108
refusing private commercial applications for land rights in this area. 244 Perhaps locality and
district government officials are hoping to squeeze displaced people out of this prime area.
At the same time, the inhabitants of Belas I are also suffering from land shortages; their
expansion is constrained by the Serra Nyawombe highlands to the east and by Belas II to the
west. Other land concessions in the area were reported in August 1993 by both smallholders
and local rural extension agents.
It is interesting that while displaced families have remained in these villages, reintegrating
families have also opted to settle here (rather than moving to family lands). The fact that
displaced farmers and reintegrating families are joining the Belas I and II villages supports
the argument that smallholders will not necessarily return to their homelands, even if they feel
it is safe and they have the means to do so. Like larger commercial interests, smallholders
want to exploit productive and strategically located lands.
Additionally, the population of displaced people in the Vanduzi locality has not
dramatically diminished. This may lead to tensions among smallholders over access to land
and other resources. Although we did not enumerate in 1992 or 1993, we did make visual
appraisals of these communities, including an approximate number of homesteads. We think
there were at least as many displaced families living near the post (areas marked "A") in 1993
as there were in 1992. When asked, farmers replied that they both wanted to take advantage
of the services in Vanduzi and felt that rural areas were still unsafe. They also claimed that
there was insufficient land near their homesteads. Local residents with histo2r4i5cal rights wished
displaced farmers would return to their family lands or just move away.
The village of Almada was established in the late 1970s as part of the government's
villagization program (see map 17). In 1993 the population was approximately 430
families.246Local officials remarked that this is a substantial increase over the previous
year. The expansion was due to an influx of repatriated refugees. In 1993, repatriated
refugees, displaced families, and local residents were living in the village and farming
adjacent land. 247 The area between the Nhamahari River and the village was intensely farmed
by local residents and displaced farmers before the peace accord was launched. With the
rising population of returning refugees, there is even greater concentration.
244. Interviews with representative of District Directorate of Agriculture, August 1992; and agricultural
extension agent, Vanduzi Administrative Post, August 1992. See also Myers, West, and Eliseu (1993).
245. Interviews with smallholder farmers, Vanduzi Administrative Post, August 1993. The lines between
the categories—local inhabitant (claiming historical rights) versus reintegrating refugee versus displaced
farmer—are often blurred. Not only do administrators misapply these definitions, but also smallholders
themselves may misuse them. This is indeed an area that requires further exploration. However, smallholders
are possibly manipulating these terms to secure certain benefits and services while inhibiting others' access to
the same opportunities. Deeper exploration of social relations with regard to access to and control over natural
resources may demonstrate important dynamics at the local level—which smallholders, for example, are most
likely to use the opportunities and constraints of war and peace to manipulate their political and economic
fortunes. One's status as a refugee rather than a displaced farmer may affect one's opportunities.
246. Secretary, Almada communal village, August 1993.
247. Ibid.