116
was also the site of one CAIA production unit. However, there appear to be significant
differences between Domue and M'Languene that affect land access. These differences, which
are historical and relate to internal social and political struggles, will be discussed below.
Numerous land conflicts involving the private sector and smallholders have been recounted.
2. HISTORICAL, LAND TENURE, AND SOCIAL PATTERNS IN ANGONIA DISTRICT
Like others in Mozambique, the international border with Malawi cuts artificially across
natural geographical terrain and social and ethnic groupings. Also like other borders in the
country, it has been and continues to be very porous—with much population movement and
commercial transactions crossing in both directions. There are important cultural, political,
and economic relations among people on both sides of the border. These relations influence
land access and land use, among other social phenomena. The people on both sides of the
border are Chewa, a group having matrilineal inheritance patterns and matrilocal property
relations; that is, a new husband typically gains access to land from his wife's family and
remains in her father's compound for a number of years before moving elsewhere.
A number of private farms were established during the colonial period, but they were not
all located on the best land in the district. In 1968 the colonial regime began its campaign of
forced resettlement of the rural population into aldeamentos. In Tete Province, which became
a major combat zone after 1968, more than 250,000 people (or nearly 60 percent of the
population) were displaced by resettlement (Isaacman and Isaacman 1983).
After independence, the new government continued to move people into communal
villages, but its program was far less extensive and less successful, affecting only 10-17
percent of the province's population (Isaacman and Isaacman 1983; Araujo 1988). As
elsewhere, the government programs had mixed results. Women, for example, reportedly
benefited from the large government-created villages because of improved access to
education, grinding mills, and other commercial opportunities; at the same time, however,
they appa25r5ently lost control over land rights because the villages promoted patrilocal
marriage. Similar to other places, traditional authorities were criticized and undermined
by the new government, but these deprecations proved ineffective and were soon abandoned.
In many areas FRELIMO secretaries were also holders of customary titles (Wilson 1991b;
Bonga and Wilson 1993). At this time several private farms were also taken over by
government to become part of CAIA, which then covered approximately 22,000 hectares and
split into four production blocks. 2 Upon its founding, CAIA assumed control over some
former private farms and adjoining smallholder farms. Displaced smallholders were moved
to state-created communal villages. The state farm went bankrupt, however, and was
255. Wilson (1991b); and Ken Wilson, personal communication, February 1994. In contrast, see Jean
Davison (1988, p. 246), who believed that women in Sofala Province benefited from the cooperative and
communal movements: "The state's role in land redistribution, in most cases, " she wrote, "has benefitted peasant
women by giving them greater access to land equally. At the same time, such redistribution does not affect all
women equally. Some women gain more than others." See also Isaacman and Isaacman (1983).
256. These production units were located in Domue (3,800 hectares), Matiasa (6,552 hectares), Tsangano
(31,994 hectares), and Maniquera (8,466 hectares).