Narrating history, negotiating rights. A discussion of knowledge, land rights and matters of identity in Madjadjane, Mozambique.

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Narrating history, negotiating rights.

A discussion of knowledge, land rights and matters of identity in Madjadjane, Mozambique.

Philosophiae Doctor (PhD) Thesis Hanne Haaland

Department of International Environment and Development Studies (Noragric) Norwegian University of Life Sciences

Ås 2008

Thesis number 2008: 45 ISSN 1503-1667 ISBN 978-82-575-0848-7

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Acknowledgements

I am grateful to a number of people for their help, fruitful discussions and comments for this thesis. First and foremost, my sincere gratitude goes to my main supervisor Dr. Kjersti Larsen. Throughout this work we have shared many interesting

discussions, which have helped me discover new and important themes in my material. Her comments and critical reading have been invaluable and a source of motivation in this sometimes very exhausting process. I would also like to thank my co-supervisor Dr. Bjørn Kaltenborn, particularly for his support and advice when designing the project.

I also wish to thank former and current PhD colleagues at Noragric who provided many useful comments and discussions on early drafts for this thesis; Dr. Cassandra Bergstrøm, Dr. Darley Jose Kjosavik, Dr. Dismas Mwaseba, Jawad Ali, Frøydis Kvaaløy, Hussain Jemma and particularly Hege Wallevik. Hege has been an

important discussion partner throughout this project. Her moral support in particularly stressing periods has been highly appreciated.

My appreciation goes to the Norwegian Research Council who provided the main funding for this project. During the course of this research I have been employed at the Norwegian institute for nature research (NINA) and at Agder University (UiA). I would like to extend my thanks to the management at the Norwegian institute for nature research for providing good working conditions and space for my PhD research. NINA has also partially funded this study. I am also grateful to Professor Arne Olav Øyhus (Påsan), head of the Centre of Development Studies at Agder University, for providing sufficient time to complete this thesis. I would also like to thank supportive colleagues at NINA.

I also wish to extend my appreciation to the Department of International Environment and Development Studies (Noragric) at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences which has been the academic host for this PhD work.

In Mozambique there is a long list of people that I wish to thank and acknowledge. I am deeply indebted to my interpreter and friend José Sabino Busse, whose

assistance I could not have done without. His working capacities, his many skills and his fine sense of humour contributed to periods of rewarding fieldwork as well as many good times. My sincere thankfulness also goes to Adriana Prista Johnson, my dear friend who let me stay with her year in and year out when I arrived in Maputo.

Thank you Dana, for all the fun times! I am also grateful to my friend Tahia Carim at the Norwegian Embassy in Maputo for helping me with a range of practical matters throughout this period. I should not forget Neil Jackson who put me in contact with a lot of interesting people in Maputo. I am also grateful to the late Dr Steven Telford at Impacto in Maputo, a dear friend and discussion partner.

The Swiss NGO Helvetas provided me with a lot of assistance throughout the process of fieldwork. I wish to extend my appreciation to the staff both in the main office in Maputo and in Bela Vista. In Bela Vista I am particularly indebted to Dr.

Yasmin, “General” Spinula and the Matosse family for help and support. In Ponta do Ouro I would also like to thank mr Rodriguez and his family.

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I am indebted to a range of people in Madjadjane. Afraid of forgetting anyone, I wish to extend my gratitude to all of the people that I have interacted with in Madjadjane.

Thank you for your hospitality and for allowing me into your midst. And, not to forget, thank you for continuously providing me with new perspectives and ways of seeing the world. KANIMAMBO!

And last, but not least, my sincere thankfulness goes to my family. To my husband Sveinung; I could not have done this without your support. And to my children, Mathias and Oda Emilie, for bringing happiness and joy every day.

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Abstract

This study explores the links between land rights, identity and forms of knowledge in the community of Madjadjane in southern Mozambique. Madjadjane had its

community land registered in 1998 and the registration followed after the Mozambican Parliament passed a new Land Law in 1997. The law recognises customary user rights to land and provides communities the legal rights to communally register land. The registration of community land in Madjadjane was initiated by an NGO in order to reduce conflicts over land between a tourism concession holder and the local community.

With a basis in phenomenology, applying an actor-oriented approach, I illustrate the several meanings land hold for people in Madjadjane. Land does not only have economic value, but is also significant to local residents in terms of identity and for their sense of belonging. I discuss how Madjadjane residents use narratives to present their knowledge of the land, as vehicles of resistance as well as to present and negotiate their rights to land in the area. The study explores the continued intense resentments over the location of the boundaries of community land, most particularly in relation to a neighbouring protected area. Discussing the relationship between formal, juridical regulations and local perceptions of land – an interface between diverging traditions of knowledge – this study offers a critique of the application of contemporary development discourses of land reform in rural Africa.

These discourses, and the interventions they support, prioritise the formalisation of landholding through titling, demarcation and registration in order to facilitate

marketisation in land.

The study reflects on the social embeddedness of rights and discusses how narratives represent a significant way of grasping local knowledge of rights

and negotiations of rights. Property is not only socially embedded and vested with power. It is also vested with knowledge. This becomes particularly clear in the Mozambican context where local participation is encouraged for the registration of community land and oral testimony recognised alongside formal legal proof.

Recognising how power permeates knowledge, seeking to define what counts as

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knowledge, this thesis argues for increased reflexivity among the parties involved concerning both relations of power and knowledge in so-called participatory processes which focus on local involvement and use of local knowledge.

