When he [my husband] passed, he had two sons [from another marriage]. I
raised [the eldest son] from the time he was five years old, when his mother
left us. He said he was taking the oxcart, fields, businesses, and all 30
cattle. “Go back to your parents’ house,” he said. I was 73. He became
violent, threatening me. He harassed me in my home. After the funeral, my
brothers-in-law were there, and he said in my face: “You are rubbish and
you will get nothing. I am taking everything.” I was so pained by this. I had
so much pain that I could not sleep.
My husband and I had built that business together. He [the son] was being
greedy. A number of times, he chased me away from my home, and I would
find safety with the police. The police said that he could not do that, and he
would relent, then continue to chase me away and harass me.66
Mindy’s story is similar to Marie’s. The 54-year-old widow explained her experience to
Human Rights Watch:
I didn’t see the will but found out that there was one in court. My brother-inlaw was the executor [of my husband’s will]. He mistreated me. Immediately
after [his death], I sold household effects to survive for food. My in-laws saw
that I sold things to buy food. My brother-in-law had me arrested [for selling
things in the estate]. In court I was found not guilty. I served one week in jail
[before trial]. It was terrible. One week was like a month.67
Florence, a 62-year-old widow from Midlands whose husband passed away in 1998,
told Human Rights Watch that her husband’s relatives moved in and grabbed her
house and rental property. It was not until 2014 that she heard about Legal Resources
Foundation through their village-to-village outreach, and she began working with them
to get her property.
66 Human Rights Watch interview with Marie, May 27, 2016.
67 Human Rights Watch interview with Mindy, May 31, 2016.
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HUMAN RIGHTS WATCH | JANUARY 2017
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