UDTR Global Rights of Nature Radar

Access To Land in the Context of HIV and AIDS in Lyamba Ward, Rural Tanzania : A Case of Lyambamgongo Ward in Bukombe District

Identification

Public canonical key

doi:10.54612/a.65p7klspad

Authors

Stanslaus P. Butungo

Reported year

2024

Reported language

en

Source type

book

First detected

2026-11-09T19:04:47.788499+00:00

Last metadata observation

2026-11-09T19:04:47.788499+00:00

Last HTTP verification

Not checked

Documentary abstract — original language

Access to land is an important contributor to the wellbeing and social status of people in rural areas. However, this is often compromised for people affected with HIV/AIDS, a disease which is prevalent in Tanzania. Prior to this study, others have tried to associate between HIV/AIDS infection and land access. However, the link and the contextual factors underpinning such relationship are largely not well understood. This research explores: first, how and in which ways HIV infection affects access to land; second, what contextual factors underpin the impacts of HIV on land access, and thirdly, who among HIV-affected people is more vulnerable to loss of access to land. Drawing on theoretical accounts that frame land access as a question of social power, this study undertakes intensive ethnographic research in Lyamba ward in Bukombe District, Tanzania. The research draws from the life history accounts of 17 HIV-infected people and their access to land. The study reveals a variety of ways in which HIV/AIDS negatively affects land access: destabilising social relationships, spousal or parental deaths, and diminished social status. Such cases happen in contexts characterised by existing land contestations, unequal social relationships, and a pluralistic legal system of overlapping formal and informal rules, norms and values that govern land access. While women and children are often at risk of loss, men with weaker land claims can also lose access. However, the study also documents instances where vulnerable people can fight back to secure land access through collective mobilisation, knowledge on legal land rights, and relations with authority figures. While loss of land can further exacerbate experiences of marginalisation, successful attempts to secure land access can validate personal worth and protect social esteem. The study calls attention to the contested nature of land and how changing dimensions of social power are central to shaping land access in the context of HIV/AIDS.

Identifiers

OPENALEX

W4390741022

DOI

10.54612/a.65p7klspad

Documentary context

Documentary family

Book

Source-reported types

book

Jurisdictions studied — explicit sources

TZ

Entity mentions are not evidence of legal recognition. Jurisdiction studied is separate from author affiliation country.

Book bibliographic description

Access status unknown

Sources

OpenAlex · Record 1 · Record 2

• DOI · https://doi.org/10.54612/a.65p7klspad
• OpenAlex · https://openalex.org/W4390741022

Documented bibliographic relations

Source-declared references and links; they do not establish legal support or UGLC qualification. Up to 20 outgoing references are displayed.

• openalex:w2345796739 · CITES
• openalex:w2550488320 · CITES
• openalex:w2854369675 · CITES

0 incoming references within the detected corpus

Documentary status

Relevance pending

Library

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