Alice Kwaramba
Senior = Researcher
Gender=20 Links
1 Ernest Oppenheimer Street
Lower Ground Floor
Lakeside=20 Place
Bruma, 2198
Johannesburg
South Africa
Tel: +27 11 622=20 2877/7796
Fax: +27 11 622 4732
Email: alice@genderlinks.org.za
= =20 research@genderlinks.org.za
URL:=20 www.genderlinks.org.za<= /DIV> ------=_NextPart_000_002A_01C29C40.C0F002B0-- From nccadmin at seychelles.net Tue Dec 3 06:46:05 2002 From: nccadmin at seychelles.net (NCC-Administration) Date: Tue Feb 27 14:10:58 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] on-line training Message-ID: <002701c29a86$e660e480$29ee54ca@compaquser> Hello there Glad to hear from you at last. I thought colleen might have forgotten about us. Anyway, after the interesting sessions in seychelles, I definitely want to join the on-line training but we are in week 4 now, and I would like to know if its really possible to catch up or is it preferable to wait for the next session ? My best regards to Colleen and a special hello to you Lindiwe. I hope I''ll get the opportunity to meet you some day. Bye Jean- Claude Matombe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021203/b8709feb/attachment.htm From lindiwe at genderlinks.org.za Mon Dec 2 13:32:34 2002 From: lindiwe at genderlinks.org.za (lindiwe nkutha) Date: Tue Feb 27 14:10:58 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing References: <003201c29455$27d7f2b0$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001601c296da$02ff06e0$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> <007501c29798$30e9b140$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001001c297a6$f22b8960$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> Message-ID: <004101c299f6$92a9c7c0$0f00a8c0@MOTH> Dear All We enter discussions for week 4 slightly later than is practice, I hope to hear your views on this problem that faces us in Southern Africa. Yours sincerely Lindiwe Nkutha Property grabbing "When a woman dies no man has to worry about the loss of his property nor his right to stake a claim to it, but when a man dies a woman worries about both her ability and right to hold on to her own individual as well as matrimonial property" Participant at a media training course on covering gender violence Amidst the increase of social ills such as poverty and economic inviability of average Southern African households, the death of the head of the household, mostly men, present opportunities for the economic violation of women. In many Southern African cultures, a woman, married or single cannot own property in her own right. This inability to own property particularly for married women opens the door for the man's family, in the name of culture, to present their demands upon his death of property they believe belonged to him solely. The absence of wills places widows at a disadvantage, with cultural practices and customary law privileging the man's family above his widow and children in determining who is entitled to "his" property upon his death. In southern Africa particularly, studies show that a large amount of people die without having prepared a testamentary succession plan for their property. Compounding the problem of intestate succession are other appending cultural practices which are practiced on the death of a man as a means of determining and defining a widow's position within the deceased's family. Practices such as wife inheritance; where a widow has to be inherited by a male relative of the man's family in order for her to retain her position within the family, as well as widow cleansing; where a widow before being inherited is believed needs to be cleansed of the spirit of the dead by engaging in sexual activities with a male relative of the deceased. Although the genesis of these practices (however patriarchal) were for economic reasons, mainly to secure the widows property by ensuring that "the man's" property stayed in her family for the support of herself and her children, increasingly it is these very practices that are being used as justification for her being stripped of the property that belongs to her and her children. Women who have refused to be inherited and thus opted out of the "protection" of her property offered culturally, have found that they have everything including their land and homes, only in very exceptional instances have they found they were left with what is referred to as bride property (all things found in a kitchen). Within the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the appending customary practices of widow cleansing and wife inheritance serve to put the widow at an increased risk of contracting HIV. Add this risk to the difficulty of accessing antiretroviral drugs, as was illustrated in brief during last week's discussion we find ourselves presented with yet another problem that of taking care of orphans whose parents may have lost their lives to the virus, the question that begs to be answered that becomes: Where the orphans parent's property has been appropriated by the deceased relatives who bears the responsibility to take care of these orphans. Let's then this week about amongst other things the following: 1.. Do cultural practices such as widow cleansing and wife inheritance increase the violation of women economically and make them more vulnerable to property grabbing? 2.. In the project of recovering good cultural practices and redressing gender imbalances, are there any ways in which these practices, the genesis of which were to protect women's economic viability after their husbands death, can be claimed as the protection measures which they were meant to be instead of being the catalyst to women's economic violation? 3.. How do we as communicators begin to address and fairly present the plight of HIV/AIDS orphans who in most cases find themselves without economic means of survival either from their relatives and or from the state? 4.. And finally what is the communicator's role in highlighting the ills, both cultural and economic which serve to entrench women's disempowerment? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021202/91072581/attachment.html From nccadmin at seychelles.net Wed Dec 4 06:45:54 2002 From: nccadmin at seychelles.net (NCC-Administration) Date: Tue Feb 27 14:10:58 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] on line training (resent) Message-ID: <001601c29b53$3f06db40$68ee54ca@compaquser> Hello there Glad to hear from you at last. I thought colleen might have forgotten about us. Anyway, after the interesting sessions in seychelles, I definitely want to join the on-line training but we are in week 4 now, and I would like to know if its really possible to catch up or is it preferable to wait for the next session ? My best regards to Colleen and a special hello to you Lindiwe. I hope I''ll get the opportunity to meet you some day. Bye Jean- Claude Matombe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021204/9cab9301/attachment.htm From ebasadi at global.bw Wed Dec 4 07:13:21 2002 From: ebasadi at global.bw (ebasadi) Date: Tue Feb 27 14:10:58 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing References: <003201c29455$27d7f2b0$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001601c296da$02ff06e0$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> <007501c29798$30e9b140$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001001c297a6$f22b8960$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> <004101c299f6$92a9c7c0$0f00a8c0@MOTH> Message-ID: <001001c29b53$de3807c0$b1e7fea9@peter> Good morning to you all Yes property grabbing is a problem that seem to affect the poor women in particular because property ownership has a class dimension in any economic context, its not only facilitated by cultural practices and believes. As regards the orphans- one way is to empower the poor families and the young. The reason for this is quite simple- they the youth as well as the poor families-especuially the poor women ought to know that part of it si do with ones' ability to interpret ones' world. You know women's worlds are different from the men's worlds. Because culture is not going to change itself- its needs a revolution perhaps. Prperty grabbing happens because of a number of reasons- but the inderlying believe is that women do not have power not the status to own property- this has been given ligitimacy by the traditional mercantile and upholded by the modern capitalism. It has both political and ideological dimensions that