Speargrass Blossoms: Patriarchy and the Cultural Politics of Women’s Ephemerality on the Land in Acholi

Abstract

ABSTRACT Women’s land rights remain a highly contentious issue across much of contemporary Africa. Often, social infrastructures, namely the law, culture and patriarchy, are impugned for excluding women from the land. While sometimes culture sustains social injustices, it also paradoxically provides the scale of justice. With reference to post-war Acholi society, I question the role of patriarchy in buttressing the temporariness of women on the land by anchoring my discussion in three Acholi cultural expressions. First, the metaphor that lutino anyira turu obiya, girl children are speargrass blossoms which indicates that girls are considered as ephemeral in natal lands since they emigrate in marriage and gain land rights in their nuptial lands. Second, the metaphor of lutino awobe okutu lang’oo – boy children are cordia africana thorn bushes, which is a plant associated with permanency and territoriality. Third, the proverb gang ber ki mon, the home is good with women. The femininisation of home-making in this proverb indicates how gender dynamism in Acholi utilises femininity as an organising principle and that patriarchy safeguards land rights through marriage, ancestry and kinship.