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Errata

Chapter 1:

Page 6: Correct reference for “(World World 2003)” is “(World Bank 2003)”

Page 10: The correct sentence is “I argue in this thesis for increased reflexivity concerning power relations and the use of knowledge in all types of so-called

participatory development processes which focus on local involvement and the use of local knowledge.”

Chapter 2:

Page 38: Add name “Merle” in footnote no 40.

Page 47: Use capital “S” in “state ownership”

Page 52: Add “2004” to “Norfolk” in footnote. Full references should also be added to footnote “Norfolk, S (2004). Examining access to natural resources and linkages to sustainable livelihoods. A case study of Mozambique. Livelihoods Support

Programme, FAO.”

Page 65: Correct reference for “Sayaguyes 1997” is “Sayaguyes 1997, April 7^th” Chapter 3

Page 73: Correct reference for “Mcgregor” is “McGregor”

Page 91: Add missing word “power” before “vacuum”. Correct sentence is: “In Madjadjane, the absence of a customary leader has not left the community in a vacuum”

Chapter 6:

Page 200: Add full reference for “Bowen 2000” in footnotes. “Bowen, M. L. (2000) The state against the peasantry: rural struggles in colonial and post-colonial Mozambique. Charlottesville, University Press of Viriginia.”

Page 224: Move comma, correct word is “Still”

Chapter 8:

Page 303: Correct reference for Tanner is “(Tanner 2002: 1)”

Page 337: The correct sentence should read “As I have pointed out earlier,

representations of history can be resisted, as can conceptualisations of knowledge”

Chapter 9:

Page 348: Remove sentence that appears twice “In the case of Madjadjane, the argumentation of rights is also a basis for community”

Page 348: Correct reference for Li is “(Li 1996: 505)”

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Reference list:

Correct reference for Abu-Lughod is “Abu-Lughod, L. (1990) “The romance of resistance: tracing transformations of power through Bedouin women. American Ethnologist 17(1) : 41-55

Correct reference for Ferguson is “Ferguson, J. (1990) “Mobile workers, modernist narratives. A critique of the historiography of transition on the Zambesian Copperbelt part two.” Journal of Southern African studies 16(4) : 385-412

Correct reference for Firmin Sellers is “Firmin Sellers K. and P. Sellers (1999)

“Expected failure and unexpected successes of land titling in Africa. World Development 27(7): 1115-1128

Reference to First (1983) should only appear once

Reference to Howard and Shain (2005) should only appear once Reference to Virtanen (2000) should only appear once

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1. Introduction

The setting for this study is the rural community of Madjadjane, which borders on the Maputo Special Reserve in Maputo Province, southern Mozambique. At first sight this small community, situated in an area with very poor infrastructure between the

Mozambican capital Maputo and the South African border, seems relatively isolated.

However, closer examination reveals that the community is not quite so isolated, nor is it characterized by a strong rural-urban divide, due to the high degree of mobility among its residents. This mobility spans community as well as national borders. As a consequence of economic and ecological conditions, colonial and post-colonial policies and political instability, people have moved in and out of the area for centuries. A high degree of mobility nevertheless does not weaken people’s ties to their land. Land continues to transcend the lives of community residents in a variety of ways, whether they are in or out of Madjadjane. Land is critical for their identity and feeling of belonging, and constitutes a central element in social relationships and thus for social structure. And, of course, land is important for general economic reasons.

Land is a central theme in this thesis. Throughout the following pages I explore the strong relationship which exists between people and land in Madjadjane and the different values and meanings assigned to land by community residents. The research was initiated in 2001. At that time formalisation of property rights as a tool for economic development was given much attention. In the Mozambican context, the Land Law from 1997 was still considered a novelty and there was an increasing focus on environmental conservation, tourism as an important income path for Mozambique and the potential for growing conflicts over land. Many different approaches could have been applied for my research and interesting work is already done on land tenure, land registration and land reform in Southern Africa. Economists, human geographers and political scientists have made significant observations of the potential and pitfalls of land tenure formalisation.

However, my main interest is not in the economic impacts of formalizing land rights or institutional changes as a consequence of a new legislation. Rather, when I initiated

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my research, my main aim was to focus on “notions on the ground”, so to speak. I wanted to know how people perceived and dealt with land issues – hence the

“people-centred” approach of this thesis. In an era dominated by neo-classical economic ideology, where land is mainly conceived as an economic resource with a potential which calls for release, I point to how people in Madjadjane continue to have a relationship to their land, despite factors such as a high rate of mobility, the existing alternative sources of income, and increasing limitations on access to land due to the presence and expansion of the Maputo Special Reserve. This relationship is not merely based on an economic rationale; community residents attach a range of values to this resource apart from a more obvious economic one. These are values that form part of a larger framework of culture, history and social practices.

Madjadjane land (in the Ronga language: mbango ) – or the place of Madjadjane – is imbued with meaning.

Grounded in phenomenology and with a focus on everyday life and practices, this thesis provides insight into the constitution of local life worlds and systems of meaning, highlighting the meanings and values of land in Mozambique. Land in Madjadjane, as already indicated, is not only significant for agricultural small scale or subsistence production, or for attracting potential tourist investors or wildlife viewers.

The land is lived, emotionally sensed and experienced. It is central to residents’

identity, to communality and to a sense of belonging. Moreover, land has a moral dimension which should not be ignored. Land provides rights, but also obligations.

