Title: 'Isto foi sempre assim': The politics of land and human mobility in Chimanimani, central Mozambique.

POPLINE Document Number: 313780

Author(s):

Tornimbeni C

Source citation:

Journal of Southern African Studies, 2007 Sep;33(3):485-500.

Abstract:

Based on recent field-work inside the Trans-Frontier Conservation Area (TFCA) of Chimanimani in Sussundenga District, Mozambique, this article tries to make sense of apparently contradictory dynamics in two rural communities of the northern Mozambican side of the TFCA. On the one hand, African traditional authorities are favouring immigration in the territories under their influence, while, on the other, the same authorities are agreeing with their communities to adopt controls on people's identity and movements of the kind reminiscent of colonial passes or Frelimo's guias de marcha. The article interprets this contradiction by placing current social processes in a historical perspective and by examining the impact of recent government reforms, particularly decentralisation, a new land law and new approaches to natural resource management. The article argues that in the context of the opportunities and challenges introduced by these policies, particularly traditional authorities' responsibilities for tax collection and notions of territorially bounded rural community, Chimanimani traditional authorities are making use of old and new instruments - community borders and guias - to preserve particular individual and group interests. (author's)

Keywords:

Mozambique
Critique
Historical Review
Migration
Migration Policy
Border Crossing
Rural Areas
Land Tenure
Land and Resource Development
Environmental Protection
Environmental Policy
Government
Developing Countries
Africa, Southern
Africa, Sub Saharan
Africa
Population Dynamics
Demographic Factors
Population
Population Policy
Social Policy
Policy
Political Factors
Sociocultural Factors
International Migration
Geographic Factors
Socioeconomic Factors
Economic Factors
Rural Development
Natural Resources
Environment