Date: 28th August 2013
Agenda, the feminist journal based in Durban, Kwazulu-Natal, will be holding a Feminist Dialogue on ‘Women and the Land’ focusing attention on the gendered effects of dispossession and land poverty on African women, marking the 100 years since the passing of the 1913 Land Act. The Feminist Dialogue will be held at Diakonia Centre in Durban on Friday 30th August from 9.30am-13.15pm.
Women’s limited access and complex tenure relationships in the rural economy and the long-term struggles for survival and household food security have situated land as a critical issue for African women. Rural women’s contribution to food production and poverty alleviation has yet to be fully recognised in policy and law. The long-term effects of land dispossession on women through the effects of the Land Act need to be addressed in land redistribution and land reform processes. Land reform must be premised on the equal access with men to land ownership, tenure rights and the right to live on and earn an income from the land particularly given the high rates of poverty experienced by rural women.
Susan Nkomo, writer/researcher and feminist, has been invited lo speak on The 1913 Land Act and the impact of land dispossession on African women. Sizani Ngubane of the Rural Women’s Movement has been invited to speak about the question of rural-based women’s perspectives on the land, women and the Traditional Courts Bill. University of KwaZulu-Natal researcher Joyce Chitja has been asked to talk about land re-distribution, food security and women in poverty alleviation. Commission for Gender Equality (CGE) Commissioner Wallace Mgoqi will discuss the CGE’s plan for a ‘One Woman, One Hectare of Land’ campaign.
Agenda Feminist Dialogues have the objectives of sharing information among women, building understanding and raising debate on the issues of common concern to women in the process of advancing gender equality. The Feminist Dialogue will also launch issue No 96 of the journal “Love: gender, sexuality and power” guest edited by Deevia Bhana.
Agenda, now in its 26th year, publishes a feminist journal that aims to build the capacity of women to write about their ideas and research on gender and to publish their work. Agenda also produces podcasts for airing on community radio to advance gender equality.
For more information contact
Louise Haysom (Managing Editor of Agenda)
Telephone 031-3047001
Cell 073 9523502
