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Article Excerpt
Abstract
This article focuses on the land reform programme in South Africa as well as on broader questions of rural women's needs. It draws on interviews with 47 key informants, drawn particularly from the NGO sector, carried out in 2002 and 2003. It examines the importance of 'land' compared with wider issues such as personal and bodily security. Despite some encouraging state initiatives, most informants felt that poorer rural women remained marginalized within the land reform programme and more generally. Needs for independent income, health, and personal security were emphasised, with secure access to land seen as potentially beneficial although not as strong a priority. However, this should not be 'read' as an argument for ignoring the benefits of land rights for women: a rural women's movement is needed to carry this forward demands both for economic rights and those linked to bodily integrity.
Keywords: land reform, South Africa, women's needs/interests
Introduction
This article concerns gender relations and the land reform programme in South Africa. The research on which the article is based, conducted in 2002 and 2003, analyses the views of 47 key informants. (2) The 'land' question in southern Africa concerns livelihoods, but is also central to a nexus of other political and symbolic issues concerning traditional authority and new types of citizenship; communal vs. individual rights, and what a democratic outcome might look like in rural areas. Tangled as are these questions in a general sense, they become even more complex when seen through a gendered lens. From the late 1970s, feminist work on land rights, and on land reform more specifically, developed, but these continue to be seen as 'side' issues within most feminist writing, despite the large numbers of women residing in rural areas of low-income countries.
Despite the radical or reformist aims of most land reform mobilisations, land reforms have been largely negative, or at best ambiguous, for rural women and particularly for married women (Jacobs 1997; see later discussion). In the late 1990s, South Africa enshrined gender equity as a key aspect of its land reform programme, and so appeared to be an exceptional case in which married as well as single women might be able to access rights within a state-based reform process (see Jacobs, 1998). By early in the new century, such an outcome appeared overoptimistic.
Against this background, the article asks what importance should be given to equitable inclusion of women in land reform: do other aspects of women's lives present more pressing needs? The article analyses the views of a sample of land activists and gender specialists, drawn from the NGO sector as well as from government, academia and consultancies. In particular, it focuses on views concerning types of land tenure that might be of benefit, and on the place of 'land' compared with other types of needs in rural women's lives. Another contribution is the linking of areas not always seen as related: land rights and economic rights as connected.
Relevant literatures
The research discussed here draws on a range of background literatures. The debates discussed concern four (main) areas:
i) Literature on gender and land reform; and
ii) On deagrarianisation or diversification of rural livelihoods.
iii) I have drawn together some observations on risks and insecurities in S. African women's lives;
iv) Literature relating to women's needs and interests.
Gender and land reform
Land reforms have historically either taken place along collective or else individual household lines, with the latter being predominant and most successful in terms of raising agricultural output. Agrarian reform has been one of the main aims of peasant movements, the intended outcome being to democratise rural sectors through land distribution, and to improve the lives and livelihoods of smallholders. However, such democratisation may not extend to smallholder women.
A limited number of case studies of women within land reforms exist, as well as some more general literature (see, e.g. Deere and Leon, 1987). My overview of the subject (Jacobs, 1997) indicates that outcomes of land reform programmes have been negative or ambiguous for women, especially married women: this is notable, as the results of land reform programmes as reported are remarkably similar across continents and cultures. The main reason for negative outcomes--which lower women's status and livelihood chances--has been the allocation of land titles or land permits to 'household heads' who in most contexts are seen as male. This may result in vesting property rights in male hands, usually a husband's or father's, in settings in which men already hold much social and household power. A number of studies report that women have lowered incomes, less access to services and loss of household status through resettlement in land reform programmes. Many wives do benefit through increased food security, but lose autonomy and household power through the husband's enhanced property rights.
Were women's rights not to be mediated through husbands, fathers, brothers and sons, outcomes of land reforms would be more favourable for most groups of women. Bina Agarwal has forcefully argued (1994, 2003) for women's land rights on four grounds: welfare, efficiency, equity and empowerment.
Deagrarianisation in South Africa
A second debate moves away from focus on land to query the importance of agriculture in contemporary rural economies. The 'deagrarianisation' of a number of economies throughout the world previously largely or highly dependent upon agriculture is now widely discussed in development literature. A growing body of work emphasises the decline of peasant communities and the necessity for rural dwellers to diversify out of agriculture (Bryceson, Kay and Mooij, 1999; Ellis, 2000). The authors note in particular the impacts of structural adjustment and liberalisation on peasant livelihoods, and smallholders are forced to compete in the global market, but with reduced state backing. As elsewhere, rural livelihoods in the sub-Saharan African region have diversified as agriculture becomes less viable, productive, or possible, or as access to land becomes more insecure (Francis, 2000). South Africa presents a particularly acute example of this phenomenon, due to a number of factors, including apartheid agrarian policies, 'removal' campaigns and land quality.
Most rural South Africans rely on a variety of activities, of which subsistence agriculture is not necessarily favoured, to survive (Cobbett, 1988). Wage labour and state pensions now form the major sources of income in rural areas (May, Rogerson and Vaughan, 2000); agriculture is the third most important activity.
Within this context, rights or access to land nonetheless remain of importance. The 1997 figures indicate that 70% of the rural population have access to land, although for half this is to one hectare or less (May 2000:23). One-third of rural households engage in some agricultural production (May, 2000:24), and for 18% of households, it is the prime activity.
Marcus et al. found in a national survey that a majority of people, over 67% (1996:13) wished to have some land; however, about half of respondents--including many women--wished for land for housing and gardens rather than for agricultural use. Access to land is also important for retirement; thus land continues to be significant even under changed livelihood strategies.
Insecurities
Even were rural women to have secure access to land, it would not be a panacea for most: landlessness and economic insecurity are only one set of risks among many. Without implying that male lives are secure, it is nevertheless the case that insecurity is a gendered phenomenon. As is well known, South Africa has made many gains at the formal (especially, state) level in terms of women's representation within parliament. Famously, women constitute nearly 30% of MPs and are well represented as deputy ministers and in some ministries (Hassim, 2003). In 1998, a series of important Acts were passed concerning rights to abortion, to maintenance after divorce and to protection from domestic violence. Despite the importance of these gains women's lives in many respects are framed by customary law, and this is especially so for rural women.
Within a context in which the poor are concentrated in rural areas, women are far more likely to be impoverished than men (Magardie, 1999, citing UNIFEM statistics; May, Rogerson and Vaughan, 2000); homelessness is a particularly severe problem due to forced removals under apartheid and because men usually hold property rights to houses.
Two other risks, health and crime, have been much discussed in the Northern press. Although this has sometimes led to a distorted picture of South Africa, it remains the case that these topics are of great concern to large sectors of the population. HIV/AIDS is one health risk among many (e.g. malaria), but its incidence, with over 20% of adults HIV positive is exceedingly high (UNAids, 2004). HIV/AIDS has become particularly gender-related, with women more likely to be infected and to care for the...
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