Gender, Displacement and Land Rights in Plateau State

In Plateau State, land is not only an economic resource; it is the foundation of identity, belonging, and historical continuity. When communities are displaced through consistent communal violence, what is lost is more than shelter or farmland it is the anchor that ties people to ancestry and place. For women, this loss is compounded by patriarchal systems that continue to deny them direct rights to land, even within their own communities. This paper look critically at how women in Plateau North Central Nigeria negotiate land claims in situations where displacement and customary authority intersect to limit their voice and agency. The analysis draws from testimonies, community dialogues, and locally organized women’s advocacy spaces. It considers how women position themselves in negotiations with traditional authorities, family networks, and state institutions, while navigating the emotional terrain of memory, dispossession, and the enduring desire to return “home.” Rather than portraying women as passive victims of conflict, the paper highlights women's subtle and persistent strategies of influence, including moral claims based on cultural responsibility and care, collective voice through church and cooperative associations, and persuasion within kinship systems. These kinds of agency frequently function beneath the surface of official politics, yet they are crucial in determining the course of community reconciliation and return. The study makes the case that gendered experiences of dispossession and the cultural work women do to preserve the concept of home must be at the forefront of conversations about land rights in areas affected by conflict. It demands frameworks for land governance and peacebuilding that recognise women as vital players in the reestablishment of community, identity, and belonging rather than as secondary stakeholders. The paper makes the case that in areas devastated by conflict, the gendered experiences of dispossession and the cultural work women do to preserve the concept of home must be at the forefront of any conversation on land rights. In order to restore community, identity, and belonging, it demands that land governance and peacebuilding frameworks recognise women as vital players rather than as secondary stakeholder