need to acknowledged as a tactical approach towards solving the persisting problem. In societies were class is pronounced property ownership is a sign of social standing and men have allways seen as identified by a male capitalist as well as wife of those who belong to the establishment as their divine right to own property. Today women are seen as clients who need to be serviced and least taken care of- thus denying them their right to own any means of property - remember this happens despite that in contenmporary capitalism property ownership is promoted as one of the pillars of liberal democracy- so you see the antithesis? This should form the beggining of prblemitising the issue instead iof repeatdly saying culture- culture is not behaving like a substance that change form or shape out of natural conditions. Peter ----- Original Message ----- From: lindiwe nkutha To: research ; egemtraining@lists.sn.apc.org Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 1:32 PM Subject: Re: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing Dear All We enter discussions for week 4 slightly later than is practice, I hope to hear your views on this problem that faces us in Southern Africa. Yours sincerely Lindiwe Nkutha Property grabbing "When a woman dies no man has to worry about the loss of his property nor his right to stake a claim to it, but when a man dies a woman worries about both her ability and right to hold on to her own individual as well as matrimonial property" Participant at a media training course on covering gender violence Amidst the increase of social ills such as poverty and economic inviability of average Southern African households, the death of the head of the household, mostly men, present opportunities for the economic violation of women. In many Southern African cultures, a woman, married or single cannot own property in her own right. This inability to own property particularly for married women opens the door for the man's family, in the name of culture, to present their demands upon his death of property they believe belonged to him solely. The absence of wills places widows at a disadvantage, with cultural practices and customary law privileging the man's family above his widow and children in determining who is entitled to "his" property upon his death. In southern Africa particularly, studies show that a large amount of people die without having prepared a testamentary succession plan for their property. Compounding the problem of intestate succession are other appending cultural practices which are practiced on the death of a man as a means of determining and defining a widow's position within the deceased's family. Practices such as wife inheritance; where a widow has to be inherited by a male relative of the man's family in order for her to retain her position within the family, as well as widow cleansing; where a widow before being inherited is believed needs to be cleansed of the spirit of the dead by engaging in sexual activities with a male relative of the deceased. Although the genesis of these practices (however patriarchal) were for economic reasons, mainly to secure the widows property by ensuring that "the man's" property stayed in her family for the support of herself and her children, increasingly it is these very practices that are being used as justification for her being stripped of the property that belongs to her and her children. Women who have refused to be inherited and thus opted out of the "protection" of her property offered culturally, have found that they have everything including their land and homes, only in very exceptional instances have they found they were left with what is referred to as bride property (all things found in a kitchen). Within the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the appending customary practices of widow cleansing and wife inheritance serve to put the widow at an increased risk of contracting HIV. Add this risk to the difficulty of accessing antiretroviral drugs, as was illustrated in brief during last week's discussion we find ourselves presented with yet another problem that of taking care of orphans whose parents may have lost their lives to the virus, the question that begs to be answered that becomes: Where the orphans parent's property has been appropriated by the deceased relatives who bears the responsibility to take care of these orphans. Let's then this week about amongst other things the following: 1.. Do cultural practices such as widow cleansing and wife inheritance increase the violation of women economically and make them more vulnerable to property grabbing? 2.. In the project of recovering good cultural practices and redressing gender imbalances, are there any ways in which these practices, the genesis of which were to protect women's economic viability after their husbands death, can be claimed as the protection measures which they were meant to be instead of being the catalyst to women's economic violation? 3.. How do we as communicators begin to address and fairly present the plight of HIV/AIDS orphans who in most cases find themselves without economic means of survival either from their relatives and or from the state? 4.. And finally what is the communicator's role in highlighting the ills, both cultural and economic which serve to entrench women's disempowerment? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021204/48253d3a/attachment.html From research at genderlinks.org.za Wed Dec 4 08:43:26 2002 From: research at genderlinks.org.za (research) Date: Tue Feb 27 14:10:58 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing References: <003201c29455$27d7f2b0$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001601c296da$02ff06e0$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> <007501c29798$30e9b140$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001001c297a6$f22b8960$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> <004101c299f6$92a9c7c0$0f00a8c0@MOTH> <001001c29b53$de3807c0$b1e7fea9@peter> Message-ID: <003101c29b60$7386e060$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> Dear All A big hello everyone!!! I am back after a forced break...sorry for that!! A big thank you to Lindiwe for chatting with you for the whole of last week and the best part of this week!!! This week topic is indeed very interesting and am hoping that we will all b able to share our opinions today and tommorrow and we will as usual ask an expert to sum it up for us at the end of the day tommorrow. Thanks or your contribution Peter. One issue you raise, which i think is important for us to deliberate on is that "property grabbing has a class dimension and affects poor women more than the rich and that culture is not all that influences the trends, but class differences. What do other sthink? Lets talk!! Alice ----- Original Message ----- From: ebasadi To: lindiwe nkutha ; research ; egemtraining@lists.sn.apc.org Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 7:13 AM Subject: Re: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing Good morning to you all Yes property grabbing is a problem that seem to affect the poor women in particular because property ownership has a class dimension in any economic context, its not only facilitated by cultural practices and believes. As regards the orphans- one way is to empower the poor families and the young. The reason for this is quite simple- they the youth as well as the poor families-especuially the poor women ought to know that part of it si do with ones' ability to interpret ones' world. You know women's worlds are different from the men's worlds. Because culture is not going to change itself- its needs a revolution perhaps. Prperty grabbing happens because of a number of reasons- but the inderlying believe is that women do not have power not the status to own property- this has been given ligitimacy by the traditional mercantile and upholded by the modern capitalism. It has both political and ideological dimensions that need to acknowledged as a tactical approach towards solving the persisting problem. In societies were class is pronounced property ownership is a sign of social standing and men have allways seen as identified by a male capitalist as well as wife of those who belong to the establishment as their divine right to own property. Today women are seen as clients who need to be serviced and least taken care of- thus denying them their right to own any means of