II. RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
This study began in November 1992, shortly after the signing of the peace accord on 4
October 1992; it is part of a larger collaborative project between the Land Tenure Center
(LTC) and the Ministry of Agriculture (MOA). The inquiry, which began in 1991, focuses
in part on land policy reform. It is funded through USAID/Mozambique's Private Sector
Support Technical Assistance Project.
Case studies were conducted in several areas of the country (map 1) 9 as part of this
investigation. Although many sites have been visited in the last year, this paper reports on
four cases in the provinces of Gaza (Chokwe and Chibuto districts), Sofala (Nhamatanda
District), Manica (Vanduzi District), and Tete (Angonia District). All together, we
interviewed more than 425 people at these sites. This study also includes data drawn from
other sites visited in Maputo, Gaza, Inhambane, Sofala, and Nampula provinces as well as
data collected in an earlier study in 1992 on state-farm divestiture in Mozambique (map 3). 10
Additional material for this report was drawn from a variety of sources in the private sector
and donor community and at the central, provincial, and district levels of government.
In this project we were interested in gathering broad, historical pictures of land tenure,
land access, and local control or authority over land and natural resources in a variety of
settings. We were particularly interested in the transformation that these systems or
institutions had undergone during the war as well as transformations experienced as a result
of the economic and political changes of the last year. A secondary objective was to develop
a baseline description of land tenure relationships that are emerging in the postwar period.
In this paper we use the term "customary" to denote political, legal, and cultural
institutions that are used by Mozambicans at the local level. These "systems"—products of
the tension and collaboration within rural society and between rural society and a wider
social, political, and economic order—give meaning to, shape, and regulate peoples' lives.
They have meaning because they are historically rooted and because they have been
transformed as rural Mozambicans have experienced new economic opportunities and political
constraints. These systems create political and economic opportunities for actors, who
manipulate local rules and customs to their advantage. The process of use and manipulation
of customary rules transforms customary institutions, which in turn create new opportunities
and constraints for individuals, families, and communities."
9. Maps 1-6 appear at the end of section 3.
10. See Myers, West, and Eliseu (1993); Myers (1994b); West and Myers (1993); Myers and Tanner (1992);
and Tanner, Myers, and Oad (1993). In these earlier studies on state-farm divestiture we interviewed more than
200 people in 4 provinces (Gaza, Sofala, Manica, and Cabo Delgado).
11. See West and Myers (1992).