Significant social relations are embedded in the land and this is a central aspect when trying to understand the relationship between people and land and the socio- cultural values of land. Considering these social relations implies that a discussion of rights to land can only be productive if the issue of obligations is understood and acknowledged. The reciprocity between rights and obligations reflects social organisation within the community. Yet this aspect is often ignored within rights- based discussions and within much of the research focusing on tenure. Furthermore, the moral dimension of land underscores a need to think about land per se and not merely in pure economic terms. For Madjadjane residents, Madjadjane land is not only property or an asset. It is also a place that holds specific meanings and

emotions and to which residents have a relational approach. Finally, it is a landscape

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of use, rather than one of protection, which signifies diverging interests between the community and the conservation authorities.

Considering the local understandings of land, this thesis provides a critical

perspective on the property rights discourse and consequently questions a belief in universal models for development. Througout this thesis I question current

development discourses and practices when it comes to the formalisation of rights and local participation. I argue for the need for a more holistic understanding of land tenure, which requires an increased focus on social and cultural conditions and values, not only in written text such as in legal frameworks, but also in practice, in the implementation of the principles. Moreover, this thesis explores a conflict whose basic outline is common in sub-Saharan Africa (and most other parts of the world), namely that between interests of use and the forces for conservation in protected areas. Together, the property rights discourse and the conservation politics practiced in Mozambique have clearly influenced the relationship between people and land in Madjadjane, at least when it comes to principles of use and access. Consequently there is a situation of conflict over land and land use in the area.

Community land in Madjadjane was formally registered in 1998, not long after the passing of the new Land Law in Mozambique. The registration was conducted in order to diminish border conflicts between the community of Madjadjane and a large- scale American tourism investor, which had been granted a concession in the

Maputo Special Reserve. Local discussions on land and boundaries in this area continue. The relationship between the community and the reserve management has remained strained, despite the formal registration. This situation has made me reflect upon the interaction between a formal legal framework and local practices; that is, the interface between diverse actors and different life-worlds. Consequently, this

research also explores the interface between state regulation and local

understandings of land and land use. This is an interface between different traditions of knowledge – a practice-oriented, relational understanding of land on the one hand and a formal approach based on theory, abstraction and ideas of universal solutions on the other.

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Central in this thesis, therefore, is the discussion of how knowledge and rights are constituted, presented and negotiated at the local level. I argue how a set of shared narratives is a significant element in the relationship between people and land in Madjadjane. Some of the shared narratives contribute, together with rituals, to the strong connection between humans and land in terms of identity construction and the production of place. Moreover, recognizing how narratives reflect a lived past and provide insight into local practices and systems of meaning, narratives must be understood as both presenting and representing knowledge and, consequently, also reflecting claims to local rights to land and resources and the negotiation of such rights.

Access to land is crucial for rural livelihoods in southern Africa. In Mozambique 65 % of the population and 80 % of the poor live in rural areas. As a whole, smallholder agriculture employs 65 % of the men and 92 % of the women in the labour force (Kanji, Braga et al. 2002).Agriculture accounts for 22 % of GDP in Mozambique (World Bank 2006). Consequently, access to land and natural resources is a

fundamental element for the income-generating opportunities of rural people. Hence land and rights to land have long been at the centre of development concerns. Policy makers and academics seeking to promote more productive uses of land have

therefore stressed the importance of formalizing property rights as a mean to

promote economic growth and development. This is referred to as the property rights discourse, where titling is seen as a mean to provide security for the rural

smallholders and a precondition for long-term capital investment and availability of credit (Firmin-Sellers and Sellers 1999). This discourse has been among the most dominant over the last decade, and the Peruvian economist Hernando de Soto one of its most profiled proponents.

De Soto argues that the poor possess the assets required to make a success of capitalism (and therefore promote economic development), but in a defective form since their rights to their possessions are not adequately documented (de Soto 2000). De Soto thus promotes capitalism as the main way of achieving economic development and sees a formalization of tenure rights as one of the most significant steps towards achieving this goal. A pertinent question to ask, however, is to what extent this kind of rhetoric works in practice and whether questions of land and rights

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to land are best answered applying a mainly neo-liberal language. This question leads up to the starting point of this work, as I question the ability of such a narrow approach to fully grasp the complexities of land use and land ownership. Hence I am critical of whether this approach enables us to take into account the social and cultural realities that have an impact on people’s values, choices and actions.

Considering the above, my research was motivated by an interest in rural

smallholders’ rights to land in Mozambique in a context where a new legal framework had just been passed and where there was a growing interest in land among

investors (both national and foreign). Due to its vulnerable economic situation, Mozambique has since the mid-eighties been forced to adapt to a series of neo- liberal reforms, after a short socialist period. The growing interest in foreign

investment in Mozambique in the mid-nineties, particularly the interest in land, started a widespread debate about property rights in the country. The new Land Law,

formulated and introduced in 1997, recognizes customary rights to land, providing for a formalization of communal rights through a delimitation¹ and registration process.

Following the line of thought of de Soto and his supporters, the formalization of rights is perceived as central to economic growth and development, providing people with official documents that confirm their titles to land. In the literature discussing land rights in Africa, formalization is thus most commonly associated with written and formal documents. This has again lead to a focus on the role of the state (Ikdahl, Hellum et al. 2005) in the sense that the state contributes to a standardisation of rules and systems. As such, formalisation is often understood as representing a shift between informal and formal norms, and hence a dichotomous approach which reflects a shift from oral to written and from extralegal to legal. However, as Ingunn Ikdahl and her colleagues have pointed out, the dichotomous approach has been subject to criticism as it does not “grasp the complex and uneven process whereby state law and local norms and practices intersect and interact” (ibid.: 4). Moreover, implicit in the dichotomy is a moral judgement of values and ways of organizing society; of what is considered “rightful” or the most efficient in the effort for achieving development. As this study demonstrates, communities can be organized in many

1 Delimitation refers to the formal setting of boundaries and registration of community land. The results of a delimitation process are presented to the national agency for cadastral records, DINAGECA.