property - remember this happens despite that in contenmporary capitalism property ownership is promoted as one of the pillars of liberal democracy- so you see the antithesis? This should form the beggining of prblemitising the issue instead iof repeatdly saying culture- culture is not behaving like a substance that change form or shape out of natural conditions. Peter ----- Original Message ----- From: lindiwe nkutha To: research ; egemtraining@lists.sn.apc.org Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 1:32 PM Subject: Re: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing Dear All We enter discussions for week 4 slightly later than is practice, I hope to hear your views on this problem that faces us in Southern Africa. Yours sincerely Lindiwe Nkutha Property grabbing "When a woman dies no man has to worry about the loss of his property nor his right to stake a claim to it, but when a man dies a woman worries about both her ability and right to hold on to her own individual as well as matrimonial property" Participant at a media training course on covering gender violence Amidst the increase of social ills such as poverty and economic inviability of average Southern African households, the death of the head of the household, mostly men, present opportunities for the economic violation of women. In many Southern African cultures, a woman, married or single cannot own property in her own right. This inability to own property particularly for married women opens the door for the man's family, in the name of culture, to present their demands upon his death of property they believe belonged to him solely. The absence of wills places widows at a disadvantage, with cultural practices and customary law privileging the man's family above his widow and children in determining who is entitled to "his" property upon his death. In southern Africa particularly, studies show that a large amount of people die without having prepared a testamentary succession plan for their property. Compounding the problem of intestate succession are other appending cultural practices which are practiced on the death of a man as a means of determining and defining a widow's position within the deceased's family. Practices such as wife inheritance; where a widow has to be inherited by a male relative of the man's family in order for her to retain her position within the family, as well as widow cleansing; where a widow before being inherited is believed needs to be cleansed of the spirit of the dead by engaging in sexual activities with a male relative of the deceased. Although the genesis of these practices (however patriarchal) were for economic reasons, mainly to secure the widows property by ensuring that "the man's" property stayed in her family for the support of herself and her children, increasingly it is these very practices that are being used as justification for her being stripped of the property that belongs to her and her children. Women who have refused to be inherited and thus opted out of the "protection" of her property offered culturally, have found that they have everything including their land and homes, only in very exceptional instances have they found they were left with what is referred to as bride property (all things found in a kitchen). Within the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the appending customary practices of widow cleansing and wife inheritance serve to put the widow at an increased risk of contracting HIV. Add this risk to the difficulty of accessing antiretroviral drugs, as was illustrated in brief during last week's discussion we find ourselves presented with yet another problem that of taking care of orphans whose parents may have lost their lives to the virus, the question that begs to be answered that becomes: Where the orphans parent's property has been appropriated by the deceased relatives who bears the responsibility to take care of these orphans. Let's then this week about amongst other things the following: 1.. Do cultural practices such as widow cleansing and wife inheritance increase the violation of women economically and make them more vulnerable to property grabbing? 2.. In the project of recovering good cultural practices and redressing gender imbalances, are there any ways in which these practices, the genesis of which were to protect women's economic viability after their husbands death, can be claimed as the protection measures which they were meant to be instead of being the catalyst to women's economic violation? 3.. How do we as communicators begin to address and fairly present the plight of HIV/AIDS orphans who in most cases find themselves without economic means of survival either from their relatives and or from the state? 4.. And finally what is the communicator's role in highlighting the ills, both cultural and economic which serve to entrench women's disempowerment? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021204/9378f6b7/attachment.htm From research at genderlinks.org.za Thu Dec 5 09:29:04 2002 From: research at genderlinks.org.za (research) Date: Tue Feb 27 14:10:58 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] Property Grabbing Message-ID: <002d01c29c2f$fdf17150$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> Dear all A good morning to you all! hoping ou are all still alive!! (smile) we have been rather quiet this week...is property grabbing not a criticl issue in our respective communities?? Lets talk about it!!!! Looking forward to hearing from all!!! Alice Kwaramba Senior Researcher Gender Links 1 Ernest Oppenheimer Street Lower Ground Floor Lakeside Place Bruma, 2198 Johannesburg South Africa Tel: +27 11 622 2877/7796 Fax: +27 11 622 4732 Email: alice@genderlinks.org.za research@genderlinks.org.za URL: www.genderlinks.org.za -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021205/39425320/attachment.html From nccadmin at seychelles.net Tue Dec 3 06:46:05 2002 From: nccadmin at seychelles.net (NCC-Administration) Date: Tue Apr 17 18:14:31 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] on-line training Message-ID: <002701c29a86$e660e480$29ee54ca@compaquser> Hello there Glad to hear from you at last. I thought colleen might have forgotten about us. Anyway, after the interesting sessions in seychelles, I definitely want to join the on-line training but we are in week 4 now, and I would like to know if its really possible to catch up or is it preferable to wait for the next session ? My best regards to Colleen and a special hello to you Lindiwe. I hope I''ll get the opportunity to meet you some day. Bye Jean- Claude Matombe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021203/b8709feb/attachment-0001.htm From lindiwe at genderlinks.org.za Mon Dec 2 13:32:34 2002 From: lindiwe at genderlinks.org.za (lindiwe nkutha) Date: Tue Apr 17 18:14:31 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing References: <003201c29455$27d7f2b0$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001601c296da$02ff06e0$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> <007501c29798$30e9b140$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001001c297a6$f22b8960$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> Message-ID: <004101c299f6$92a9c7c0$0f00a8c0@MOTH> Dear All We enter discussions for week 4 slightly later than is practice, I hope to hear your views on this problem that faces us in Southern Africa. Yours sincerely Lindiwe Nkutha Property grabbing "When a woman dies no man has to worry about the loss of his property nor his right to stake a claim to it, but when a man dies a woman worries about both her ability and right to hold on to her own individual as well as matrimonial property" Participant at a media training course on covering gender violence Amidst the increase of social ills such as poverty and economic inviability of average Southern African households, the death of the head of the household, mostly men, present opportunities for the economic violation of women. In many Southern African cultures, a woman, married or single cannot own property in her own right. This inability to own property particularly for married women opens the door for the man's family, in the name of culture, to present their demands upon his death of property they believe belonged to him solely. The absence of wills places widows at a disadvantage, with cultural practices and customary law privileging the man's family above his widow and children in