Purchase this article
USD $22.00
Divorce as Process, Botswana Style
Customary Courts, Gender Activism and Legal Pluralism in Historical Perspective
in Journal of Legal Anthropology
Author:
and
Pnina Werbner
Pnina Werbner
Keele University p.werbner@keele.ac.uk
Search for other papers by Pnina Werbner in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Pnina Werbner in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Richard Werbner
Richard Werbner
University of Manchester richard.werbner@manchester.ac.uk
Search for other papers by Richard Werbner in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
Search for other papers by Richard Werbner in
Current site
Google Scholar
PubMed
USD $0.01
All currencies in US Dollar
This article aims to unravel the complex negotiations surrounding property settlements and custody in cases of divorce in customary courts in Botswana today in the light of an earlier legacy of penalising divorce initiators. It argues that women’s attempts to get their husbands to initiate divorce proceedings can entangle women in lengthy negotiations and ultimately frustrate the aim of achieving a divorce. Repeated court hearings can last for years, we show. At the same time, in Botswana’s statutory courts today, an equal division of property irrespective of the causes of marital breakdown has become established practice. In the article, we aim to show that customary laws regarding property settlement in divorce have indeed changed, gradually adjusting to notions of equity in women’s rights in marriage, in response to a wider ideological, critical movement, even though chiefs or headmen presiding over customary courts do not always explicitly acknowledge this change.