Issues in Women's Land Rights in Cameroon

Chapter Four - Exploring Women’s Rights within the Cameroonian Legal System: Where do Customary Practices of Bride-Price Fit in?

65 Chapter Four Exploring Women’s Rights within the Cameroonian Legal System: Where do Customary Practices of Bride-Price Fit in? Vera N. Ngassa Abstract Colonization came along with different civilizations, giving traditional rulers subordinate positions, which were seemingly adopted later by government after independence. The government instituted laws with unprecedented human rights for women, notably in the constitution and the Civil Status Registration Ordinance of 1981, which redefined marriage, paternity, bride-price and widowhood. These developments notwithstanding, the socio-legal status of the Cameroonian woman remains an uphill task, as the woman is often seen as a source of wealth subject to male domination. This paper gives an overview of women’s rights with regards to customs related to bride-price, which defines marriage, childbirth, paternity, widowhood and property. It defines custom in historical context, portraying it as the only government and religion of the people before colonization. The paper conceptualizes gender within the context of human rights and liberties particular to women because of their vulnerability. It focuses on customs relating to brideprice , especially, and discussed the impact of bride price on the dissolution of marriage, widowhood, the practice of levirate, ownership of property and the paternity of a child, which according to custom, depends on the payment of the bride. The paper concludes that since custom is made by man, whatever is made by man can be improved upon, modified or discarded. 66 Introduction Prior to the advent of colonialism in Cameroon, as in most parts of Africa, the only government, law and religion were custom. Custom was created, enforced and maintained through the institutions of chieftaincy, family, kinship, clans and ancestral worship. Custom can be defined as a usage or practice of society, which by common adoption and acquiescence and by long and unvarying habit has become compulsory, and which has acquired the force of law in a given society. Customary law consists of the indigenous customs of traditional communities. Every ethnic group in Africa has evolved its own discrete customary legal system of rules that are binding on its members. Unlike ordinary social habits and observances, the rules carry along with them local sanctions for their breach. For the most part, the rules are unwritten.45 The context in which custom was developed made it not only vital but relevant. The pre-colonial days were perilous times characterized by tribal wars, fights to establish tribes, migration, slavery and slave trade, ritual killings and sometimes cannibalism. It is obvious that with little or no technology, in an age when traveling was mostly by foot (except in cases where the chief was carried on a palanquin), and with the workforce coming from within the family survival could only be ensured by dwelling in clans and family, and customary rules had to be developed to ensure order. When the colonial masters came, they brought in a different civilization, government, laws and religion. There was a separation between customary law and colonial law, and custom was relegated to matters that dealt specifically with natives. Customary Courts were created and even had criminal jurisdictions. Traditional rulers, instead 45 Akintunde O. Obilade, 1979, The Nigerian Legal System, Sweet & Maxwell, 1979p.83 67 of being the ultimate authority, now became subject to the colonial masters. It should also be noted that during this period, custom was somewhat diluted in the transfer of colonial rule. This is because certain practices which the white man considered barbaric were either outlawed, punished or willfully abandoned through the influence of Christianity. In some cases, the people themselves learned certain convenient habits and replaced old usages. For instance, the killing of twins in certain parts of Africa gradually stopped and the practice of burying chiefs with live slaves was abandoned. The mysticism that used to accompany certain dreaded diseases like smallpox evaporated when the Whiteman demystified it with a medical cure. Thus the customary law as it is today is a diluted version of its pre-colonial form. Then came the period of the British and French Mandates after the Germans were defeated in the First World War. The British and the French brought in their laws and permitted native laws and customs only insofar as they were convenient to their rule. After independence, governments of the newly independent states sought to merge customs and received western laws. Upon independence, Cameroon recognized the institution of customary law. Ordinance No. 72/4 of 6th July 1974...