A Woman & her Land - Uganda Land Alliance

somber mood still hang aroundA Pauline Orama’sface when the UgandaLand AllianceDocumentation teamvisited her homein Kweyo village,Ongako Sub-County, Gulu; butas she narrated herpainful ordeal, thestar of the winner inher was very evident. Inher words mentioned to usthrough a translator, Paulinesaid, “At least I am now happyand somehow settled because FIDA helped me”.Pauline Orama (46), a mother of 8 childrensuccumbed to the practice of widow inheritancefollowing the passing on of his first husband OboteGodfrey. She explained to us that in their culture,“The issue of a man owning his land does notexist,” but if he dies, the wife continues using theland where she used to dig. The confidence withwhich she hinted on this showed no signs of landownership hinged on a thin thread because asindeed many cultural leaders explained; land inyester-days was never a problem!Throughout the interview, Pauline appeared to havedisturbed memory of critical events that happenedin her life, but it appears that she was later advisedby her mother in-law to get married to her brotherin-law for the sake of raising the children. Sheconsequently was inherited by Opira Samuel, whosadly also died not long after delivering with him,another set of 4 children.Pauline Orama poses for a group photo at her home inKweyo Sub County, Gulu districtCase StudiesBy now she hadtransferred from herfirst husband’s landto Opira’s, whereshe continued tostay until anotherbrother in-lawattempted tochase her away.Pauline was notabout to becomedestitute. She raisedthe matter to the LCswho ruled in her favor,but the judgment wasnot honoured by the respondent, Peter Onek. Wespoke with the LC I Chairman Olango Bosco and heconfirmed participation in this case at some point.He said, “… since then she has not come back tocomplain.”The matter was only settled after a friend advisedPauline to seek redress from FIDA-Uganda-Guluoffice. FIDA Uganda is a long serving member ofthe Uganda Land Alliance. A date was set for theinspection of the land in question and a meetingwas called, attended by clan leaders, LCs and theconflicting parties. It was later agreed that Paulineretains part of the land where she resided and aportion of the land under conflict was to be given toPeter Onek, in the interest of keeping peace.Pauline now says that since the mediation meeting,she has not had any other problems over her land.She has now planted some Maize, G. Nuts, Cassava,and wants to also plant some Cabbages soon.16