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ways and the intersection between formal law and local (customary) practices represents many challenges.

The focus on the formalisation of rights and hence the property rights discourse has, beyond doubt, gained force, although research over the last few years have also brought arguments against blueprint solutions and the perceived benefits of titling (see for instance Waterhouse 2001; Nyamu-Musembi 2006). A central actor within development policies, the World Bank, has been pushing towards increased

formalisation of rights, seeing property rights as a cornerstone for the functioning of modern economies and allowing households to accumulate and transfer wealth (World World 2003). Another example illustrating the adoption of such an approach is the Norwegian initiative, with the support of the other Nordic countries, to establish the “High Level Commission on Legal Empowerment of the Poor” – HLCLEP. The overall aim of this commission is strengthening the user and property rights of the poor. The initial presentation of the commission argues how “formalization is

important in order for people in the informal sector in developing countries to acquire rights that we take for granted and to protect them against oppression and make them less vulnerable. Some work has already been done in this field, but it is now time to systematize these efforts and the lessons learned in order to make it easier for governments to initiate formalisation processes”².

The focus on the formalization of rights is increasingly reflected in national development policies and institutional structures. This becomes evident when considering the wave of tenure reforms and initiatives sweeping across Africa in the 1990s, viz. Kenya, Zimbabwe, Namibia, South Africa and Mozambique (Cousins 2001).

The Mozambican adaptation of several neo-liberal reforms also raised the question of ownership. At the end of the civil war in 1992, the Land Tenure Centre, sponsored by USAID, pressured for individual titles to land (Negrão 2003), a process which

eventually led to the formulation of the 1997 Land Law. In the early 1990s, the

General Peace Accord together with the political climate in the neighboring countries

2 See http://www.odin.dep.no/ud/english/topics/development/032201-120111/dok-bn.html. Accessed 1.09.2005

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spurred an interest in land in Mozambique. Many of the applicants were from South Africa and followed a perception that land was “up for grabs” in the neighbouring country (Hatton 1996). However, the debate was not only spurred by the prospects of an increasing number of foreign investors. A rising level of land conflicts, the

prospects of increased “land grabs” by the Mozambican elite, the development of parallel and illegal land markets and an international discourse on property rights are some of the factors that led to the promulgation of the Land Law of 1997.

The property rights discourse and its strong belief in formalisation can be seen as another attempt to modernize the so-called developing countries by universalizing and applying ideas of property and ownership embedded in the Western rationale and a particular form of society. These ideas see property – or land – first and foremost as economic assets. Economic growth is perceived as an overall

development objective that is seen to be secured through defining and formalizing rights to land. However, as Mark Hobart reminds us, a problem of much

modernisation theory is that it omits recognition of wider social and historical

processes (Hobart 1993), a point also made by Ha Joon Chang (2002). Joon Chang stresses how the role of property rights in economic development is far more

complex than orthodox property rights discourse of today suggests and claims that in terms of economic development what matters is not simply the protection of all

existing property rights, but rather “which rights are protected under which conditions”

(ibid.: 83). In other words, rights have to be considered in their proper context.

Thus, in the case of land formalisation, I argue, the dominant ideal of property fails to acknowledge context and situate knowledge, blurring the understanding of how alternative systems work for organizing, managing and valuing land. Moreover,

modernisation theory sees agency vested in supra-human forces such as the market, failing to recognize the multiplicity of agencies that exist. An comprehension of

agency is central to an understanding of the power and pressure behind the decisions and choices people make (Parkin and Croll 1992) with reference to the resources they have access to, such as land. Although the so-called fortress conservation has been left in favour of a more participatory approach (Hulme and Murphree 2001), much conservation politics still argue along the lines of

modernisation theory in the sense that they fail to understand alternative systems for

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managing resources and a broader social, political and cultural context. Hence, many of the conservation areas in Africa (and elsewhere, for that matter) are characterized by conflict between local land users and conservationists. As we will see in the case of Madjadjane, these diverging perspectives of land and consequently natural

resources contribute to continued conflict over borders and land. In order to solve these kinds of conflicts, as Tania Li (1996) rightfully points out, there is a need for increased awareness of the social nature of property. We need to understand how property is “not only a relationship between people and things, but also a relationship between people, embedded in moral and cultural framework, a particular vision of community” (ibid.: 502). In other words, land must be understood as more than property, and must be considered as a significant element in social organisation and as ways of seeing the world.

What follows from the arguments above is that a focus on formalisation of land runs the risk of obscuring the multiple meanings in which rights are conceived within local discourse, turning them into another blueprint of development and modernisation.

The result may be a range of unintended consequences, which is the nemesis of many theories, development policies and projects when encountering practice

(Hobart 1993). Customary rights are not easily transformed into formal rights, and the formalisation of rights for rural people does not necessarily bring the expected

economic growth or increased ability for right-holders to negotiate with or benefit from their rights. Local understandings and practices of rights and resources may divert from the formal perspectives, affecting the outcomes of policies and legal framework.

Hence, there is no easy fix to the question of rights and access to resources.

