As a final closure of our training we went with one of our trainees Ese, (who is a lawyer), for a trip to Odi. It is about an hour drive from Yenagoa, Niger Delta. We did a follow up on a law case for our general documentary about an old woman that had fought for 19 years to get back her property. Her husband wanted to divorce her and was after her house. He already sold other property that belonged to the both of them.
It is a typical story that shows how women's rights are still violated in many places in Nigeria.When a woman has property of her own and she is married, whenever the couple gets a divorce, according to local tradition half of it (usually more) will belong to her husband. When a man has property of his own, his belongings will stay his own. This shows that men and women, according to traditional law and custom, are not equal. The only way a woman can fight this is to go to High Court. But it is very expensive, because you have to pay lawyers and all other expenses. Lots of women just accept these laws because they see no other way. Even when their husband dies, his brothers and family take everything away from her and leave the woman empty handed, with her children.
Now this woman in Odi was a very good businesswoman and earned quite some money. One of the things she traded was Kaikai, a local very strong booze made from palm trees. She and her husband had built a house in Lagos and had other properties, in her husband’s name. But this house in Port Harcourt was hers; she had bought the land, paid for building it and everything else. She was smart by putting all legal documents in her name and keeping it from her husband. You can imagine how sad she was when her ex-husband claimed for it. Because of financial and moral support from her family she could take the case to court. But her husband and his lawyer frustrated the case and it was put aside quite a number of times for being "unimportant"...
So it took 19 years before the judge gave her verdict, the house belonged to this woman and to no one else. By that time she was already 76 years old and became too ill (she had a stroke) to be able to enjoy it. 
So we went to Odi, which is a very beautiful town next to the River Nun and portrayed this strong woman who is now 78 and suffers from memory loss. She stole our hearts and so did her family. They gave us their stories but also a tour along the river, fresh pawpaw (sort of papaya), coconuts and a bottle of Kaikai... 
So cheers to Mrs. Tutu