122 Scarcity and SurfeitThe unfortunate nexus between history and land use in Burundi is only
part of the complex relationship between Burundians and their land. Less
social but real is the concrete conditions that serve to provide fuel for conflict
between social groups in Burundi. The country's unsustainable population
density (averaging 230 people per km2 but as high as 360 persons per km2)88
in some areas has been a source of conflict, directly and otherwise.
Agriculture and housing have exerted great pressure on land. Added to the
harvesting of forests for fuel use, the land is increasingly vulnerable to wors-
ening soil erosion and is therefore becoming less productive. Four problems
are evident with regard to land in Burundi.
First, land scarcity is evident in both rural and urban areas. Because it
remains the principal capital for the household, there is the problem of
intense competition. Secondly, cultural practices and traditions of land inher-
itance from father to son has led to the increased subdivision of land between
sons, decreasing the economies of scale that would otherwise accrue from
reasonable parcels. This increased subdivision has led to general decline in
soil fertility and productivity. Third, the traditional land tenure system of
subdivision between male heirs has led increasingly to the shrinking of
household land. Increasingly, land is becoming too small for viable subdivi-
sion, effectively disinheriting some members of the household and leading to
migration. Related to this is the limiting of shifting cultivation between pieces
of land. The effects are over-exploitation of parcels, declining productivity
and the concomitant increase in food prices because of scarcity. Additionally,
migrations are taking place from less productive areas to more vulnerable but
uninhabited and thus fertile land: hillsides. The effect of increased erosion of
vulnerable areas and the declining fertility and thus productivity of tradi-
tional farming areas has been multiple: food scarcity, increased areas under
cultivation, reduced soil fertility and mtense competition for land.
The land tenure in Burundi has always been controlled from the centre.
During the pre-colonial period, all land belonged to the Mwami or the king,
to dispense and distribute at his pleasure. He held the right to distribute as
well as dispossess owners as he deemed fit. In this arrangement, land was
the king's prime source of patronage and reward as well as punishment
because of the status symbol that inhered in land ownership. Accordingly,
and as would be expected, land ownership was concentrated in the hands of
the king's relatives and administrators, inordinately the Tutsis and the princes
of the royal blood, the ganwa.
Tendered, the traditional Burundi society was not purely feudal. However,
the majority of the Hutu were viewed as servants and 'serfs: In this social
class were some poor and disfavoured Tutsis. Without secure rights to land,
peasant Hutu and poor Tutsi gained usufruct rights to land owned by the rul-
ing class. The picture changed little during the colonial period and persists
today. Land tenure has changed little. The state has assumed the role of the