With reference to Mozambique, the legal framework approved in 1997 (Lei de Terra) is in many ways considered progressive, in the sense that it builds on a recognition of the underlying social and economical realities in the country (Tanner 2002). Such recognition of what is denoted as underlying realities includes the acknowledgement that more than 90 % of the land in the country is managed according to customary system, leading to a legal recognition of customary rights to land combined with formal state law (ibid.). Thus, the Land Law seeks to avoid a dichotomous approach between formal and local norms and practices, by recognizing how they intersect and interact. The state is still the owner of all land in Mozambique, but surface user rights

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– direito de uso e aproveitamento (DUAT),namely the right of “use and progress” – can be acquired by individuals and by communities, and can be exchanged and is subject to regulation. Another significant aspect of the law is that the proof of right of use can be made not only through written records, but also through oral testimony.

Allowing the use of oral testimony implies the recognition of local knowledge concerning user rights to land.

The Land Law is referred to as a tool for development³ (Tanner 2002) and the recognition of customary practices in the law is perceived as a formal

acknowledgement of the cultural and social dimensions of land in Mozambique. In 2002 I presented a paper on the social and cultural values of land in Madjadjane at the World Congress of Rural Sociology. One of the participants who had long

research experience in Mozambique and within the field of land rights, remarked that the paper was interesting, but that criticism provided against the legal framework and the state was, she argued, superfluous and not well informed because the Land Law did recognize the cultural and social values of land. Her point confirms what I argue throughout this thesis – that legal rhetoric is not really sufficient when practices violate legal principles. I argue that violation of principles occurs often due to the power relations that transcend property. Customary institutions hold legitimacy at the local level and in particular situations, but their role in society from a political

perspective still remains uncertain. The devolution of power from a central to a local level is a debated but contested issue. Hence, as Ben Cousins reminds us, a myopic focus on rights-based laws runs the risk of ignoring the practice of power and the power structures within society (Cousins, 1997, in Peters 2002: 56). In this case, the practice of power is one where the local structures have limited influence only and where the agenda is set by outsiders.

Focusing on diverse values and meanings of land in Madjadjane, this research thus adds to that of Sara Berry (2000; 2001), reflecting on the social embeddedness of property rights. As such, this thesis presents a critical perspective on the property

3 Christopher Tanner, resident FAO senior advisor with the land commission in Maputo refers to the Land Law explicitly as an important development tool and “explicitly designed as such. (…) it creates conditions for change, for a long-term but gradual and well-managed process of rural development; through the adoption of local structures to modern land management structures (and vice versa)” (Tanner 2002: 1) Tanner, C. (2002).

Law-making in an African context: The 1997 Mozambican Land Law, FAO.

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rights discourse and, as mentioned above, the problem of universal models for development. It illustrates how local communities bring their material and cultural resources to bear in their encounter with development and modernity (Escobar

1995). In Madjadjane local responses become evident when considering the role and use of shared narratives in the community. As a result I discuss how narratives represent a way of grasping local knowledge and consequently how narratives represent a main tool in the argumentation and negotiation of rights. Therefore, where Berry sees property as a relation vested with power, I expand her argument by discussing how property is also vested with knowledge. This becomes particularly clear in the Mozambican context where local participation is encouraged for registration of land and oral testimony is recognized alongside formal legal proof.

Power transcends knowledge in a development context. Power structures are implicit in the dominant concept of knowledge, which signify that power structures influence what is considered as representing knowledge. Recognizing this intimate

relationship, I argue in this thesis argues for increased reflexivity concerning power relations and the use of knowledge in all types of so-called participatory development processes which focus on local involvement and the use of local knowledge⁴. As such, my research includes a critical perspective on development models that seek universal solutions and thus pay limited attention to culture, context and hence to difference.

Organisation of the thesis

In this initial chapter I have presented the focus and the purpose of this work, and also positioned it within the wider context of development studies. Chapter Two locates the community of Madjadjane geographically and positions it in the wider historical and political context. The brief historical-political review pays particular attention to land tenure and labour migration during colonial times, as well as the politics of Frelimo in the post-independence period. Customary law and traditional authorities have both been topics for political and legislative debates in Mozambique.

Moreover, custom has also become a central argument in the negotiation of local

4 So far the so-called participatory processes in Madjadjane have not only involved land issues, but also environmental conservation.

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rights. Following from this, the continued legitimacy and position of traditional

authorities in Mozambique are discussed. The history of the Maputo Special Reserve and the many recent development plans are also described. The final section of this chapter touches upon central aspects of the Land Law of 1997.

The community of Madjadjane is the focus of Chapter Three. My description of the community life and its characteristics is related to some historical and political factors outlined in the previous chapter. Administrative and symbolic structures in

Madjadjane are also explored. The final section of the chapter provides a description of everyday life in the community. Chapter Four provides a discussion of

methodological perspectives and the fieldwork process. A significant part of this chapter explores how narratives work as a way of grasping local knowledge and of understanding local constructions of meanings.

Chapter Five presents two important and interconnected aspects of life in

Madjadjane, viz. the continued importance of traditional leaders in the community and the role of the ancestors in social life and for community wellbeing. Traditional

leaders are significant mediators in the relationship between people and the ancestral spirits. There is a call for the return of a legitimate chief in Madjadjane which should be seen in connection with the importance of the ancestors. The role of the Tembe family is significant in this context; hence, a section of this chapter

describes the history of the family. Community ancestors are rooted in the land and have an impact on land use and the kind of land use changes that are accepted. A description of a community ritual, the canhu opening ritual that approaches the ancestors, is provided and used for a discussion of the relationship between ancestors and leaders, between land and people.

