Conflict and Coffee in Burundi 123
king by allocating rights of ownership and access to land. Land allocation is
highly skewed in favour of powerful actors and groups, to the disadvantage
of a large section of the population. Rights are few for most Hutu, for poor
Tutsi, as well as for the minority %a. The misfortune of the %a minority
bas been made worse by the declaration of their traditional forest, Kibira, as
a protected forest reserve. The conflict in Burundi has inordinately been
played out as if the ma matter little, if anything at all. Yet their exclusion
presents perhaps the most unrecognised and unappreciated tragedy-of the
conflict, relegated to the margins of the political as well as economic activi-
ties of the country.
As land scarcity increases in response to population growth, landless fm-
ers migrate in search of available land elsewhere, often generating suspicion
on the part of communities into which they integrate.89 Official corruption is
a further problem. High-ranking government officials in some cases claim
land owned by the state for commercial purposes. Land grabbing by influen-
tial politicians and businessmen not only generates conflicts, but also under-
mines the confidence of rural populations in laws that prohibit access to pro-
tected areas, and to those that prohibit certain environmental practices. The
net effect is increased social hostility and suspicion as well as further frac-
ture between central and rural visions for the sustainable use of land.*
Livestock production accounts for 5% of the total food production in
Burundi. In addition to land, cattle, and specifically the Ankole breed have
had a great social as well as economic value. However, the social esteem with
which livestock is held has been under sustained attack from the declining
and limited pasture as well as competition for land for cultivation. Livestock
rearing on a significant scale persists in the Imbo plains.
The historical association of cattle and the Tutsi community has con-
tributed to a dilemma in priorities. With increasing population growth and
the resultant diminishing of land resources, livestock production has been
put under the spotlight. Competing claims between livestock farmers and cul-
tivators is a rural source of inter-communal conflicts in Burundi. The scarci-
ty of grazing resources, to a large measure, corresponds to population pres-
sure. Resource scarcity is greater in the Buyenzi and Kirimiro areas, while
resource availability is greater in Bututsi.
Coffee represents a dialectic of sorts between central priorities and rural
prerequisites. Burundi ranks among small producers and has only less than
1% share on the world market even though coffee accounts for 90% of
Burundi's exports. Its production has been characterised by coercion and
mutual antipathy between the government and the peasantry.
Coffee was introduced in Burundi early last century by missionaries and the
first plantations developed around religious missions. The German colonial
administration disseminated the crop first, then the Belgians took over its
spread in 1920. The latter spread it all over Rwanda-Burundi villages. Peasants