14 Anyangwe/Extrajudicial killings of women in Africa decisions or access resources such as land, movable property, and money in their own right. In some cases, culture condones wife-beating as a disciplinary measure against an ‘erring’ wife. Wife-assault sometimes results in death. This very controversial culture and condoned social habit, perpetuates the problem of killing in intimate settings. There are other cultural practices which are arguably harmful under human rights law and which are considered a further manifestation of the subjugation and objectification of women. Polygamy; sororate or levirate marriages; bride price; sexual cleansing; widow inheritance; labia elongation;41 female genital mutilation (FGM);42 and propertygrabbing43 are considered forms of violence against women and a threat to their liberty and security alongside male-child preference which is informed by the notion that male children remain in their natal family and perpetuate the family name and lineage. These cultural practices further reinforce male dominance and the treatment of women in certain instances as ‘property’ that could become expendable. Women’s unenviable inferior status and position is compounded by the fact that in many contexts she has to acquiesce in customary practices such as sororate, levirate, widow-inheritance, sexual cleansing, and polygamy. This appears to be the case in some countries in west, middle and east Africa. A woman who finds herself in any of these situations or who is childless (even where it is not demonstrated that the fault is from her) suffers mental anguish, low self-esteem, and blames herself. She becomes vulnerable to further abuse, including killing on suspicion of being a witch who offers her children in vitro to or has entered into a pact with occult forces in exchange for the art of wizardry. Many scholars of African customary jurisprudence have argued that the institution of ‘bride price’ does not signify the purchase of the bride and ‘cannot be regarded in the same way as the rationalistic purchase of a commodity’.44 The reality is that it is generally understood as the latter and, in practice, it tends to promote the perception and treatment of women as merchandise traded for money or money’s worth, usually stock. In some settings men argue that payment of bride price means they have ‘bought’ their wives. They then use this argument to justify demands for wifely obedience or even 41 K Mwenda ‘Labia elongation under African customary law: a violation of women’s rights?’ (2006) 10 International Journal of Human Rights 341; M Gelfand ‘Gross enlargement of the labia minora in an African female’ (1973) 19 Central African Journal of Medicine 101; J Williams ‘Labia elongation in the Shona’ (1969) 15 Central African Journal of Medicine 165. 42 Okin (n 33 above); M Brady ‘Female genital mutilation: complications and risk of HIV transmission’ (1999) 13 (12) AIDS Patient Care and Standards 709. 43 Mvula-Mwenda (n 40 above) 1; K Mwenda ‘Can secret trusts survive propertygrabbing?’ in KK Mwenda & DA Ailola (eds) Frontiers of legal knowledge: business and economic law in context (2003) 414. 44 RC Thurnwald Black and white in East Africa (1935), cited with approval by Elias (n 39 above) 100.