Context and backgroundIn common with other African countries, colonization had an important impact on land relations in Uganda. Land is an important asset for people’s livelihoods and for economic development in Uganda, where the majority of people live in rural areas. Uganda’s land reform was introduced with the 1998 Land Act, which aims at enhancing tenure security by recognising existing rights to land. Furthermore, the evidence of any links between the formalisation of land rights, investment and productivity under different tenure systems is inconclusive.

Contrary to scholarship that attaches matrilineal practices to women’s control and power over land in Africa. This paper interrogated this theoretical positioning to its contemporary practicality by posing the discussions among the ‘Luguru’ matrilineal of Eastern Tanzania. The article has discussed how land has been claimed, transferred, and owned across gender lens with the apparent changes in political and socio-cultural settings of the community. Shreds of evidence deduced from triangulated approaches provided contradictory conclusions.

This paper presents empirical evidences of cultural barriers to women and the youths in accessing family land among the Ndali tribe, drawing insights on the cultural practices and social norms. The evidence emanates from discussions with local leaders: members of Village Land Councils and members of the Village Councils from six villages namely Itumba, Isongole, Nyenzebwe, Mlale, Ilulu and Izuba.