Madjadjane mobility is the overall focus of Chapter Six, where I reflect upon various dimensions of the relationship between people and land or people and place, and thus also on the role of national borders and the state. I describe the spatial mobility which has been and continues to be a fundamental social and historical aspect of Madjadjane life, and argue that the Tembe chiefdom and hence traditional leaders have had and continue to have an impact on the patterns of movement in this

particular area. A description of a journey from Madjadjane to South Africa illustrates

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mobility across national borders and provides the background for discussing mobility and fluid identities, and how community membership eases cross-border mobility.

I return to a discussion of narratives in Chapter Seven. Since narratives are often presented as recollections of the past, a point of interest is precisely the dialectic relationship between the past and the present and between memory and experience.

This dialectic relationship is connected to hopes for the future and considerations concerning the past. A focus on narratives is thus a significant analytical tool. I reflect on the role of rituals as memory and nurturing shared narratives, but also as

narratives in their own right. My point is to illustrate how rituals produce and

reproduce shared narratives. The shared narratives from Madjadjane are significant tools not only for making order out of experience, but also as elements in the

construction of identities. A Madjadjane identity serves to legitimize claims to rights and resources attached to the particular area and the leadership presented in the narratives.

Chapter Eight examines the themes in shared narratives in Madjadjane in a Mozambican context of land discourses, the increased focus on environmental conservation and discussions of decentralisation and the role of traditional

authorities. I contend that local narratives should not merely be understood as reified text, but rather as social activity, since meanings are not inherent in a story but are created in the everyday situations in which they are told. Local narratives of past practices and of the land registration process therefore serve as illustrations of how local perspectives on outside intervention and local knowledge are presented and joined through the act of storytelling. Narratives can be interpreted as a critique of an authoritative state. Narrating history or invoking the past is also a way of supporting local claims. By exploring oral history and a written account of a particular event, I ask to what extent differing forms of knowledge and systems of communication are acknowledged in so-called participatory processes. This final question leads back to the Mozambican Land Law acknowledging oral testimony, custom and consequently also local knowledge.

In Chapter Nine I draw the lines between the ethnography presented in this thesis, the Mozambican legislative framework (the Land Law) and some of the themes at the

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centre of the development debates, namely those of property rights, participation and local knowledge. The social embeddedness of land, the continung mobility and the permeability of community boundaries reflect locally grounded practices and

meanings of land that differ from ideas of formalisation and modern forms of social division such as national identity and national boundaries. This is precisely why a recurrent belief in universal models for development is highly problematic. Local narratives reflect how people define their community and their place. Their

perspective may differ from the perspectives of the state. The fact that these local narratives are not taken into account contributes to continued contestation over

boundaries between, in this case, the community and the Maputo Special Reserve as the powerful neighbour. However, the battle is not only over physical boundaries, but also over the assertion of rights and identity. Moreover, it is a battle over power and knowledge, over who is to be involved in decision making and participatory

processes, whose and what kind of knowledge counts and which institutions are considered legitimate and ought to be recognized. In conclusion I therefore argue for increased reflexivity among development workers and researchers when they

engage in projects that aim to involve local knowledge and local involvement.

Increased reflexivity on behalf of the outsiders concerning knowledge and what counts as knowledge can hopefully contribute to deeper understandings of the local enactments of knowledge and property.

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2. Historical and political context – an overview

In this chapter I situate the community of Madjadjane geographically as well as in a wider Mozambican historical and political context. I also present some of the future plans for the district of Matatuine. My aim is to provide an overall context against which to interpret my findings, since an understanding of the present requires an understanding of the past. The present is not free of history, but rather the result of past events, processes and practices.

For my presentation of the historical context of the community of Madjadjane it should be noted that it is based on a limited range of written historical sources⁵. There are few ethnographic works published from the district of Matatuine⁶, although relatively recent work by Elisabeth Galli (2003) JoAnn McGregor (1997; 1998) and Roelof Kloppers (2005) represent interesting and valuable exceptions⁷. The work of the historian Patrick Harries (1994) on Mozambican migrant labour as well as that of Ruth First (1983) have also been helpful when writing the historical review of labour migration in the area. Since there are few historical books treating the early history of Mozambican history, I build extensively on the work of Malyn Newitt (1981; 1995) for this part.

In the following section I outline Mozambican history and dwell on certain aspects and periods in the past that contribute to understanding the situation in Madjadjane as it is today. I briefly describe four historical epochs; viz. the colonial and the post- independence periods, the civil war and the period following the Peace Agreement

5 Information was sought at the historical archives in Maputo, but since this was a very time-consuming process which involved quite a lot of bureaucracy for gaining access to the documentation, I prioritized spending my time in the field. I also spent some time at the library of the Centre for African Studies at the University of Eduardo Mondlane.

6This is my impression based on the limited documentation available. Yet it is likely that there is a lot of unpublished work on the area. Some studies of the local perceptions of conservation and legal framework for conservation have also been carried out in the area. De Boer, W. F., C. P. Ntumi, A. U. Correia and J. M. Mafuca (2000). "Diet and distribution of elephant in the Maputo Elephant Reserve, Mozambique." African Journal of Ecology 38(3): 188-201, Soto, B., Munthali, S. M. And Breen, C. (2001). "Perceptions of the forestry and wildlife policy by the local communities living in the Maputo Elephant Reserve, Mozambique." Biodiversity and Conservation 10(10): 1723-1738.

