Widow Inheritance and Contested Citizenship in Kenya by Awino Okech

Author:Awino Okech [Okech, Awino]
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: Ethnic Studies, Public Policy, African Studies, Cultural Policy, Developing & Emerging Countries, Social Science, Popular Culture, Political Science, General, Gender Studies
ISBN: 9780367077679
Google: 236YDwAAQBAJ
Goodreads: 43878412
Publisher: Routledge
Published: 2019-04-30T00:00:00+00:00

The symbolic nature of power and authority vested in a man’s roles, and which subsequently allow for the arrogation of power in the public domain, is highlighted in the above exchange. The participants above debate the technicalities of whether the woman in question had to have a man present to construct her house. Secondly, the meaning of having a man can be symbolic as made evident in Auma relating her sister’s narrative. The symbolic presence, she argues, ‘allowed’ for the fulfilment of a practical need – the construction of a house. The other participants, while recognising this, complicate the idea of the absence of a man by arguing that, technical or not, his presence was important. They imply that, even if Auma’s sister subverted the idea of a man’s presence during house construction by potentially avoiding an accompanying and perhaps expected sexual relationship, the subversion only occurred through an affirmation of a man’s centrality to the process.

In addition, male power is also re-constructed through an instrumentalisation of the ter process. This contestation is produced through narratives that highlight the transactional nature of the ter relationship. Both Plister’s and Ruth’s assertions highlight not only on the fact that the ter relationship is reliant on the construction of ‘safety’ through comfort but also in the fluidity of the boundaries2 associated with who can be a jater. The fluidity in boundaries evident in the choices of non-Luos as inheritors and the failure of joter to fulfil expected roles renders men’s roles irrelevant. It is clear that perceptions of where real power lies are at play in these excerpts. Secondly, the processes that accompany or that are created to affirm this authority are also under consideration. In response to the first, perceptions of power are created through insistence that a designated man must be ‘present’ upon the death of a spouse for certain activities to be performed, such as the construction of a house, the negotiation and payment of a dowry or the convening of any other general family meetings. Such insistence on presence situates men as power holders within the family. As a result, power is embedded in the processes they are associated with and authority becomes vested in gendered roles. The fact that these processes (such as the construction of a house, larger family meetings and bride price negotiations) are performed in the public domain, outside the household, lends further legitimacy to the place and position of men as public actors.

The power that widows hold upon their husband’s death through being in sole control of family resources and thereby asserting their role as primary decision makers is subverted through hegemonic discourses about men, public space and gendered roles. However, this does not prevent the emergence of a counter discourse, one in which women subvert the importance associated with men by constructing a symbolic male presence, as suggested previously by Auma. The contestations,3 around whether this form of subversion is transformative or not, are raised by the other participants in the group, who

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