Changing Land Tenure Regimes in a Matrilineal Village of South Eastern Tanzania

Social and cultural factors governing access to land in a village of matrilineal peoples of southeastern Tanzania were analysed through group interviews and the life stories of 13 women collected in 1997. Land has become scarce with increasing population density. Access to land is mainly obtained through family relations, where people from clans claiming first occupancy of the area have access to more and better land. When relatives cannot provide land, clan members or village government officials are approached. Although clan membership is still defined by maternal line of descent, inheritance follows a bilineal pattern and marriages tend to be patrilocal. Women and men have equal rights of ownership, but it is harder for women to keep control over their land when marriages are patrilocal. With the new land law (1999), which recognizes customarily-obtained land as fully legal, jurisdiction over land is vested in the village government. This raises the concern that socioeconomically weaker people may further lose control over land. However, the new land law could prove positive for sustainable land management by better securing land rights of better-off people. App., bibliogr., notes, sum. [Journal abstract]