7 Although there are few ethnographic accounts from the district of Matatuine, this does not imply that there is not a rich scholarship on questions related to land and agricultural production in Mozambique. Allen Isaacman, Jose Negrão, Gregory Myers, Christian Geffrey, Anne Pitcher, Ishilda Nhantumbo, Scott Kloeck-Jenson, and Simon Norfolk are among the many contributors to this scholarship.

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signed in 1992. Since the first written accounts from the area and thus the first written sources date back to the colonial period, this is a natural starting point for my review.

However, the history of the district of Matatuine antedates the colonial period; I will discuss this in further detail in the chapter on continuity and change.

Since land and people’s relationship to their land is a central theme in my research, I will, as part of the historical review, provide a short overview of past practices and legislation with reference to land. Considering the significance of labour migration in the southern part of Mozambique, the history of labour migration will also be touched upon. However, a selective review like mine can never give full justice to all the significant events in Mozambican history which have somehow impacted the lives of the people of Madjadjane. Selections are always biased, and all selections and history are subject to interpretations.

For the whole district of Matatuine, a range of different plans for future development exist. The plans reflect the economic growth which the national economy has

experienced over the past 14 years. Although there are different opinions as to what implications the growth has had for the average Mozambican, it is beyond doubt that it has fuelled a growing interest in business development among national and foreign investors. The many proposed plans as well as changing policies provide an

important background for understanding particular events, changes and local

reactions at a local level⁸. Thus, a section of this chapter directs attention towards the proposed plans for the future development of Matatuine, including that of the Land Law of 1997, which has had a strong impact on the community of Madjadjane. A section also describes the Maputo Special Reserve and its history, also touching upon conservation politics in Mozambique and in Africa in general. However, in the following section I start by locating Madjadjane geographically and therefore also socio-economically. The short travel account that follows, experienced on the ground, serves to illustrate the relative isolation of the community of Madjadjane and some of the socio-economic realities in the district.

8 Influenced by the growing interest in tourism investment in the country, Mozambican nature conservation policies have also changed since the end of the war. This is a policy change which has had strong impacts on the local community.

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Locating Madjadjane

The community of Madjadjane is located in the district of Matatuine and is part of the Maputo Province.⁹ A map of the district and the community can be found in Appendix IV. According to the national statistics office, there is a total population of 35 161 in Matatuine (1997)¹⁰. Statistics reflecting the population size at the local level is harder to come by, but numbers from March 2004 from the district administration located in Bela Vista report 630 residents in Madjadjane.

The district of Matatuine is divided into five administrative units and covers the Machangulo Peninsula, known for its rich wildlife and high biodiversity. However, the district remains poor in terms of employment opportunities, health services,

educational opportunities and transport facilities. Despite its geographical closeness to the country capital of Maputo, the district of Matatuine¹¹ has remained relatively unaffected by the economic growth which the country is reported to have

experienced over the course of the past 13 years (Brouwer 1998) and remains one of the poorest in the country. Hence, Madjadjane lies far from the commotion of the national capital of Maputo, not in geographical distance, which is approximately 70 kilometres, but in its way of life, in terms of socio-economic development¹² and infrastructure. Describing the travel from Maputo to Madjadjane provides a good illustration of the relative isolation of the area and how it remains largely unaffected by the economic growth taking place in Maputo.

Limited infrastructure

For people going to Matatuine who have no car of their own and thus depend on public transport or the moods of the local taxi drivers, it can be a long and tedious

9 Mozambique is divided into 10 provinces, of which Maputo Province is the southernmost.

10 Unfortunately I have not been able to gain access to more recent numbers on the population size in Matatuine.

11 Mozambique has been presented by donors as a success story for years. In 1999 the economic growth of the country was the world’s highest. However, there are critical voices questioning why the growth remains unnoticed by the average Mozambican. In a World Bank Country Procurement Assessment Report it was put down to the disproportional division of power between the capital and the rest of the country, also in terms of financial expenditure. Bergrav, S. (2003, April 4th). Mosambik? En suksess? Bistandsaktuelt.

12 What should be noted is that most capital residents still live in poverty, despite the economic growth. A report from the Economist Intelligence Unit, referring to a household income survey conducted in Mozambique, states that poverty has fallen in the period 1996/97 to 2002/2003, but that inequality has increased. The greatest inequalities are found within the capital Eiu (2004). Country report Mozambique, July 2004, The Economist Intelligence Unit.

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journey, despite the relatively short distance. For those who have their own cars, however, the journey takes no longer than an hour and a half. The state-run ferry

“Nyeleti” brings people and vehicles across the bay to Catembe from downtown Maputo. Smaller boats constantly cross the bay, but charge 5000¹³ MZM for the transportation, double the price of the state-run ferry. On the other side of the bay, at Catembe, there is a bustling life. The area is an intersection for all kinds of transport going further into the district. It hosts a fish and vegetable market, several small barracas (barracks), a police station, a small hotel (recently refurbished and

reopened), a school and some smaller low-price restaurants. A lot of informal sales activities are taking place, mainly directed at all the travellers passing through the area. Many fishermen live in Catembe and the small beach along the shore makes it an attractive weekend getaway spot for people from Maputo¹⁴.

Transport to the coastal areas of Ponta do Ouro, to the South African border¹⁵, to Zitundo¹⁶, Bela Vista and Salamanga runs from Catembe. Most of the chapas, the local taxis, start running from six o’clock in the morning. There used to be three

buses a day going to Bela Vista and Salamanga, but in 2004, two local entrepreneurs in Bela Vista each set up their own minibus service along the same line. The chapas offer a faster, more expensive but often also a less comfortable way of travelling.

