They came from forests, coastlines, grazing territories, and farmlands. In total, 45 women from Kenya, Uganda, Tanzania and communities across DRC, South Africa, and Zimbabwe gathered in Limuru, Kenya, for the East Africa Land and Climate Justice Convergence. Through plenaries and group discussions, storytelling, drawings and celebrations, they shared stories of trauma, injustice and despair. But they also told stories of resilience, movement building and leadership in the fight against land dispossession and big extractive projects. Each discussion reinforced that protecting the commons through collective stewardship is a powerful alternative to the current development model that encloses, destroys and dispossesses people and the environment.

A central theme throughout the convergence was the role of indigenous knowledge systems in the protection and care of communal land. The women participants shared various examples of governance practices that enable balance between human and non-human life, resolving conflicts, and sustained territories across generations.

Identifying the patterns across struggles

The women were very clear about the struggles they faced and could name the forces behind them. Across all the countries represented, women identified the same patterns: government gazette communal land and other resources, corporations move in, laws are poorly enforced, and Indigenous voices are pushed out. In this process, women suffer the most. They suffer twice — they lose land, and they carry the burden of survival when food, water, and dignity disappear.

Participants pointed to problems within their communal governance, which often grants women little to no control of the communal resources even though women are the primary users and the most consistent stewards of these resources. Alongside privatisation, male dominating structures in the governing systems of the commons continue to undermine women’s rights, agency and leadership.

Despite enclosure and violence, communities keep holding each other. In Namakwaland, South Africa, women organise protests against mining related dispossession. In Loliondo, Tanzania, a union of 50 women is taking land cases to the African Court in Arusha. In Kenya, the Ogiek fought 17 years through domestic courts until the African Court ordered reparations in 2022. In each of these iconic struggles, and many others across the continent, women are at the centre of the evidence, the advocacy, and the resistance.

“Protecting land means protecting life”

The convergence was not an end. It was a vessel to bring women together to deepen analysis and understanding of the struggles of the commons as well as to identify collective action. And the women planned – they spoke of the need for cross-country radical solidarity, mental health support programs for the women in the frontline of the resistance, political and leadership development trainings, and support for strategic litigation as tools to enhance the struggle.

While the convergence is over, the struggle is not. As one participant said: “Maybe the biggest thing we found here is each other. We are not just fighting for land. We are fighting for a way of living where no one is left behind.”

Because as women from Turkana reminded us: “No land, no life. Protecting land means protecting life.”

The graphic documentation shown throughout this article was developed in collaboration with Kenyan artist, MariaStella Kamuti. Each piece offers visual representation of the daily critical conversations and knowledge-sharing that took place throughout the convergence. They also serve as important popular education tools as we cultivate and expland the Land Commons and Care thematic area of work in East Africa and across the continent.