determining who is entitled to "his" property upon his death. In southern Africa particularly, studies show that a large amount of people die without having prepared a testamentary succession plan for their property. Compounding the problem of intestate succession are other appending cultural practices which are practiced on the death of a man as a means of determining and defining a widow's position within the deceased's family. Practices such as wife inheritance; where a widow has to be inherited by a male relative of the man's family in order for her to retain her position within the family, as well as widow cleansing; where a widow before being inherited is believed needs to be cleansed of the spirit of the dead by engaging in sexual activities with a male relative of the deceased. Although the genesis of these practices (however patriarchal) were for economic reasons, mainly to secure the widows property by ensuring that "the man's" property stayed in her family for the support of herself and her children, increasingly it is these very practices that are being used as justification for her being stripped of the property that belongs to her and her children. Women who have refused to be inherited and thus opted out of the "protection" of her property offered culturally, have found that they have everything including their land and homes, only in very exceptional instances have they found they were left with what is referred to as bride property (all things found in a kitchen). Within the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the appending customary practices of widow cleansing and wife inheritance serve to put the widow at an increased risk of contracting HIV. Add this risk to the difficulty of accessing antiretroviral drugs, as was illustrated in brief during last week's discussion we find ourselves presented with yet another problem that of taking care of orphans whose parents may have lost their lives to the virus, the question that begs to be answered that becomes: Where the orphans parent's property has been appropriated by the deceased relatives who bears the responsibility to take care of these orphans. Let's then this week about amongst other things the following: 1.. Do cultural practices such as widow cleansing and wife inheritance increase the violation of women economically and make them more vulnerable to property grabbing? 2.. In the project of recovering good cultural practices and redressing gender imbalances, are there any ways in which these practices, the genesis of which were to protect women's economic viability after their husbands death, can be claimed as the protection measures which they were meant to be instead of being the catalyst to women's economic violation? 3.. How do we as communicators begin to address and fairly present the plight of HIV/AIDS orphans who in most cases find themselves without economic means of survival either from their relatives and or from the state? 4.. And finally what is the communicator's role in highlighting the ills, both cultural and economic which serve to entrench women's disempowerment? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021202/91072581/attachment-0001.html From nccadmin at seychelles.net Wed Dec 4 06:45:54 2002 From: nccadmin at seychelles.net (NCC-Administration) Date: Tue Apr 17 18:14:31 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] on line training (resent) Message-ID: <001601c29b53$3f06db40$68ee54ca@compaquser> Hello there Glad to hear from you at last. I thought colleen might have forgotten about us. Anyway, after the interesting sessions in seychelles, I definitely want to join the on-line training but we are in week 4 now, and I would like to know if its really possible to catch up or is it preferable to wait for the next session ? My best regards to Colleen and a special hello to you Lindiwe. I hope I''ll get the opportunity to meet you some day. Bye Jean- Claude Matombe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021204/9cab9301/attachment-0001.htm From ebasadi at global.bw Wed Dec 4 07:13:21 2002 From: ebasadi at global.bw (ebasadi) Date: Tue Apr 17 18:14:31 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing References: <003201c29455$27d7f2b0$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001601c296da$02ff06e0$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> <007501c29798$30e9b140$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001001c297a6$f22b8960$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> <004101c299f6$92a9c7c0$0f00a8c0@MOTH> Message-ID: <001001c29b53$de3807c0$b1e7fea9@peter> Good morning to you all Yes property grabbing is a problem that seem to affect the poor women in particular because property ownership has a class dimension in any economic context, its not only facilitated by cultural practices and believes. As regards the orphans- one way is to empower the poor families and the young. The reason for this is quite simple- they the youth as well as the poor families-especuially the poor women ought to know that part of it si do with ones' ability to interpret ones' world. You know women's worlds are different from the men's worlds. Because culture is not going to change itself- its needs a revolution perhaps. Prperty grabbing happens because of a number of reasons- but the inderlying believe is that women do not have power not the status to own property- this has been given ligitimacy by the traditional mercantile and upholded by the modern capitalism. It has both political and ideological dimensions that need to acknowledged as a tactical approach towards solving the persisting problem. In societies were class is pronounced property ownership is a sign of social standing and men have allways seen as identified by a male capitalist as well as wife of those who belong to the establishment as their divine right to own property. Today women are seen as clients who need to be serviced and least taken care of- thus denying them their right to own any means of property - remember this happens despite that in contenmporary capitalism property ownership is promoted as one of the pillars of liberal democracy- so you see the antithesis? This should form the beggining of prblemitising the issue instead iof repeatdly saying culture- culture is not behaving like a substance that change form or shape out of natural conditions. Peter ----- Original Message ----- From: lindiwe nkutha To: research ; egemtraining@lists.sn.apc.org Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 1:32 PM Subject: Re: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing Dear All We enter discussions for week 4 slightly later than is practice, I hope to hear your views on this problem that faces us in Southern Africa. Yours sincerely Lindiwe Nkutha Property grabbing "When a woman dies no man has to worry about the loss of his property nor his right to stake a claim to it, but when a man dies a woman worries about both her ability and right to hold on to her own individual as well as matrimonial property" Participant at a media training course on covering gender violence Amidst the increase of social ills such as poverty and economic inviability of average Southern African households, the death of the head of the household, mostly men, present opportunities for the economic violation of women. In many Southern African cultures, a woman, married or single cannot own property in her own right. This inability to own property particularly for married women opens the door for the man's family, in the name of culture, to present their demands upon his death of property they believe belonged to him solely. The absence of wills places widows at a disadvantage, with cultural practices and customary law privileging the man's family above his widow and children in determining who is entitled to "his" property upon his death. In southern Africa particularly, studies show that a large amount of people die without having prepared a testamentary succession plan for their property. Compounding the problem of intestate succession are other appending cultural practices which are practiced on the death of a man as a means of determining and defining a widow's position within the deceased's family. Practices such as wife inheritance; where a widow has to be inherited by a male relative of the man's family in order for her to retain her position within the family, as well as widow cleansing; where a widow before being inherited is believed