisition of land rights under the various
land tenurial systems on the continent. Land tenure systems are, however,
constructed within the purview of the ideology of patriarchy, which discriminates
against persons it designates as weak or foreigners, and deny them automatic soil
access rights. Women and non-citizens are the victims of that ideology. The sociolegal foundations of land tenure systems on the African continent, therefore, need to
be interrogated further using the lenses of African feminism for there to be a clear
understanding of how problematic the situation is for those designated as weak and
foreign within the purview of the ideology of patriarchy. Moreover, African feminism goes to the root of the African society and has been used by African women in
particular to reinvigorate their agency that now resists African patriarchy manifestations in custom and the western forms of patriarchy that seek to exclude the women
from accessing land and hence soil rights in tandem with the men. The discussion
clearly brings out the symbiotic relationship between land tenure systems, soil rights
and feminism perspective, the latter being the medium through which land tenure
systems and soil rights in Africa are viewed, understood and interpreted.
The analysis made in this section, therefore, forms the basis for a discussion of the
land policies and laws in the next subsection, which goes a step further in interrogating the role played by law and custom to deny certain persons automatic access to
land and soil rights on the African continent.
4 Policy and Legal Regulation of Access to Soil Rights
4.1 Contextual Perspectives
The previous section discussed how African feminism theoretical framework can be
relied upon to influence attitudinal change in access to land and soil rights on the
African continent. African feminism specifically faulted both the African custom and
the western forms of the ideology of patriarchy as being responsible for the woes of
Africans in regard to land and soil rights. This section builds on the momentum
46 Hartmann (1979).
142
G. Busingye
[A] set of social relations between men, which have a material base, and which, though
hierarchical, establish or create interdependence or solidarity among men that enable them to
dominate women. [T]he material base upon which patriarchy rests lies most fundamentally
in men’s control over women’s labour power . . . [It] does not rest solely on childbearing in
the family, but on all the social structures which enable men to control women’s labour.
Control is maintained by denying women access to necessary economically productive
resources.
46
The analysis made in this section reveals that in the case of an African, soil rights
are contemporaneously acquired with the acquisition of land rights under the various
land tenurial systems on the continent. Land tenure systems are, however,
constructed within the purview of the ideology of patriarchy, which discriminates
against persons it designates as weak or foreigners, and deny them automatic soil
access rights. Women and non-citizens are the victims of that ideology. The sociolegal foundations of land tenure systems on the African continent, therefore, need to
be interrogated further using the lenses of African feminism for there to be a clear
understanding of how problematic the situation is for those designated as weak and
foreign within the purview of the ideology of patriarchy. Moreover, African feminism goes to the root of the African society and has been used by African women in
particular to reinvigorate their agency that now resists African patriarchy manifestations in custom and the western forms of patriarchy that seek to exclude the women
from accessing land and hence soil rights in tandem with the men. The discussion
clearly brings out the symbiotic relationship between land tenure systems, soil rights
and feminism perspective, the latter being the medium through which land tenure
systems and soil rights in Africa are viewed, understood and interpreted.
The analysis made in this section, therefore, forms the basis for a discussion of the
land policies and laws in the next subsection, which goes a step further in interrogating the role played by law and custom to deny certain persons automatic access to
land and soil rights on the African continent.
4 Policy and Legal Regulation of Access to Soil Rights
4.1 Contextual Perspectives
The previous section discussed how African feminism theoretical framework can be
relied upon to influence attitudinal change in access to land and soil rights on the
African continent. African feminism specifically faulted both the African custom and
the western forms of the ideology of patriarchy as being responsible for the woes of
Africans in regard to land and soil rights. This section builds on the momentum
46 Hartmann (1979).
142
G. Busingye