Culture and inheritance: One woman’s fight to reclaim her land

By Gabriel Luryeyo

For nine years, Ms Palma Atenyo was locked up in a bitter land ownership dispute with her brother-in-law. As a widow, Atenyo was not allowed to inherit her deceased husband’s property despite having legal rights to the property.

Atenyo’s husband, Joseph Obol, was killed in a violent land conflict in 2010.

“My husband was speared to death during a fight over a piece of land measuring approximately 8 acres. The incident happened shortly after we had just returned from [Internally Displaced Persons camps],” Atenyo explains.

After her husband was killed, Atenyo was inherited by her brother-in-law, who promised to protect her and the children his brother left behind. This convinced her that with her brother-in-law’s support, she would be able to look after the children without major challenges.

Wife inheritance is a common practice among the Acholi people of northern Uganda where a woman whose husband passes on, ‘remarries’ a brother or close relative of the deceased. This sometimes happens against her will. If dowry is paid, the clan head allows the widow to choose her suitor, especially among the surviving members of her late husband’s family. This is how Atenyo became one of Wilson’s seven wives, a relationship that resulted in the birth of a girl.

In 2015, Atenyo’s brother-in-law turned husband became violent and she had to escape the abusive relationship. The 52-year-old widow now lives with her elderly mother in Kal Oguru Village, Bira Sub-county in Amuru District.

The violence, it turns out, was caused by the land left by Atenyo’s late husband.

“He assaulted my children for digging the land that belongs to their deceased father. One of [my] daughters was injured during the [attack]. He stopped us from accessing the family land. The clan leaders tried to resolve the matter but in vain. Instead, he became too violent and [uncouth],” she says.

Atenyo was forced to live on handouts from well-wishers and working in people’s gardens to earn some money. She used the money to lease a piece of land for subsistence farming.

Out of desperation, on March 25, 2022, Atenyo sent one of her daughters to check if she can access the family land. This rubbed Wilson the wrong way. He mobilized six other people and they beat her up. The matter was reported to police, and the prime suspect, Wilson, was arrested and charged accordingly.

After spending some months in jail, he agreed to give back the portion of land that belongs to his deceased’s brother to the widow.

Court appointed a mediator and a consent judgment was reached and Atenyo got back her 10-acre piece of land. Mark stones were recently erected along the boundary.

Although she is happy that she got her land back, Atenyo says the dispute dragged on for a long time because she could not afford legal fees.

She counts herself lucky because Redeem International, an NGO providing free legal services to widows, widowers and orphans in Acholi sub-region came to her rescue.

Atenyo’s case is not isolated. There are presently 64 cases related to land conflict in court.

Several widows in Acholi sub region are stripped of the rights to inherit property such as land from their deceased husbands. These practices are being blamed on bad cultural practices. In the Acholi tradition, women have no right to own property, including land. Their right is restricted only to use. This is worsened by the fact that very few men are willing to write a will, which would ease property distribution among surviving members of their households.

Christine Labol, 60, another widow in Amuru District says she is yet to settle a land dispute that has lasted for 14 years. “After my husband passed on in 2006, I have not healed because my brothers-in-law want me out of the family land,” says Labol.

She says like dozens of widows in her village facing a similar problem, she cannot afford to hire a lawyer to defend her in court.

The growing demand for land for commercial agriculture has been cited as one of the major factors fueling land conflicts in Acholi sub-region. According to a study conducted by Avocats Sans Frontieres (ASF), an international NGO specializing in promoting access to justice and the defense of human rights in parts of Acholi sub-region, there has been a growing interest in agriculture -investment in the sub-region following the cessation of hostilities in northern Uganda.

This, according to ASF, has contributed to land disputes and conflicts in the post-conflict period. The December 2020 research further indicates that as people return to their original villages, they started selling their land to foreign investors for commercial farming. This resulted in an increase in the value and sale of land, hence more land conflicts.

Sylvesto Olyel of Amuru Town Council in Amuru District says widows and orphans are being targeted by land grabbers because of ignorance of the law.

“People need to be sensitized so that they do not strip widows of their rights to inherit property left behind by their spouses. Legal experts have a lot of work to do to help our people understand the law on property inheritance,” he says.

Nearly 90 percent of land in Acholi sub-region is under the customary tenure system under which women’s rights to land are limited to use, not ownership. The rights also depend on their relationships with male family members (usually the father or husband), while men tend to have rights to land by birthright.

Rosalba Oywa, the Executive Director of People’s Voice for Peace, a local NGO which works to empower disadvantaged girls and women, blames the rampant cases of land conflict involving widows and orphans on greed.