needs to be cleansed of the spirit of the dead by engaging in sexual activities with a male relative of the deceased. Although the genesis of these practices (however patriarchal) were for economic reasons, mainly to secure the widows property by ensuring that "the man's" property stayed in her family for the support of herself and her children, increasingly it is these very practices that are being used as justification for her being stripped of the property that belongs to her and her children. Women who have refused to be inherited and thus opted out of the "protection" of her property offered culturally, have found that they have everything including their land and homes, only in very exceptional instances have they found they were left with what is referred to as bride property (all things found in a kitchen). Within the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the appending customary practices of widow cleansing and wife inheritance serve to put the widow at an increased risk of contracting HIV. Add this risk to the difficulty of accessing antiretroviral drugs, as was illustrated in brief during last week's discussion we find ourselves presented with yet another problem that of taking care of orphans whose parents may have lost their lives to the virus, the question that begs to be answered that becomes: Where the orphans parent's property has been appropriated by the deceased relatives who bears the responsibility to take care of these orphans. Let's then this week about amongst other things the following: 1.. Do cultural practices such as widow cleansing and wife inheritance increase the violation of women economically and make them more vulnerable to property grabbing? 2.. In the project of recovering good cultural practices and redressing gender imbalances, are there any ways in which these practices, the genesis of which were to protect women's economic viability after their husbands death, can be claimed as the protection measures which they were meant to be instead of being the catalyst to women's economic violation? 3.. How do we as communicators begin to address and fairly present the plight of HIV/AIDS orphans who in most cases find themselves without economic means of survival either from their relatives and or from the state? 4.. And finally what is the communicator's role in highlighting the ills, both cultural and economic which serve to entrench women's disempowerment? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021204/48253d3a/attachment-0001.html From research at genderlinks.org.za Wed Dec 4 08:43:26 2002 From: research at genderlinks.org.za (research) Date: Tue Apr 17 18:14:31 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing References: <003201c29455$27d7f2b0$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001601c296da$02ff06e0$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> <007501c29798$30e9b140$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001001c297a6$f22b8960$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> <004101c299f6$92a9c7c0$0f00a8c0@MOTH> <001001c29b53$de3807c0$b1e7fea9@peter> Message-ID: <003101c29b60$7386e060$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> Dear All A big hello everyone!!! I am back after a forced break...sorry for that!! A big thank you to Lindiwe for chatting with you for the whole of last week and the best part of this week!!! This week topic is indeed very interesting and am hoping that we will all b able to share our opinions today and tommorrow and we will as usual ask an expert to sum it up for us at the end of the day tommorrow. Thanks or your contribution Peter. One issue you raise, which i think is important for us to deliberate on is that "property grabbing has a class dimension and affects poor women more than the rich and that culture is not all that influences the trends, but class differences. What do other sthink? Lets talk!! Alice ----- Original Message ----- From: ebasadi To: lindiwe nkutha ; research ; egemtraining@lists.sn.apc.org Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 7:13 AM Subject: Re: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing Good morning to you all Yes property grabbing is a problem that seem to affect the poor women in particular because property ownership has a class dimension in any economic context, its not only facilitated by cultural practices and believes. As regards the orphans- one way is to empower the poor families and the young. The reason for this is quite simple- they the youth as well as the poor families-especuially the poor women ought to know that part of it si do with ones' ability to interpret ones' world. You know women's worlds are different from the men's worlds. Because culture is not going to change itself- its needs a revolution perhaps. Prperty grabbing happens because of a number of reasons- but the inderlying believe is that women do not have power not the status to own property- this has been given ligitimacy by the traditional mercantile and upholded by the modern capitalism. It has both political and ideological dimensions that need to acknowledged as a tactical approach towards solving the persisting problem. In societies were class is pronounced property ownership is a sign of social standing and men have allways seen as identified by a male capitalist as well as wife of those who belong to the establishment as their divine right to own property. Today women are seen as clients who need to be serviced and least taken care of- thus denying them their right to own any means of property - remember this happens despite that in contenmporary capitalism property ownership is promoted as one of the pillars of liberal democracy- so you see the antithesis? This should form the beggining of prblemitising the issue instead iof repeatdly saying culture- culture is not behaving like a substance that change form or shape out of natural conditions. Peter ----- Original Message ----- From: lindiwe nkutha To: research ; egemtraining@lists.sn.apc.org Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 1:32 PM Subject: Re: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing Dear All We enter discussions for week 4 slightly later than is practice, I hope to hear your views on this problem that faces us in Southern Africa. Yours sincerely Lindiwe Nkutha Property grabbing "When a woman dies no man has to worry about the loss of his property nor his right to stake a claim to it, but when a man dies a woman worries about both her ability and right to hold on to her own individual as well as matrimonial property" Participant at a media training course on covering gender violence Amidst the increase of social ills such as poverty and economic inviability of average Southern African households, the death of the head of the household, mostly men, present opportunities for the economic violation of women. In many Southern African cultures, a woman, married or single cannot own property in her own right. This inability to own property particularly for married women opens the door for the man's family, in the name of culture, to present their demands upon his death of property they believe belonged to him solely. The absence of wills places widows at a disadvantage, with cultural practices and customary law privileging the man's family above his widow and children in determining who is entitled to "his" property upon his death. In southern Africa particularly, studies show that a large amount of people die without having prepared a testamentary succession plan for their property. Compounding the problem of intestate succession are other appending cultural practices which are practiced on the death of a man as a means of determining and defining a widow's position within the deceased's family. Practices such as wife inheritance; where a widow has to be inherited by a male relative of the man's family in order for her to retain her position within the family, as well as widow cleansing; where a widow before being inherited is believed needs to be cleansed of the spirit of the dead by engaging in sexual activities with a male relative of the deceased. Although the genesis of these practices (however patriarchal) were for economic reasons, mainly to secure the widows property by ensuring that "the man's" property stayed in her family for the support of herself and her children, increasingly it is these very practices that are being used as justification for her being stripped of the property that belongs to her and her children. Women who have refused to be inherited and thus opted out of the "protection" of her property offered culturally, have found that they have everything including their land and homes, only in very exceptional instances have they found they were left with what is referred to as bride property (all things found in a kitchen). Within the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the appending customary practices of widow cleansing and wife inheritance serve to put the widow at an increased risk of contracting HIV. Add this risk to the difficulty of accessing antiretroviral drugs, as was illustrated in brief during last week's discussion we find ourselves presented with yet another problem that of taking care of orphans whose parents may have lost their lives to the virus, the question that begs to be answered that becomes: Where the orphans parent's property has been appropriated by the deceased relatives who bears the responsibility to take care of these orphans. Let's then this week about amongst other things the following: 1.. Do cultural practices such as widow cleansing and wife inheritance increase the violation of women economically and make them more vulnerable to property grabbing? 