DECONSTRUCTING GENDER CONJECTURES IN SOUTHEAST NIGERIA: BUILDING THE AFRICA WE WANT AND WOMEN ACCESS TO LAND

In many African societies, there are various forms and levels of cultural gender infringement of human rights and property denials. Over the years, these violations become well-established through cultural gender conjectures. Perhaps, nowhere in Nigeria is this property rights violation more pronounced and evident than in the Igboland, the south-eastern part of the country. Conjectures such as women do not own land (nwanyi adighi enwe ala), another man’s compound (ama onye ozo) amongst others depict the social classification of women in southeastern communities. The implication is that a girl child who was born in any family is not considered a member of that family she would eventually leave when married. She, therefore, lacks the prerequisites needed to be bequeathed any property from her father by birth. For this reason, a male child is given special preference. Women in the southeast have no right to inherit property, especially landed property, except on the magnanimity of their in-laws, and this also largely depends on her ability to give birth to a male child. .Goals and objectives: Revealing cultural conjectures used in depriving women access to land and land use in southeastern Nigeria. Methodology: The paper uses mainly qualitative data from secondary sources complemented with informed opinion derived from semi-structured interviews with experts selected Nigerian southeast traditional institutions, women farmers, and the judicial system in the southeast. Theoretical insights are then drawn from the discussion. Results: The girl child born in any family is not considered a member of that family as she would eventually leave when married. She therefore lacks the prerequisites needed to be bequeathed of any property from her father by birth. For this reason, a male child is given special preference. Women in the southeast have no right to inherit property especially landed property except on the magnanimity of their in-laws, and this also largely depends on her ability to give birth to a male child.Women in the southeast need to have rights to inherit, own, acquire, and sell landed properties in Igbo communities. There is a need for gender-specific policies and services tailored towards women's access to lan