marcus garvey pan african university - Blackherbals.com

Continued from page 35 – Applied Afrikology, Restorative
Practices and Community Resilience in the Mt. Elgon Area
noticed between the two couple to be of the potential to
lead to gross violence (death) then the woman is sent back
to her family home for some time to allow the husband
time to ‘cool off’.
Divorces as such have to be on solid grounds. Impotency
and bad spiritual activities etc by either party is often
considered good reasons. An Ot-Lim is refund is initiated
once a divorce is granted; the refund is not given in full as
certain deductions have to be taken into account.
Afterwards the parties are then allowed to remarry.
Vicky added that Ot-Lim is only refunded that once the
bride remarries, and only if she goes through the subcounty.
Lak then observed that “if a woman divorce and leaves
the man and a refund is made. She still has the right to
return to her original first husband, and he has no right to
prevent her”. He went to argue that modern systems of
regulating marriages often make references to tradition at
times of difficulties. For instance, he wondered, “what
happens when a woman who had children and then
decides to marry. Whom do the children belong to?”
Participants seemed divided on the matter; some argued
the children belonged to the new husband whilst other
supported the previous husband. Traditional case studies
were then given by Mr Okello in support of traditional
inheritance rules.
In conclusion, the dialogue settled that inheritance was not
so much a common feature in their society this is because
of their polygamy permitted in their culture. Others argued
that the purpose of inheritance was to maintain continuity,
reproduction and clan strength. Both Coo Too (widower)
and Da-Too (widow) have rights in the event of death.
Banya Angelo observed that widow inheritance was
difficult these days; she went on to blame the difficulty on
modernity. “Our women have adopted a lot of foreign
culture and are demanding for all sorts of freedoms”, he
said.
Lak said that inheritance was about children, “it is a
dynamic affair not a static one. Dog ot lako twolo (the
door is always open)”. One woman, a local leader, asked:
“Will I lose all my property, including what I bought with
my late husband to the inheritor?”
Mr Anchelang answered: “The woman has the right to the
customary land in the village and the land or property in
town”. Before the dialogue came to an end, Judith Max
came in and observed that “there are two parts of the
properties (customary and personal or family)”, she went
on to say that “she’d have no claim to the customary but
full entitlement to the personal or family property”.
-36- Traditional African Clinic August 2013
A song was then sung in Acholi by women as they
laughed and walked out of the dialogue. It went like
this…Lut kot go cwara weka meya…may thunderstorm
struck my husband and leave my lover…
Cultural Lessons drawn from the dialogues
One thing clear that we can draw from these dialogues is
that there is no African country that is free of African
traditions or free of at least some elements that belong to
western modernity. Drawing from the community
conversations, it is therefore logical that governments in
East Africa, in one way or another, try and make
decisions about the legal and political position of both
tradition and modernity in their social and legal systems.
After all, most of the crises that local communities are
facing have been expounded by the recommendations
that these communities have received from foreign and
local “experts” on Human rights and development. The
concept of development has its roots in the notion of
progress, which is fundamentally a materialist
philosophy bent on unlimited growth or exploitation and
accumulation. The African bureaucrats and political
elites have been unable to draw on their concept of
community or bondless of life when taking decisions on
national policies.
Women’s rights, no matter how we eventually refine the
concept, demand that residences old and young, male
and female in the urban as well as in the rural centers are
heard, and not pushed aside. People in the villages and
other rural parameters, commonly referred to as the
“illiterates” or the “uneducated” in modernist lingo, who
make up the majority of the African communities need
to gain a ‘voice’ in the parlance of contemporary
community, cultural or political studies speak. Whether
we use the older language of “empowerment” or the
current speak of the epistemology of the ‘heart’ as
defined by Afrikology, the philosophical language of the
moment, the message is clear. People cannot plan and or
speak for others; people must be given a chance to
participate in meaningful ways in resolving the
challenges of discrimination whether man- made or from
nature. Solutions must be inclusive not exclusive.
As a result, these dialogues about modernist verses
tradition conceptions of women’s rights have depended
on thinking about the world in an organic, incremental,
bottom up terms rather overarching, top down
abstractions. It has also been about accommodation and
accumulation of small scale change that adds value to
our communities in how community members view
women and the discourses concerning their rights. To
paraphrase the late Professor Nabudere’s horizontal
concept, there can be no single ‘centre’ that will
determine the existence of all human beings everywhere
Continued on page 37