‘Visitors have become owners’: internationalization of land and its implication for rural women

Abstract

ABSTRACT Internationalisation of land, a product of capitalism, affects economically vulnerable rural women and their families in diverse ways. By emphasising individual landownership, it creates more avenues for men’s domination in landownership. Scholarly works on land administration and its effect on women abound; however, little is known as to whether internationalisation of land empowers women and reduces poverty among rural women. This study applied an ethnographic approach exploring narratives and experiences of rural women in areas of Amuru District in northern Uganda. The study employed a qualitative design, using semi-structured interviews, Focus Group Discussions, and passive observation. This paper argues that customary landownership gives and protects the right of women to access and use land, thus enabling them to perform gender roles in the community. The study revealed that, by giving unequal rights to community members, individual landownership affects women more than men, thus placing vulnerable women at the lowest end of the scale.