AFRICANEWS

Zambia

The plight of widows

Human Rights

Among Zambia's Tonga people, a woman has no right to own property. Thus, in the event of a husband's death, a window loses everything but her children to her late husband's male relatives. Unfortunately, little, if anything, is being done to rectify the situation.

The old adage, "old habits die hard," applies perfectly well to property grabbing in Zambia disguised as tradition.

A research done recently by this writer and a parish Justice and Peace team, among the Tonga people of the southern province of Zambia, shows how rampant the problem of widows losing their property to relatives is. Many widows are daily being reduced to a life of misery as relatives go looting the property of their deceased husbands just after the funeral ceremonies.

In the Tonga culture, women do not own anything. When a man dies, his property is shared among nephews, uncles and scores of other male relatives. In the old days, when widows were almost always inherited, they never found themselves in the kind of predicament that befall them now that they have to stay alone and take care of their children.

John Phiri died last year, leaving behind two widows and 24 children. He was of average wealth by local standards. He had a plough, a harrow, an ox-cart, two goats, one metallic water tank and a grain storage bin with nine bags of maize. After his death, relatives took away seven bags of maize and all the other mentioned articles. The water tank was later sold to one of the widows. Worst of all, their land was sold off to some rich man from the same village.

Now the two widows are living like beggars with most of their children dropping out of school due to lack of school fees.

An even sadder case is that of the family of Raphael Mwaala. At the time of his death, he had 30 heads of cattle. Relatives took away 29, leaving just one for a widow and her seven children. The two houses the man had built were demolished and everything - bricks, doors, beds and chairs were looted by relatives. The headman of the area also got his share of the loot- he took away the iron sheets. The widow has since died, leaving the orphans in dire straits- totally dependent on the goodwill of people with compassion who are rare in a country where poverty is on the increase.

There are numerous cases of this nature which go unnoticed. Nothing serious is being done to secure protection for women and children victims of this practice. Among the Tonga people, and indeed in the entire Zambia, women have no power and no voice. Illiteracy is their main handicap and the few who are educated live in cities where the problem of property grabbing is not as rampant. And since the practice seems to favour men, few, if any, are willing to come to the defence of women.

As a result of this outdated practice, there are numerous orphans all over Zambia who cannot get through school due to financial constraints. Charitable groups running orphans� homes can no longer cope with the increasing numbers of desperate cases.

The real issue is not being addressed. If widows and orphans are protected from losing all their property to greedy relatives, they are more likely to fend for themselves without outside intervention.

Some people feel the government is down-playing the problem by throwing it to traditional rulers, most of whom are illiterate and part of the "grabbing system". They feel that the government�s disinterest is because the problem does not affect the elite.

Not even the local media are interested in highlighting the plight of widows and orphans. Most newspapers here concentrate on political issues, hardly bothering about other areas. Save for some little voice from the Church, the problem of widows being harassed by relatives remains a non-issue in the Zambian society. It will require a major campaign and commitment if any positive changes are to be realised.

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