Mechanisms and the Contexts Shaping Women’s Access to Customary Land in the Era of HIV/AIDS in Bukombe District, Tanzania

Abstract

Customary land access in Sub-Saharan Africa has generated extensive scholarly debate with one prominent strand focusing on the effects of HIV/AIDS on women's land rights. However, there remains limited clarity regarding the mechanisms and contexts through which the epidemic shapes women’s access to customary land. This research draws on Ribot and Peluso’s access theory that conceptualizes land access as a manifestation of social power. An in-depth ethnographic account of five selected HIV/AIDS-affected individuals was used to examine their experiences with access to customary land. Lyambamgongo Village in Bukombe District, Tanzania, was purposefully selected basing on its relatively high adult HIV prevalence rate (7.1%) and entrenched patriarchal practices governing land access. Findings indicate that HIV/AIDS significantly weakens women’s capacity to access land, particularly in contexts marked by unequal social relations, land contestations and pluralistic legal frameworks. The study concludes that while HIV/AIDS exacerbates gender inequalities and intensifies disputes over land, it simultaneously reveals the adaptive and strategic agency of women, to navigate plural legal systems to assert and consolidate their land claims. Thus, the study calls for legal frameworks in Tanzania to strengthen women's formal land rights and for researches on HIV to adopt more nuanced, reflexive approaches that recognize the dynamic interplay of vulnerability and agency of women.

Key words: Customary land, access, legal plurality, instabilities, inequalities, Lyambamgongo