2.. In the project of recovering good cultural practices and redressing gender imbalances, are there any ways in which these practices, the genesis of which were to protect women's economic viability after their husbands death, can be claimed as the protection measures which they were meant to be instead of being the catalyst to women's economic violation? 3.. How do we as communicators begin to address and fairly present the plight of HIV/AIDS orphans who in most cases find themselves without economic means of survival either from their relatives and or from the state? 4.. And finally what is the communicator's role in highlighting the ills, both cultural and economic which serve to entrench women's disempowerment? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021204/9378f6b7/attachment-0001.htm From research at genderlinks.org.za Thu Dec 5 09:29:04 2002 From: research at genderlinks.org.za (research) Date: Tue Apr 17 18:14:31 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] Property Grabbing Message-ID: <002d01c29c2f$fdf17150$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> Dear all A good morning to you all! hoping ou are all still alive!! (smile) we have been rather quiet this week...is property grabbing not a criticl issue in our respective communities?? Lets talk about it!!!! Looking forward to hearing from all!!! Alice Kwaramba Senior Researcher Gender Links 1 Ernest Oppenheimer Street Lower Ground Floor Lakeside Place Bruma, 2198 Johannesburg South Africa Tel: +27 11 622 2877/7796 Fax: +27 11 622 4732 Email: alice@genderlinks.org.za research@genderlinks.org.za URL: www.genderlinks.org.za -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021205/39425320/attachment-0001.html From nccadmin at seychelles.net Tue Dec 3 06:46:05 2002 From: nccadmin at seychelles.net (NCC-Administration) Date: Wed May 23 11:00:11 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] on-line training Message-ID: <002701c29a86$e660e480$29ee54ca@compaquser> Hello there Glad to hear from you at last. I thought colleen might have forgotten about us. Anyway, after the interesting sessions in seychelles, I definitely want to join the on-line training but we are in week 4 now, and I would like to know if its really possible to catch up or is it preferable to wait for the next session ? My best regards to Colleen and a special hello to you Lindiwe. I hope I''ll get the opportunity to meet you some day. Bye Jean- Claude Matombe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021203/b8709feb/attachment-0002.htm From lindiwe at genderlinks.org.za Mon Dec 2 13:32:34 2002 From: lindiwe at genderlinks.org.za (lindiwe nkutha) Date: Wed May 23 11:00:11 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing References: <003201c29455$27d7f2b0$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001601c296da$02ff06e0$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> <007501c29798$30e9b140$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001001c297a6$f22b8960$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> Message-ID: <004101c299f6$92a9c7c0$0f00a8c0@MOTH> Dear All We enter discussions for week 4 slightly later than is practice, I hope to hear your views on this problem that faces us in Southern Africa. Yours sincerely Lindiwe Nkutha Property grabbing "When a woman dies no man has to worry about the loss of his property nor his right to stake a claim to it, but when a man dies a woman worries about both her ability and right to hold on to her own individual as well as matrimonial property" Participant at a media training course on covering gender violence Amidst the increase of social ills such as poverty and economic inviability of average Southern African households, the death of the head of the household, mostly men, present opportunities for the economic violation of women. In many Southern African cultures, a woman, married or single cannot own property in her own right. This inability to own property particularly for married women opens the door for the man's family, in the name of culture, to present their demands upon his death of property they believe belonged to him solely. The absence of wills places widows at a disadvantage, with cultural practices and customary law privileging the man's family above his widow and children in determining who is entitled to "his" property upon his death. In southern Africa particularly, studies show that a large amount of people die without having prepared a testamentary succession plan for their property. Compounding the problem of intestate succession are other appending cultural practices which are practiced on the death of a man as a means of determining and defining a widow's position within the deceased's family. Practices such as wife inheritance; where a widow has to be inherited by a male relative of the man's family in order for her to retain her position within the family, as well as widow cleansing; where a widow before being inherited is believed needs to be cleansed of the spirit of the dead by engaging in sexual activities with a male relative of the deceased. Although the genesis of these practices (however patriarchal) were for economic reasons, mainly to secure the widows property by ensuring that "the man's" property stayed in her family for the support of herself and her children, increasingly it is these very practices that are being used as justification for her being stripped of the property that belongs to her and her children. Women who have refused to be inherited and thus opted out of the "protection" of her property offered culturally, have found that they have everything including their land and homes, only in very exceptional instances have they found they were left with what is referred to as bride property (all things found in a kitchen). Within the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the appending customary practices of widow cleansing and wife inheritance serve to put the widow at an increased risk of contracting HIV. Add this risk to the difficulty of accessing antiretroviral drugs, as was illustrated in brief during last week's discussion we find ourselves presented with yet another problem that of taking care of orphans whose parents may have lost their lives to the virus, the question that begs to be answered that becomes: Where the orphans parent's property has been appropriated by the deceased relatives who bears the responsibility to take care of these orphans. Let's then this week about amongst other things the following: 1.. Do cultural practices such as widow cleansing and wife inheritance increase the violation of women economically and make them more vulnerable to property grabbing? 2.. In the project of recovering good cultural practices and redressing gender imbalances, are there any ways in which these practices, the genesis of which were to protect women's economic viability after their husbands death, can be claimed as the protection measures which they were meant to be instead of being the catalyst to women's economic violation? 3.. How do we as communicators begin to address and fairly present the plight of HIV/AIDS orphans who in most cases find themselves without economic means of survival either from their relatives and or from the state? 