By Abass Jalloh
Women in the districts of Kenema, Port Loko, Pujehun and Tonkolili have expressed satisfaction and support for the Customary Land Rights Act and Land Rights Commission Act, noting that these laws have helped them become aware knowledgeable on issues concerning land and their livelihoods as women.
In a programme attended by many representatives of Ministries, Departments and Agencies across Sierra Leone, senior women representatives from these districts made their position known at Dohas Hotel in Bo during the Annual General Assembly and launch of the Land for Life movement which seeks to promote land governance and food systems in Sierra Leone.
In their various testimonies, Susan Conteh from Tonkolili, Saffiatu Tunis Carew from Pujehun, Kadiatu Tholley from Port Loko, and Christopher Morie Brima from Kenema were thankful for the empowerment and the impact of increasing knowledge to women in customary land rights issues.
Susan was concerned about how they were bullied prior to the intervention of the Land for Life organization, noting that she is now taking the lead alongside women in Tonkolili.
For her part Saffiatu said the organization has been “a blessing” to both the private and public sectors. She said they joined the forestry reserve, revealing for instance that Land for Life has been part of the dispute resolution process when damage was caused by the practice of timber cutting.
Kadiatu recalled when acres of land were sold by their community in Port Loko and that women in this regard were never put in front and were in the end discriminated against. She however said since the inception of the organization they have been impacted, noting that they engaged in several trainings as other organizations wanted to help them.
Before the arrival of the organization, Kenema was faced with challenges and conflict in areas like Dama Chiefdom, according to Christopher, and that people have been grabbing acres of land without the knowledge of the land owners, but these issues have now been addressed.
According to the Executive Director of the Network Movement for Justice and Development (NMJD), Abu A. Brima, who is also the National Convener of Land for Life, the organization started in 2019 and is a global initiative that has been taking place in other countries like Burkina Faso and Liberia.
In looking at ways to succeed in the establishment of the organization, Brima stated that they investigated issues like what constitutes governance system, regulations, existing laws, institutions and organizations, and investors. They were then able to formulate a strategy, according to him.
He added that they implemented needs assessment for various districts on large scale investors based on what is happening between companies and local community people.
In his keynote address, the Commissioner of the National Lands Commission, Sheik Sowa, said having realized that the movement is created for the land laws to succeed, he was more concerned that people have not been registered with land based on individual conveyance, adding that a land buyer would have to be in different offices to succeed in purchasing a land.
He said formation of the land commission will help to make people take their land issues to the commission and possibly engage the parties.
He said: “The land commission has a mandate to register all private and public lands in Sierra Leone. We do not want to involve in a dispute land. We would have to settle the dispute before commissioning it.”
In August this year, Parliament enacted the Customary Land Rights Act and the Land Commission Act which will help boost the rights of rural landowners and women against land acquisition by big mining and agribusiness companies in Sierra Leone. In essence, companies in various areas across the country will now have to obtain the consent of the local people before starting activities like farming, industrialization, and mining.
Copyright © 2022 Politico Online (23/12/22)
