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This paper reports the findings of an in-depth case study of a highly densely populated area in the Northwest of Rwanda which has been conducted during the period 1988-1993. It demonstrates that acute competition for land in a context characterized by too slow expansion of non-agricultural income opportunities has resulted in increasingly unequal land distribution and rapid processes of land dispossession through both operation of the (illegal) land market and evolution of indigenous tenure arrangements. It is also shown that pervasive incidence of land disputes and the threat of landlessness have led to rising tensions in social relations and even within the core of family li&, thus paving the way for more and more overt expressions of disharmony and violence. A connection between these ominous conditions and the civil rear that broke out in 1994 is established.
