90
We also spoke to farmers who were entering the district from RENAMO-administered
areas. They self-displaced to avoid being detained in the RENAMO region; they thought that
war would resume, and they were afraid that they would suffer if they stayed where they
were. Others left from RENAMO-held lands because they desired to benefit from the
opportunities in the government-controlled areas (e.g., greater international donor assistance,
access to seeds and food, employment, education, health care, transportation, etc.).
According to farmers interviewed at the accommodation centers, the number of landless
refugees in the district has also increased because the provincial government in Beira forced
many people onto buses, transported them to the district, and left them there. 189 They
reasoned that officials in Beira wanted to move people away from the city to reduce
overcrowding. One particular family acknowledged that they were among several families
who were forced to move; they were deposited in Nhamatanda, though it is not their home.
This family could not pay for transport to their old locality and was stranded in Nhama-
tanda. 190
Many returning refugees who had not yet acquired land were confident that they would
get land from one of the government authorities or a local NGO. Displaced farmers,
however, were not so confident about the future and their prospects of acquiring or
reacquiring land in the district. The difference in expectations may come from the fact that
displaced families living in the district are better informed about land access and distribution,
or it may come from their knowledge that government and international donors tend to favor
refugees in their assistance programs.
Finally, as noted in the first two sections of this report, government officials are granting
land concessions in the district and throughout the province. These concessions, often the
most pernicious trend for smallholders, are frequently in the best areas, near the corridor or
city and locality centers. A few examples from Muda and Lamego will show the various
consequences of granting of concessions.
Map 13 depicts land use patterns in Bairro Seven of Lamego locality. We interviewed
smallholders and private commercial interests farming in the area south of the rail line. The
area west of the road to Mecuze was previously part of a colonial farm (designated "A").
This land later became part of the Lamego State Farm. During the war many smallholders
from south of the Muda River were forced north into this zone. Native smallholders and
displaced farmers squatted on land belonging to the state farm and, when possible, farmed
either on state farm land or around the perimeter of the farm. In 1992, when we visited this
area, it was densely populated with smallholders and displaced farmers. When we returned
in 1993, we found that the area was still heavily populated (though some people had moved
away), but that a private individual had also acquired a large tract of land as part of a
concession along the bank of the Muda, between the river and the road to Mecuze. At least
twenty-five families were forced out of the zone; they were told by local officials either to
189. Interviews with smallholder farmers in Lamego and Muda, July 1993. This was confirmed by local
agricultural rural extension agents in Muda, July 1993.
190. Interviews with smallholder farmers in Lamego and Muda, July 1993.