Towards egalitarian inheritance rights in Botswana: the case of Tlokweng

Abstract

This paper explores the extent to which recent social, economic, demographic and environmental changes in Botswana have enabled women to inherit land, housing and other household assets. Using qualitative data from a study undertaken in the peri-urban village of Tlokweng, the paper notes that, unlike in the past when women were largely excluded from property inheritance, the majority of parents who participated in the study on which this paper is based are now more inclined and willing to share their estate equally among all their children or to favour daughters over sons in deciding who should inherit residential properties. The changes, which are heavily contested by older women, young men and teenage boys, appear to have been due primarily to increased numbers of female heads of households and the role played by unmarried daughters in developing the family estate and caring for the aging parents.

Keywords:

• Property inheritance
• customary laws
• gender
• generation
• Botswana

Notes

¹Throughout this paper, the terms ‘tradition’ and ‘traditional’ are used to refer to dynamic but common, indigenous, historical, culturally based and unregulated artefacts and ways of living that the present generation or immediate past generations inherited from previous generations.

²Although many people are employed as teachers, civil servants, and so forth, they may still be engaged in arable and/or pastoral farming.