Connecting livelihood discourses to land conflicts in central Mozambique

Several anthropological studies on policy in Africa have highlighted discrepancies between the conception, implementation and outcome of development projects. Using my case study, which is drawn from an ethnographic research conducted between 2011 and 2012 in central Mozambique, I demonstrate the post-colonial government policy contradiction in relation to land and how this has been influencing the way livelihoods discourses, plans and projects led by the government and NGOs are designed. My findings show how the land lease policy is a continuous factor that structures local land use and livelihoods across the twentieth and twenty-first centuries and has fuelled a growing demand for land and conflicts. I argue that official policy and local practices differ since the power of discourses has been unable to shape reality.