83
By 1967, it is estimated that there were 4,043 "registered" farms, totaling 2.27 million
hectares, in Mozambique. 156 Many of these farms were part of the established colonatos.
In Sofala and Manica, 451 farms (or 11 percent) of the farms registered countrywide covered
677,000 hectares (29.8 percent of the total area registered).
The more intrusive colonial political and economic policies were designed to control land
and natural resources. The prazos, plantations, concessions, aldeamentos, and colonatos all
resulted in physical displacement as well as political and economic disruption. Mozambicans
were either forced off their lands or became landless laborers on their own farms. This
eventually led to the growth of the independence movement and the downfall of the colonial
regime. However, not all parties in the resistance had the same goals and objectives. Some
of those supporting the fight for independence had ideological goals that conflicted with those
of the movement's leadership, particularly regarding the future nature of the Mozambican
economy and society. Many who later broke from FRELIMO thought differently about race
and property relations, preferring to purge whites from Mozambique and capitalize on
reclaimed resources. Some of these individuals came from "traditional" political families
while others belonged to an emerging black capitalist class, including the assimilados. Many
of both groups came from Zambezia, Sofala, and Manica provinces. It is not coincidental,
therefore, that there is a strong relationship between the economic and political history of
157
these three provinces and the evolution of civil war in Mozambique.
3. LAND TENURE IN NHAMATANDA DISTRICT BEFORE THE PEACE ACCORD
After independence most private farmers, including the colonos, abandoned their farms
in Sofala Province. The newly independent government began to "intervene" (i.e., take over)
and nationalize several of these farms in 1976 and eventually created at least thirteen state
enterprises in Sofala Province. 158 These enterprises covered more than 35,000 hectares (see
map 3). Two of these farms were located in Nhamatanda District—Lamego Agricultural State
Farm (3,726 hectares) and Muda Agriculture and Livestock State Enterprise. The area of the
latter enterprise is thought to have been several thousand hectares but is unknown by
government officials in Maputo. 159 The boundaries of the state farms were not necessarily
coterminous with their colonial counterparts. In some instances the state farms were carved
from larger colonial-era private farms, but in many more cases they were amalgamations of
several small or medium-sized colonial private farms. Consequently, smallholders, who may
156. See Standard Bank Group, Annual Economic Review, Mozambique, 1968, p. 3, cited in Isaacman and
Isaacman (1983, p. 44). In 1993 officials at DINAGECA estimated that at least 6,000-7,000 land titles were
issued by independence. In addition, after independence the state farm sector covered approximately 600,000
hectares. Government officials in Maputo assert that the state farm sector included only a fraction of the farms
abandoned at independence. Consequently, it is likely that both the number of colonial-era "private" farms and
their area exceeds the figures reported by the Standard Bank Group.
157. See Sidaway (1992); and Geffray and Pederson (1988).
158. See Myers, West, and Eliseu (1993).
159. Interviews with Hermes Sueia, UREA (Unidade de Reestrutaçâo de Empresas Agrarias), Ministry of
Agriculture, Maputo, February 1992 and August 1993. When research was conducted on the state farm sector
in 1992, the Muda Agriculture and Livestock State Enterprise had closed. We were unable to interview farm
officials about its operations.