Emily O. was a farmer in western Kenya, able to feed her four children, keep them in school, and eke out a comfortable existence. This ended abruptly when her husband died. Like millions of other women in sub-Saharan Africa, Emily lost literally everything when she became a widow. Her in-laws and community felt that, as a woman, she had no right to own or inherit property.

Emily’s in-laws invaded her simple home within days of her husband’s death, stripped it bare, and even took her clothing. Even worse, they took her farm equipment and livestock. Emily hoped to at least stay in her home. But her in-laws insisted that to do so, she go through the clan’s customary “cleansing” ritual—having sex with a social outcast—to rid her of her dead husband’s spirit. They paid a herdsman the equivalent of US$6 to have sex with Emily, against her will and without a condom. She recalled, “I tried to refuse, but my in-laws said I must be cleansed or they’d beat me and chase me out of my home. They said they had bought me [with the dowry], and therefore I had no voice in that home.” The in-laws eventually forced Emily out of her home anyway. She begged an elder and the village chief for help, but they asked for bribes that she could not pay. Emily and her children were homeless until someone offered her a small, leaky shack. Her children dropped out of school. When Human Rights Watch interviewed Emily, her young sons were working as cowherds, and her daughters were doing domestic work in Nairobi, Kenya’s bustling capital. Emily told us she had no hope of retrieving her land and property.

Emily’s story illustrates a sad truth: African women’s rights to own, inherit, manage, and dispose of property are under constant threat from customs, laws, and individuals¾including government officials¾who believe that women cannot be trusted with or do not deserve property. On much of the African continent, women constitute 70-90 percent of the agricultural labor force, yet according to the International Development Research Center, own only about 1 percent of land.