79
B. NHAMATANDA DISTRICT, SOFALA PROVINCE
1. RESEARCH SITES AND OBJECTIVES
LTC researchers visited Nhamatanda District three times in the last two years, choosing
five geographical locations, north and south of the road and railway line, for further
investigation: (1) Djasse, (2) Nharuchonga, (3) Nhamatanda, (4) Lamego, and (5) Muda (see
maps 10-14). The most recent field study was conducted in July 1993, approximately nine
months after the peace accord was initiated This case study on land access builds upon
a 1992 LTC investigation that was part of a larger study focusing on divestiture of state farm
Mozambique lands and assets in
In this and the case study of Manica Province that follows, we endeavor to enrich our
understanding of tenure and power relations in several districts along or contiguous to the
Beira corridor in central Mozambique. As discussed below, the corridor has been the site of
substantial financial investment from the colonial period to the present. This investment has
affected economic and power relations as well as land tenure rules and land access in the
colonial, independence, and postwar periods. The entire corridor is densely populated (see
map 2), and during the war it was heavily settled by displaced families. It is the sight of
major road and rail transport between Zimbabwe and the Mozambican seaport in Beira. The
case studies in Nhamatanda and Vanduzi districts are representative of other communities in
the Beira corridor.
In the case of Nhamatanda we specifically attempted to understand if returning refugees
and displaced farmers had returned to their family lands and to discover more about the
interaction between displaced farmers, returning refugees, and local inhabitants with regard
to land access and control over natural resources in the postwar period. We also focused on
who was distributing land and resolving land disputes and on the interaction between new or
returning nonlocal commercial interests and local smallholders.
2. COMMON HISTORICAL, LAND TENURE, AND SOCIAL EXPERIENCES WITHIN THE
BEIRA CORRIDOR
The districts investigated in both Sofala and Manica Province, while different in many
ways, share numerous common historical experiences. These happenings influenced social,
143. Approximately 75 farmers were interviewed at these five sites in 1993, ten of whom were returning
refugees while 32 were displaced farmers. In addition, two group interviews were held in Lamego and Muda;
six farmers participated at Lamego while seven farmers took part at Muda. Small commercial private farmers
were queried as well. Besides these farmers, we interviewed several locality and district-level government
officials, rural extension agents, and representatives of NGOs operating in the area. The government officials
included the district agricultural officer, the provincial agricultural officer, the district chief of DINAGECA,
the secretary of the government repatriation center at Muda, the secretary of the center for displaced people at
Gorongosa, and extension agents in Lamego and Nharuchonga.
144. See Myers, West, and Eliseu (1993). In this earlier investigation we interviewed many of the same
government officials and approximately 56 smallholders in and around Lamego. In addition, Harry West and
Julieta Eliseu conducted group interviews at two sites in Lamego, Eliseu interviewing approximately 25 women
in one meeting.