As relações de gênero e o acesso e controle da terra pela mulher na sociedade Maconde do Planalto de Mueda, 1930 à actualidade

Abstract

The area of ​​this study is the Mueda Plateau. Addressing the mechanisms of access and control of land by women in this area, from 1930 to the present, is its objective. The interviews carried out in the field confirm that in pre-colonial Makonde society, the Makondes lived in villages run by their respective chiefs. Land issues were dealt with in the context of each village. The man, brother and maternal uncle, was the holder of government power. The woman was considered the owner of the cultivated fields, the barns and the housewife. The man, the husband, was subordinate, for some time, to the wife, in matters of the usufruct of the land. At that time, the social family had the greatest weight. The presence of his maternal uncle and the protection he gave to his sisters and nieces and living in villages, strengthened the ties between the members of the lineage. The colonial conquest of the Mueda Plateau and the implementation of coercive policies, as well as the integration of Maconde society into the regional economy, led to a profound transformation in the area. At the household level, the local population was diverted from their productive activity. Coercive policies affected both men and women. The forced cultivation of cotton was a major shift in the pattern of land distribution. Those who demarcated the cultivated land were the officials of the Colonial State. This new pattern did not play with the distribution of land via maternal uncles. The introduction of goods into Maconde society, with the departures to then Tanganyika, was, on the other hand, another change that took place in this matrilineal society. The economic power of men, who became economically stronger than the guardians of the lineages, contributed to the loss of power of the maternal uncles. This situation took on negative contours with the intensification of forced cultures. Until the 1950s, the uncles had lost control over material goods, with the land resource being the only good in their possession. The beginning of the armed struggle dispersed the populations, forcing them to use the land resource in conditions of war. The dispersion of the members of the lineage, as well as collective production and living, carried out by FRELIMO, contributed to the weakening of the power of the maternal uncles. The Makonde society, emerging from the armed struggle, was in "crisis", both with regard to the power of the maternal uncle, and with regard to his lineage institution. The establishment of communal villages in the post-independence period further accentuated this "crisis". This phase can be understood as the beginning of the woman's growing pauperization. The fall in the role of uncles meant the end of access to land on favorable terms by women, and explains the "crisis" that women are currently experiencing in terms of access to this resource in Makonde society. This situation takes extreme contours today, as it depends mainly on the usufruct of the land via marriage via the maternal uncle. It is, therefore, that the implementation of projects that facilitate the use of the land resource by women is suggested, since they are the main producer and manager of food in the family context (TRADUÇÃO NOSSA)