Competitive rights, competitive claims: Land access in post-war mozambique

Journal of Southern African Studies

Volumn 20, Issue 4, 1994, Pages 603-632

  Myers, Gregory W ^a  

^a UNIVERSITY OF WISCONSIN MADISON   (United States)

Author keywords

[No Author keywords available]

Indexed keywords

ACCESS PROBLEM; AGRICULTURAL POLICY; CIVIL WAR; DEVELOPING COUNTRY; LAND CLAIM; LAND CONFLICT; LAND RIGHTS; REFUGEE REPATRIATION; RESOURCE ACCESS; RURAL POLICY;

MOZAMBIQUE; MOZAMBIQUE, GAZA PROVINCE;

EID: 0028592166     PISSN: 03057070     EISSN: 14653893     Source Type: Journal    
DOI: 10.1080/03057079408708424     Document Type: Article

References (44)

1. See Republic of Mozambique and United Nations, Mozambique: A Strategy for the Transition from Emergency to Reconstruction, Priority Needs for 1994-5 (New York, 1993).
2. Ministry of Agriculture, Maputo, 25-29 March 1994. This meeting was held to develop agricultural strategies for the next five years.
3. West and Myers, ‘Legitimidade política a nível local’.
4. See Myers and Weiss, ‘Proceedings’, especially the comments of Sr. Cadmiel Mutemba, Governor of Tete Province; Sr. Francisco Pateguana, Governor of Inhambane Province; and Sr. Lemos Chalulo, District Director of Agriculture, Manica Province.
5. See Geffray, La Cause desArmes au Mozambique; Hanlon, The Revolution Under Fire; Sidaway, ‘Mozambique'; and G. Myers, H. West and J. Eliseu, ‘Land Tenure Security and State Farm Divestiture in Mozambique: Case Studies in Nhamatanda, Manica and Montepuez Districts' (University of Wisconsin-Madison, Land Tenure Center Research Paper, No. 110, 1993).
6. Government identified four categories of producers. In addition to private and family sectors, it also identified state farm and cooperative sectors.
7. These concepts were articulated at the FRELIMO Fourth Party Congress, and have been enshrined in the 1990 Constitution, the 1979 Land Law, and the 1987 Land Regulations.
8. See Myers, West and Eliseu, ‘Land Tenure Security'; and Tanner, Myers and Oad, ‘Land Disputes and Ecological Degradation’.
9. Virgilio Ferrao, DINAGECA, Maputo, personal communication, August 1993. This is in contrast to the few thousand titles reportedly issued since independence. See Garvey, ‘Mozambique's Land Law’.
10. J. Alexander, ‘Land and Political Authority in Post-War Mozambique: Notes from Manica Province' (University of Wisconsin-Madison, Land Tenure Center, 1994); and Myers, Eliseu and Nhachungue, ‘Security and Conflict in Mozambique’.
11. For a more complete discussion of land conflicts in Mozambique, with illustrative maps, see Myers, Eliseu and Nhachungue, ‘Security and Conflict in Mozambique'; and G. Myers, ‘Confusion, Contradiction and Conflict: Land Access in Mozambique in the Post-Peace Period' (University of Wisconsin-Madison, Land Tenure Center, 1993).
12. Unpublished data, Ad Hoc Land Commission, Ministry of Agriculture, Maputo; see also World Bank, Mozambique: Restoring Rural Production and Trade (Washington DC, Report No. 8370-Moz, 1990).
13. See Myers, Eliseu and Nhachunge, ‘Security and Conflict in Mozambique'; Garvey, Mozambique's Land Law'; and Myers and Weiss, ‘Proceedings’.
14. See for example the interview with the Minister of Agriculture in Domingo, 17 October 1993. This position was stated numerous times at the Second National Land Conference. See Myers and Weiss, ‘Proceedings’.
15. See Myers, Eliseu and Nhachungue, ‘Security and Conflict in Mozambique'; Myers, West and Eliseu, ‘Land Tenure Security'; and J. Negrão, Unpublished Ph.D. thesis, University Eduardo Mondlane (1994).
16. For a discussion of the state farm sector see Myers, West and Eliseu, ‘Land Tenure Security’. In 1991 the Land Tenure Center was able to identify approximately 83 state farms covering more than 580,000 hectares.
