The Question of Land Access and Ownership by Women in Cameroon: A Case Study of the Bakweri Women

ABSTRACT

This article reports on a study that examined the Bakweri women and the land question in Cameroon in terms of access and ownership. This is in view of the observed deprivation of women from land ownership due to socio-cultural practice resulting from the patriarchy that dominates most of Cameroon. This is so in spite of increased involvement of women in food crop production. The question of the Bakweri women and their access to and ownership of land is significant given the fact that Cameroon has a National Gender Policy which recognises the problem, but does not provide a solution. The focus of the article was also necessitated by the fact that extant studies on women and land tenure in Cameroon were done in other parts of the country with little or nothing on the Bakweris in the Fako Division of the South West Region. Therefore, in seeking to address this gap, the study interrogated whether or not the Bakweri women were recipients of land or were only observers in the land distribution to the indigenes. The study used a qualitative exploratory approach whereby both observations and in-depth interviews were used for data collection from purposively sampled Bakweri women and village councillors in three villages that recently acquired land from the government.

Keywords:

• land
• access
• ownership
• Bakweri women
• Cameroon