These cars are normally packed and will not leave until the driver decides that the number of travellers is sufficient. The stops along the way may be many, depending on the mood of the driver and the conditions of the road on the particular day of travelling. The road from Catembe to the district capital of Bela Vista is not tarred, which makes travelling during the rainy season extremely difficult. After a few days of heavy rain, the transportation between Catembe and Bela Vista sometimes comes to a halt due to the conditions of the roads. Travelling through this landscape is,

however, an exceptional experience in terms of scenic beauty. The very limited physical infrastructure in this area makes it hard to believe that the country capital of Maputo is only a few kilometres away. Only a few houses are visible from the road, as well as two or three barracas offering refreshments to thirsty travellers. Some of

13 5000 MZM was approximately 0.23 USD in 2001.

14 The Catembe Beach is rather polluted, and the better-off sectors of the Maputo population have their own holiday houses in Bilene and in Ponta do Ouro.

15 Very few taxis actually cross the border, since this requires some paper work as well as a visa.

16 Zitundo is an administrative post in Matatuine, but the main district administration is located in Bela Vista.

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these lands are used for pastures, and to find the road blocked by cattle is not uncommon.

After travelling for an hour and a half through this landscape, the road is suddenly covered in tarmac, a sign that the district capital of Bela Vista (meaning “beautiful view”) is not far away. The district administration is located here, as well as the police station, the district hospital, a primary and secondary school and some locally based NGOs¹⁷. There are also a range of barrackinhas (small commercial stalls), a handful of larger shops, two accommodation sites as well as a handful of small

establishments serving food. Although the whole district of Matatuine was turned into a battleground between Frelimo and Renamo during the civil war, a few brick houses from the colonial period still remain. After a short stop here, chapas and the bus return to the national road and proceed to Salamanga. Salamanga is a small settlement located 15 km from Bela Vista, next to the Maputo River. A small bridge crosses the river, where the Mozambican police together with their South African colleagues have established a control post to stop the increasing traffic of stolen vehicles between the two countries. A guarda (warden) from the Maputo Special Reserve, commonly referred to as the elephant reserve, is also located here.

Organized illegal hunting is a problem in the area and the wardens control many of the cars going through the area. Next to the police post is a small Hindu temple, signalling the presence of people with Indian descent in the area.

During colonial times, the areas on the eastern side of the Maputo River and north of Salamanga were used for commercial agriculture¹⁸. Rice was an important crop during this period¹⁹ . With two relatively large shops, a small market, church

communities, a health post and a secondary school, Salamanga is a central location for people living in the surrounding areas, such as Madjadjane. Salamanga is also a

17 Helvetas used to have an office in Bela Vista, but has now more or less withdrawn from the area after helping their field assistants to establish a local NGO, Kutzemba

18 According to Galli (2003), the colonial administration in the area established agricultural farms as well as agricultural schools in the area as a response to the massive male migration to South Africa. The construction of a dike, the installation of pumps and distribution of seeds further attracted European settlers to the area. Many of these combined rice growing with raising cattle. However, with the Mozambican independence in 1975, most of the settlers left the area. The remaining colonial houses and the many coloured people in the area are evidence of this period. Galli, R. E. (2003). Peoples' spaces and state spaces : land and governance in Mozambique. Lanham, Md., Lexington Books.

19 The Europeans settlers produced 5 000 tons of rice in 1960, and Bela Vista had its own rice peeling factory. In 2004, it was said that the factory would reopen, as rice is becoming a significant crop in the area once more.

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key point for further transport to the South African border posts or to the small coastal settlements of Ponta do Ouro and Ponta Malongane. However, Salamanga is the final destination of the bus from Catembe. Travellers therefore normally walk the remaining 10 kilometres to Madjadjane, unless they get a lift with a car from the reserve, the only tractor of the eucalyptus plant located next to the reserve or with one of the two car owners in the area.

Arriving in Madjadjane

As the road continues from Salamanga towards Madjadjane, it is not easy to discern the borders between Salamanga and Madjadjane. However, at a certain point along the narrow, sandy road that meanders through the forest, the settlement of

Madjadjane begins. A striking difference between Salamanga and Madjadjane is the style of construction. While many houses in Salamanga are made of bricks, most of the houses in Madjadjane are built from local material (reed), reflecting the economic conditions in the area. In Salamanga there are evidences left from the colonial past, e.g. through the presence of large brick houses. Salamanga residents who have made money outside Salamanga also invest their money in the area through the construction of brick houses.

People in Madjadjane live more scattered than in Salamanga. It is said that a distance of at least one kilometre between neighbours is a good way of preventing conflict. However, there are exceptions to the rule, as seen in bairro do Futi, the Futi neighbourhood. This bairro is located at the intersection of the road from Salamanga and the Futi River²⁰. Here, the concentration of houses is quite dense as compared to in the rest of the area. According to the residents, the concentration is the result of a forced removal of the people living inside the reserve as well as of the villagisation initiated by Frelimo ²¹. The civil war also caused changes in the settlement pattern in the sense that many people left the area and others were forced to move out of the more war-struck zones of Matatuine. In other words, the population in the area has a

20 At Salamanga, the Maputo River runs into the Futi River.

21 Part of president Machel’s strategy to combat “underdevelopment” was to organize communal villages, state farms and collective farms. Hall, M. and T. Young (1997). Confronting Leviathan: Mozambique since

independence. London, Hurst.

Narrating history, negotiating rights. A discussion of knowledge, land rights and matters of identity in Madjadjane, Mozambique.