17. Myers, Eliseu and Nhachungue, ‘Security and Conflict in Mozambique’.
18. See Garvey, ‘Mozambique Land Law'; Bruce, ‘Land Policy and State Farm Divestiture in Mozambique'; and Myers, ‘Confusion, Contradiction and Conflict' and ‘Land Tenure Issues in Post-War Mozambique’.
19. See Roesch, ‘Rural Mozambique Since the Frelimo Party Fourth Congress'; Hermele, ‘Contemporary Land Struggles on the Limpopo'; Bowen, ‘Peasant Agriculture in Mozambique'; and Tanner, Myers and Oad, ‘Land Disputes and Ecological Degradation’.
20. Tanner, Myers and Oad, ‘Land Disputes and Ecological Degradation'; and Myers, Eliseu and Nhachungue, ‘Security and Conflict in Mozambique’. See also Myers and Weiss, ‘Proceedings’.
21. Myers, West and Eliseu, ‘Land Tenure Security’.
22. Interviews with locality and district government officials, April 1992 and November 1993.
23. Tanner, Myers and Oad, ‘Land Disputes and Ecological Degradation’.
24. João Carrilho, former Director, Ad Hoc Land Commission, Ministry of Agriculture, Maputo, personal communication 1993. See also Myers, West and Eliseu, ‘Land Tenure Security'; and Tanner, Myers and Oad, ‘Land Disputes and Ecological Degradation’.
25. Tanner, Myers and Oad, ‘Land Disputes and Ecological Degradation’.
26. Tanner, Myers and Oad, ‘Land Disputes and Ecological Degradation'; and Myers and Tanner, ‘Direitos de propriedade conservaçáo ecológica’.
27. Myers, West and Eliseu, ‘Land Tenure Security'; Myers and Tanner, ‘Direitos de propriedade conservaçáo ecológica'; and Tanner, Myers and Oad, ‘Land Disputes and Ecological \Degradation’.
28. Interviews with smallholders in Matuba August 1993; and smallholders in Chokwe November 1993.
29. Myers, West and Eliseu, ‘Land Tenure Security'; see also Myers and Weiss, ‘Proceedings’.
30. See Tanner, Myers and Oad, ‘Land Disputes and Ecological Degradation'; and Myers and Tanner, ‘Direitos de propriedade conservaçáo ecologica’.
31. Myers, West and Eliseu, ‘Land Tenure Security’.
32. Obviously, the ‘big winners' in this process are those who have gained access to land and other natural resources, most of whom are not smallholder farms but rather government officials and others with political connections.
33. Myers, West and Eliseu, ‘Land Tenure Security'; and Myers, Eliseu and Nhachungue, ‘Security and Conflict in Mozambique’.
34. Interviews with smallholders in Matuba August 1993; and smallholders in Chokwe November 1993.
35. Myers, Eliseu and Nhachungue, ‘Security and Conflict in Mozambique'; and Myers and Weiss, ‘Proceedings’.
36. Interviews with smallholders in Matuba August 1993; and smallholders in Chokwe November 1993; and Myers and Weiss, ‘Proceedings’.
37. See Myers, Eliseu and Nhachungue, ‘Security and Conflict in Mozambique’.
38. See Tanner, Myers and Oad, ‘Land Disputes and Ecological Degradation’.
39. See Mozambique Peace Process Bulletin 6 (Amsterdam, European Parliamentarians for (Southern) Africa, 1993). A similar phenomenon was reported in Sofala Province, and unconfirmed cases have been reported by NGOs operating in rural Mozambique. See Myers, Eliseu and Nhachungue, ‘Security and Conflict in Mozambique’.
40. Ibid; Myers, ‘Confusion, Contradiction, and Conflict'; and Myers, ‘Land Tenure Issues in Post-War Mozambique’.
41. Myers, Eliseu and Nhachungue, ‘Security and Conflict in Mozambique’.
42. See Myers and Tanner, ‘Direitos de propriedade conservao ecológica'; and Tanner, Myers and Oad, ‘Land Disputes and Ecological Degradation’.
43. Myers, Eliseu and Nhachungue, ‘Security and Conflict in Mozambique'; and Myers and Weiss, ‘Proceedings’.
44. In some instances, farmers specifically stated that FRELIMO representatives accompanied private commercial farmers. This distinction may not have been important in the past, but may become more crucial during and after elections.