The name is absent

50

than based on local custom or rules. Just as with the statutory system, there is no
independent, customary judicial system. Often smallholders must rely on the same authorities
for both dispute resolution and land distribution. However, it appears that smallholders
generally view the customary system as more legitimate and transparent (despite internal
struggles) than the formal statutory system. The discrepancies and absence of linkages
between the two systems—statutory and customary—undermine the positive aspects of each
system and impoverish those with weaker rights in the customary system. For example, those
with feeble land rights (women, second wives, junior family members, nonlineage members,
and those with no historical rights) will not have an opportunity to exploit the statutory legal
system to defend their rights. The disconnection between the two systems means that civil
society is less able to influence the development of local rules and institutions and, at the
same time, that government authorities and policymakers are unaware of the social reality and
aspirations of civil society.

C. LAND DISPUTES AND CONFLICTS

As suggested earlier, the inconsistencies in both formal and customary land-tenure systems
are leading to land disputes and conflicts. Our research revealed a growing number of land
disputes involving smallholders, commercial interests, and joint-venture enterprises,
particularly in areas that have large concentrations of displaced populations and in regions
where demand for land is high, such as in urban and Green Zones, around irrigated farming
sites, near former state farms, and on private estates. ¹⁰ These are the most strategically
located lands, which have received the greatest capital investment from the colonial period
to the present. Land near the coast and the frontiers is also heavily contested. Indeed,
research discloses an important relationship between land conflicts and such factors as
population density, capital investment, and official land concessions. The most economically
important lands in the country have been the places of most land conflict.

Map 6 illustrates where the largest number of land conflicts have developed in
Mozambique, depicting the location and frequency of these disputes. The data for this map,
which was produced in November 1993, are drawn from field research, unpublished research
reports, anecdotal testimonies in the Mozambican press, and other sources within the
government and donor communities that have focused on this issue. We would like to
emphasize that this map is a graphic representation of where most land conflicts appear to be
occurring and their relative levels of intensity. The map is not based on discrete data (i.e.,
a specific number of conflict cases enumerated in a specified area). It is difficult to determine
how much land in the country is under dispute. At the same time, we should not be deceived
into thinking that these areas represent a small part of the country and that conflicts are

110. In November 1993, at a Maputo-based NGO conference that focused on land tenure issues in
Mozambique, participants reported on numerous conflicts occurring throughout the country. Conferees demanded
that government officials in attendance make known their intentions to resolve these disputes and inhibit the
spread of land conflicts. The same issues and demands were raised by smallholder farmers at the Second
National Land Conference in Mozambique in May 1994. Government officials offered neither recommendations
nor solutions on either occasion.

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