WUNRN
Matrilineality - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Matrilineality
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CAMEROON - MATRILINEAL INHERITANCE
CUSTOM NOT LEGAL BUT TRIBAL TRADITION - COMPLEXITIES FOR WOMEN
It's not legal for property to flow to the son of the sister of the deceased.
But that's the inheritance custom of one clan in
Families of the
Balue tribe debate the matrilineal inheritance system in Cameroon.
Credit: U.N.
Photo
DIKOME
BALUE, Cameroon (WOMENSENEWS)--James Elangwe, 87, belongs to the Balues, the
only clan in which inheritance passes through the female line.
But this
doesn't mean that women inherit. Instead, it means that when a man dies, the
first son of the man's sister inherits.
Elangwe
says matrilineal inheritance puts women at a greater disadvantage than
patrilineal inheritance because wealth leaves the immediate family.
Elangwe's
wife belongs to a tribe where inheritance passes from father to son in a
patrilineal system. Women cannot inherit, but he says at least it stays within
the immediate family if there is a son.
He says
his wife stands to lose from both ends. Because she comes from a patrilineal
society, she won't receive any property from her own lineage. Nor will she inherit
from her husband's family because of matrilineal succession.
"This
issue of my sister's children inheriting my property after I have died is a
worrying issue," Elangwe says. "I cannot stand to see the fruits of
my family labor falling in the hands of some family members who did not
contribute in the development of it."
Elangwe
says he was supposed to inherit his uncle's property when he died through the
matrilineal system. But he refused the inheritance and passed it over to his
cousin, the uncle's son. Still, he says this doesn't mean his sister's son will
do the same for his children when he dies.
So Elangwe
says he has been doing everything possible to secure his family's future and
lessen the emphasis on property since he won't be able to pass his on to them.
"I
have given all my children the most precious gift in life: education," he
says. "I believe with education they can better take care of themselves
and remove their focus from some insignificant property that I have."
Various
members of the Balue tribe object to this system that moves property out of the
nuclear family to the extended family.
While some defenders of the practice say it's tradition, it's actually not legal for extended family members to inherit property before wives and children. Lawyers encourage the Balues to pursue cases in court. Community organizations are also working to reverse this practice.
Proud and
Arrogant Son
Pauline
Bekomba, 60, is a mother of seven children: four boys and three girls. She was
the first daughter in a lineage that has only one son. As tradition demands,
her first son has the right to inherit his uncle's property. But she is bitter
about how her son manages all the property that he has inherited.
"When
my brother died, all his property was given to Jonas, my son, including beds,
pots and plates," she says. "He has three cocoa farms to manage.
Behold, I am an old wretched and poor woman. I go without body lotion, but my
son is controlling millions he got from my brother's property."
Her voice
cracks when she talks.
Bekomba
says her son has become proud and arrogant with property for which he did not
even work.
"My
sisters, too, have sons, but my son has sat on all the property he
inherited," Bekomba says. "I am not on talking terms with my sisters,
and that alone is killing me because I know my son is the cause. He is supposed
to share the property with his cousins and us, the mothers, but he is not.
After all, it is his decision to decide who gets what."
Bekomba
asks the Balue village chiefs and council of elders to come together to review
this practice.
Comfort
Motale, 34, is a native of Bafaka Balue, another Balue village. She also says
matrilineality is the worst tradition that the Balue people have.
Motale
says she didn't advance to secondary school because her father died during her
final year of primary school. The son of her aunt, her father's sister,
inherited all her father's property, leaving her family with nothing.
"We all dropped out of school," she says of her siblings. "Me, my mother and my younger brothers and sisters all relocated to my grandfather's house, my mother's father. That is where we grew up, and that is where my mother is still living for the past 22 years."
Forced
Circumstances
Motale
says the situation forced her to become pregnant in seventh grade because she
needed a man who could give her money in order to eat. She says she and her two
sisters all became mothers in their teens, adding to the number of mouths to
feed.
"I
regret being a part of such a nasty tradition," she says.
She
doesn't plan to continue it.
"I
can never get married to a Balue man, believe me," Motale says. "I
want to cut myself off [from] this traumatizing tradition."
Thomas
Nanje, 47, is a beneficiary of matrilineality. He ended his education in sixth
grade when he inherited property from one of his uncles. His mother had two
brothers, and as the first son of his mother, he is the next of kin to his two
uncles.
He says
that Balues can't abolish a tradition their people have practiced for
generations. He is proud to have inherited from his two uncles, and he decides
how to redistribute it to the rest of the family members.
"Matrilineality
is a tradition that was handed down to us from our forefathers," Nanje
says. "They had a reason for instituting such a custom. Every village has
its customs and practices that they hold tight unto. The Balues, too, have
matrilineality as their heritage and it should not be abolished."
But Roger Ottang, a barrister working with Fraternity Chambers, a law firm, disagrees and says matrilineality should be abolished. He says that the father, mother and children are all contributors to the development of a nuclear family. As such, property of a family belongs to the family as a unit, not to extended family members.
Questions on Cultures
Though
customary law exists, there is no justification for bad cultures, Ottang adds.
All cultural practices should pass the legal test for them to be considered
good customs.
He says
matrilineality backs women, especially widows, into a tight corner. By law,
extended family members do not have the right to take property from a family,
even in cases in which the deceased did not leave a will. Even in the absence
of a will, the law requires property to go first to the wife and then the
children. Family members follow later.
He says
that some men and women bring matrilineal inheritance cases to court, but it is
rare. He encourages more families to do so.
"I
will advise any woman faced with the problem of loss of property as a result of
matrilineality to seek the assistance of a lawyer or go to the court," he
says.
Elangwe
says that he and others have been fighting to abolish matrilineality since the
1970s through an organization called Balue Development Organisation (BADO).
"Being
an executive member of BADO at the time was very challenging, especially as
there were members who were beneficiaries of matrilineality," he says.
"This helped to slow down the process of wiping out matrilineality. But I
believe as more and more Balue children get education, the fight will get
stronger, and some day they will see a reason to abolish matrilineality."