4.. And finally what is the communicator's role in highlighting the ills, both cultural and economic which serve to entrench women's disempowerment? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021202/91072581/attachment-0002.html From nccadmin at seychelles.net Wed Dec 4 06:45:54 2002 From: nccadmin at seychelles.net (NCC-Administration) Date: Wed May 23 11:00:11 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] on line training (resent) Message-ID: <001601c29b53$3f06db40$68ee54ca@compaquser> Hello there Glad to hear from you at last. I thought colleen might have forgotten about us. Anyway, after the interesting sessions in seychelles, I definitely want to join the on-line training but we are in week 4 now, and I would like to know if its really possible to catch up or is it preferable to wait for the next session ? My best regards to Colleen and a special hello to you Lindiwe. I hope I''ll get the opportunity to meet you some day. Bye Jean- Claude Matombe -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021204/9cab9301/attachment-0002.htm From ebasadi at global.bw Wed Dec 4 07:13:21 2002 From: ebasadi at global.bw (ebasadi) Date: Wed May 23 11:00:11 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing References: <003201c29455$27d7f2b0$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001601c296da$02ff06e0$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> <007501c29798$30e9b140$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001001c297a6$f22b8960$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> <004101c299f6$92a9c7c0$0f00a8c0@MOTH> Message-ID: <001001c29b53$de3807c0$b1e7fea9@peter> Good morning to you all Yes property grabbing is a problem that seem to affect the poor women in particular because property ownership has a class dimension in any economic context, its not only facilitated by cultural practices and believes. As regards the orphans- one way is to empower the poor families and the young. The reason for this is quite simple- they the youth as well as the poor families-especuially the poor women ought to know that part of it si do with ones' ability to interpret ones' world. You know women's worlds are different from the men's worlds. Because culture is not going to change itself- its needs a revolution perhaps. Prperty grabbing happens because of a number of reasons- but the inderlying believe is that women do not have power not the status to own property- this has been given ligitimacy by the traditional mercantile and upholded by the modern capitalism. It has both political and ideological dimensions that need to acknowledged as a tactical approach towards solving the persisting problem. In societies were class is pronounced property ownership is a sign of social standing and men have allways seen as identified by a male capitalist as well as wife of those who belong to the establishment as their divine right to own property. Today women are seen as clients who need to be serviced and least taken care of- thus denying them their right to own any means of property - remember this happens despite that in contenmporary capitalism property ownership is promoted as one of the pillars of liberal democracy- so you see the antithesis? This should form the beggining of prblemitising the issue instead iof repeatdly saying culture- culture is not behaving like a substance that change form or shape out of natural conditions. Peter ----- Original Message ----- From: lindiwe nkutha To: research ; egemtraining@lists.sn.apc.org Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 1:32 PM Subject: Re: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing Dear All We enter discussions for week 4 slightly later than is practice, I hope to hear your views on this problem that faces us in Southern Africa. Yours sincerely Lindiwe Nkutha Property grabbing "When a woman dies no man has to worry about the loss of his property nor his right to stake a claim to it, but when a man dies a woman worries about both her ability and right to hold on to her own individual as well as matrimonial property" Participant at a media training course on covering gender violence Amidst the increase of social ills such as poverty and economic inviability of average Southern African households, the death of the head of the household, mostly men, present opportunities for the economic violation of women. In many Southern African cultures, a woman, married or single cannot own property in her own right. This inability to own property particularly for married women opens the door for the man's family, in the name of culture, to present their demands upon his death of property they believe belonged to him solely. The absence of wills places widows at a disadvantage, with cultural practices and customary law privileging the man's family above his widow and children in determining who is entitled to "his" property upon his death. In southern Africa particularly, studies show that a large amount of people die without having prepared a testamentary succession plan for their property. Compounding the problem of intestate succession are other appending cultural practices which are practiced on the death of a man as a means of determining and defining a widow's position within the deceased's family. Practices such as wife inheritance; where a widow has to be inherited by a male relative of the man's family in order for her to retain her position within the family, as well as widow cleansing; where a widow before being inherited is believed needs to be cleansed of the spirit of the dead by engaging in sexual activities with a male relative of the deceased. Although the genesis of these practices (however patriarchal) were for economic reasons, mainly to secure the widows property by ensuring that "the man's" property stayed in her family for the support of herself and her children, increasingly it is these very practices that are being used as justification for her being stripped of the property that belongs to her and her children. Women who have refused to be inherited and thus opted out of the "protection" of her property offered culturally, have found that they have everything including their land and homes, only in very exceptional instances have they found they were left with what is referred to as bride property (all things found in a kitchen). Within the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the appending customary practices of widow cleansing and wife inheritance serve to put the widow at an increased risk of contracting HIV. Add this risk to the difficulty of accessing antiretroviral drugs, as was illustrated in brief during last week's discussion we find ourselves presented with yet another problem that of taking care of orphans whose parents may have lost their lives to the virus, the question that begs to be answered that becomes: Where the orphans parent's property has been appropriated by the deceased relatives who bears the responsibility to take care of these orphans. Let's then this week about amongst other things the following: 1.. Do cultural practices such as widow cleansing and wife inheritance increase the violation of women economically and make them more vulnerable to property grabbing? 2.. In the project of recovering good cultural practices and redressing gender imbalances, are there any ways in which these practices, the genesis of which were to protect women's economic viability after their husbands death, can be claimed as the protection measures which they were meant to be instead of being the catalyst to women's economic violation? 3.. How do we as communicators begin to address and fairly present the plight of HIV/AIDS orphans who in most cases find themselves without economic means of survival either from their relatives and or from the state? 4.. And finally what is the communicator's role in highlighting the ills, both cultural and economic which serve to entrench women's disempowerment? