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that there was plenty of land available for their families and that they had returned to the
same spots they occupied before the war.
In March 1993 we also noticed that the land at Dedza, near the border with Malawi, was
already intensively cultivated. Smallholders recalled a few conflicts occurring as returning
farmers confronted temporary farmers who had exploited their land during the war or
occupied it during the months after the peace accord. By and large, however, smallholders
were resolving disputes and resuming their lives.
When we returned to Angonia in January and February 1994, we revisited the area around
Ulongue and the road between Ulongue and Dedza. We focused specifically on Tchabualo
and Calomue villages277 (see maps 19 and 20). The land bordering the road and around
these villages was now intensely cultivated and densely populated. 278 Smallholders had
reacquired their lands and in a few locations had occupied former colonial holdings. They
asserted that these lands were historically theirs. Upon closer examination, however, it
appears that these colonial holdings are being occupied by extended family members who do
not wish to return to the interior of the district or province because the land there is
reportedly unsafe and less fertile. Smallholders in Tchabualo answered that despite the
population density, land access was not a problem. Most said that their family had at least
two parcels of land and that the community held land reserves for further expansion.
Smallholders told of numerous land disputes between returning smallholders over boundary
demarcation, but said that these disputes had been easily resolved by local authorities.'
The area around the border, specifically Calomue village, was more densely populated,
and the land intensely cultivated. 280 Smallholders noted that although historically Malawians
had also farmed on these lands, after the 1940s Portuguese authorities attempted to inhibit
their use of land near the village and on the Mozambican side of the border. Many small and
medium-sized colonial farms developed along the border during the colonial period. Most of
these farms were abandoned, but a few were reportedly occupied by native smallholders or
Mozambican commercial farmers after independence. Mozambican smallholders did move
onto lands "abandoned" by Malawian smallholders. This caused friction between the two
communities when Mozambicans moved into the vacuum. Smallholders said that after the
277. Tchabualo village is 25 kilometers north of Ulongue, and Calomue village is 40 kilometers north of
the city.
278. During the first round of research, we visited two villages along the road to Dedza; other communities
were just starting to reestablish themselves. At that time neither Tchabualo nor Calomue was densely populated.
The distance between the new (reestablished) communities was more than 2 kilometers in some cases. When we
returned in 1994, we drove through ten villages much like Tchabualo, all densely populated, and we witnessed
other villages that were just reforming. We made several "spot checks" along the road to ask people where they
came from. In most cases the smallholders responded that they or their families were rebuilding on exactly the
same spot they had abandoned when the war drove them away.
279. Interviews with smallholders in Calomue and Tchabualo, February 1994.
280. District authorities reported that the population of the village in 1993 was 7,652 people—and that this
was typical of villages along the border.