Women are the mainstay of agriculture in Africa
Ndella N’Diaye grows vegetables as part of a women farmers’ cooperative. It goes by the name of Gie Book Liggey, which translates as ‘getting things done together’. Women smallholders are the driving force behind the production of animal and agricultural products in Africa. Across the continent as a whole, women produce around 80 per cent of all food and make up half of the agricultural workforce.
Ndella N’Diaye is now back at the smallholding, which is also home to her parents-in-law. For a time, she farmed her own plot there. Selling the tomatoes she grew on it helped her earn enough money to pay for school. ‘My plot was over there,’ she says, pointing to an area near the fence. But that suddenly came to an abrupt end. Without warning, the municipality claimed the land for itself, saying that it might want to build houses there in the future.
Until recently, this sort of thing was not unusual in Senegal. Individual land ownership and secure ownership rights were the exception. Even families who had farmed plots for decades often had no written evidence to document their long-established use of the land. If enquiries were made – by the municipality, for example – it was only the men who were contacted in any case. Nobody listened to the women.
Similarly, it is the sons, not the daughters, who inherit land in Senegal. Until recently, this principle was also reflected in the legal system. Only one family member could be registered as the ‘entitled user’, and this was generally the male head of the family. A new law has now changed this, allowing all family members to register their rights to the land. This is a milestone for women in particular.
‘It was always the men who decided which plots the women would get,’ says Ndella N’Diaye. And with no legal security, women were constantly at risk of losing them again. This degree of dependency is very stressful, she says, as she gets started on her cooking, putting water on to boil over the open hearth for rice. ‘Losing my plot was a terrible experience for me. But back then there was nothing I could do,’ she recalls.