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for these "postwar displaced" families in area "D"; they were waiting for a response when
the last field site visit was made. Regardless, district officials could not guarantee tenure
security in the new location.
Finally, Mocambique Industrial, a colonial-era cotton-producing company, was in the
process of reclaiming area "C." During the war some of this land was farmed by local
smallholders who claim historical rights and by displaced farmers. Repatriated refugees were
using the land on a temporary basis after the peace accord. The fate of the farmers in this
area is not known. Some smallholders had moved on to marginal land between the road and
the rail line.
Other examples of land access are shown in Djasse and Nharuchonga (maps 11 and 12).
Nharuchonga, a few kilometers from Inchope locality, is the site of two government-created
communal villages, Nharuchonga I and Nharuchonga II. During the war many smallholders
fled north from RENAMO-administered areas and wealdy controlled government areas to
Nharuchonga II. Displaced people accounted for most of the population in this village. They
were crowded in between the road and the railway. Some smallholders farmed south of the
rail line, but usually returned to the safety of the village for the night. Some families were
also farming north of the road, where the bulk of the commune's farms were located.
Nharuchonga I was also inhabited by displaced families, though less so than its counterpart
village. When the peace accord was initiated, repatriated refugees moved into Nharuchonga
I. 197 In July 1993, government officials announced that more than 1,300 refugees had entered
the village seeking permission to stay. 198 Locality officials negotiated with local authorities
and other private commercial interests, securing temporary land-use rights for returning
refugees in area "A" between the road and the river. However, displaced and local
smallholders were also farming in this area. Due to land shortages, locality officials
approached a private owner who had acquired land north of the river ("B" on map 12) after
the peace accord. He agreed to allow returning refugees to use the land on a temporary basis.
He supposedly told locality officials that as soon as he acquires enough capital, he will
expand hi9s9 operations and exploit all of the land. At that time, he said, the refugees will have
to leave.1
Interestingly, some displaced farmers professed to be aggravated with the NGOs for
granting assistance to returning refugees rather than to other displaced farmers. At the same
time, local farmers expressed frustration with the assistance being extended to both displaced
smallholders and returning refugees. Indigenous smallholders, here as elsewhere, often said
that they felt they had "done their job" by helping displaced families and returning refugees
with land and wished that these people would now "go home."
It is not our intention to suggest that no displaced or few returning farmers are
reacquiring land in Nhamatanda District. Nor do we wish to suggest that all indigenous
197. Interviews with smallholder farmers in Nharuchonga, July 1993.
198. Agricultural extension agent, Nharuchonga, personal communication, July 1993.
199. Reported by smallholder farmers and agricultural extension agent, Nharuchonga, July 1993.