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021204/48253d3a/attachment-0002.html From research at genderlinks.org.za Wed Dec 4 08:43:26 2002 From: research at genderlinks.org.za (research) Date: Wed May 23 11:00:11 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing References: <003201c29455$27d7f2b0$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001601c296da$02ff06e0$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> <007501c29798$30e9b140$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> <001001c297a6$f22b8960$2e228d92@fnb.wits.ac.za> <004101c299f6$92a9c7c0$0f00a8c0@MOTH> <001001c29b53$de3807c0$b1e7fea9@peter> Message-ID: <003101c29b60$7386e060$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> Dear All A big hello everyone!!! I am back after a forced break...sorry for that!! A big thank you to Lindiwe for chatting with you for the whole of last week and the best part of this week!!! This week topic is indeed very interesting and am hoping that we will all b able to share our opinions today and tommorrow and we will as usual ask an expert to sum it up for us at the end of the day tommorrow. Thanks or your contribution Peter. One issue you raise, which i think is important for us to deliberate on is that "property grabbing has a class dimension and affects poor women more than the rich and that culture is not all that influences the trends, but class differences. What do other sthink? Lets talk!! Alice ----- Original Message ----- From: ebasadi To: lindiwe nkutha ; research ; egemtraining@lists.sn.apc.org Sent: Wednesday, December 04, 2002 7:13 AM Subject: Re: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing Good morning to you all Yes property grabbing is a problem that seem to affect the poor women in particular because property ownership has a class dimension in any economic context, its not only facilitated by cultural practices and believes. As regards the orphans- one way is to empower the poor families and the young. The reason for this is quite simple- they the youth as well as the poor families-especuially the poor women ought to know that part of it si do with ones' ability to interpret ones' world. You know women's worlds are different from the men's worlds. Because culture is not going to change itself- its needs a revolution perhaps. Prperty grabbing happens because of a number of reasons- but the inderlying believe is that women do not have power not the status to own property- this has been given ligitimacy by the traditional mercantile and upholded by the modern capitalism. It has both political and ideological dimensions that need to acknowledged as a tactical approach towards solving the persisting problem. In societies were class is pronounced property ownership is a sign of social standing and men have allways seen as identified by a male capitalist as well as wife of those who belong to the establishment as their divine right to own property. Today women are seen as clients who need to be serviced and least taken care of- thus denying them their right to own any means of property - remember this happens despite that in contenmporary capitalism property ownership is promoted as one of the pillars of liberal democracy- so you see the antithesis? This should form the beggining of prblemitising the issue instead iof repeatdly saying culture- culture is not behaving like a substance that change form or shape out of natural conditions. Peter ----- Original Message ----- From: lindiwe nkutha To: research ; egemtraining@lists.sn.apc.org Sent: Monday, December 02, 2002 1:32 PM Subject: Re: [Egemtraining] Property grabbing Dear All We enter discussions for week 4 slightly later than is practice, I hope to hear your views on this problem that faces us in Southern Africa. Yours sincerely Lindiwe Nkutha Property grabbing "When a woman dies no man has to worry about the loss of his property nor his right to stake a claim to it, but when a man dies a woman worries about both her ability and right to hold on to her own individual as well as matrimonial property" Participant at a media training course on covering gender violence Amidst the increase of social ills such as poverty and economic inviability of average Southern African households, the death of the head of the household, mostly men, present opportunities for the economic violation of women. In many Southern African cultures, a woman, married or single cannot own property in her own right. This inability to own property particularly for married women opens the door for the man's family, in the name of culture, to present their demands upon his death of property they believe belonged to him solely. The absence of wills places widows at a disadvantage, with cultural practices and customary law privileging the man's family above his widow and children in determining who is entitled to "his" property upon his death. In southern Africa particularly, studies show that a large amount of people die without having prepared a testamentary succession plan for their property. Compounding the problem of intestate succession are other appending cultural practices which are practiced on the death of a man as a means of determining and defining a widow's position within the deceased's family. Practices such as wife inheritance; where a widow has to be inherited by a male relative of the man's family in order for her to retain her position within the family, as well as widow cleansing; where a widow before being inherited is believed needs to be cleansed of the spirit of the dead by engaging in sexual activities with a male relative of the deceased. Although the genesis of these practices (however patriarchal) were for economic reasons, mainly to secure the widows property by ensuring that "the man's" property stayed in her family for the support of herself and her children, increasingly it is these very practices that are being used as justification for her being stripped of the property that belongs to her and her children. Women who have refused to be inherited and thus opted out of the "protection" of her property offered culturally, have found that they have everything including their land and homes, only in very exceptional instances have they found they were left with what is referred to as bride property (all things found in a kitchen). Within the context of the HIV/AIDS pandemic, the appending customary practices of widow cleansing and wife inheritance serve to put the widow at an increased risk of contracting HIV. Add this risk to the difficulty of accessing antiretroviral drugs, as was illustrated in brief during last week's discussion we find ourselves presented with yet another problem that of taking care of orphans whose parents may have lost their lives to the virus, the question that begs to be answered that becomes: Where the orphans parent's property has been appropriated by the deceased relatives who bears the responsibility to take care of these orphans. Let's then this week about amongst other things the following: 1.. Do cultural practices such as widow cleansing and wife inheritance increase the violation of women economically and make them more vulnerable to property grabbing? 2.. In the project of recovering good cultural practices and redressing gender imbalances, are there any ways in which these practices, the genesis of which were to protect women's economic viability after their husbands death, can be claimed as the protection measures which they were meant to be instead of being the catalyst to women's economic violation? 3.. How do we as communicators begin to address and fairly present the plight of HIV/AIDS orphans who in most cases find themselves without economic means of survival either from their relatives and or from the state? 4.. And finally what is the communicator's role in highlighting the ills, both cultural and economic which serve to entrench women's disempowerment? -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021204/9378f6b7/attachment-0002.htm From research at genderlinks.org.za Thu Dec 5 09:29:04 2002 From: research at genderlinks.org.za (research) Date: Wed May 23 11:00:11 2007 Subject: [Egemtraining] Property Grabbing Message-ID: <002d01c29c2f$fdf17150$0e00a8c0@ALICEK> Dear all A good morning to you all! hoping ou are all still alive!! (smile) we have been rather quiet this week...is property grabbing not a criticl issue in our respective communities?? Lets talk about it!!!! Looking forward to hearing from all!!! Alice Kwaramba Senior Researcher Gender Links 1 Ernest Oppenheimer Street Lower Ground Floor Lakeside Place Bruma, 2198 Johannesburg South Africa Tel: +27 11 622 2877/7796 Fax: +27 11 622 4732 Email: alice@genderlinks.org.za research@genderlinks.org.za URL: www.genderlinks.org.za -------------- next part -------------- An HTML attachment was scrubbed... URL: http://lists.sn.apc.org/pipermail/egemtraining/attachments/20021205/39425320/attachment-0002.html