Description

Since October 2017, Cabo Delgado, Mozambique’s most northwesterly province, has been rocked by a vicious insurgency mounted by Ansar al-Sunni, a radical Islamist group, motivated by jihadist extremism, which seeks to create an absolutist Islamic state in northern Mozambique.  While developed locally, Andar al-Sunni has connections to the Islamic State and other international jihadist groups.  Ansar has mounted a guerrilla war against the Mozambican Army posts, while seizing control of many villages an even some large towns, before often being evicted by the army, only to return later.  The conflict has attracted international attention over fears that it might spread, with the Mozambican military being supported by Western army and intelligence assets.

 

To be clear, many of the Muslims in the region do not support Ansar, which frequently targets uncooperative elements of their own communities.  Yet, Islamists are today a deeply ingrained and seemingly permanent presence in northern Mozambique.  However, this was not always preordained, as until the mid-20^th century, northern Mozambique’s large and ancient Muslim population was known for its moderation and tolerance.  The question thus remains: How did northern Mozambique give rise to a locally grown radical Islamist movement?

 

The history of Islam in northern Mozambique is ancient and goes back as far as Sufi traders from Yemen who frequented its coasts from the 9^th century.  The Arab traders established permanent bases along the littoral and, over time, through intermarriage with the indigenous peoples (mainly of the Makua-Lomué, Ma-konde and Nguni-Suazi groups), many of the locals converted to Islam.  This process continued, as most of the coast came under the influence of the Sultanate of Kilwa (957-1513), founded by a Persian dynasty.

 

Critically, unlike in many parts of the Middle East, Central Asia and North Africa, Islam arrived in Mozambique peacefully, and spread by natural social interaction and consent.  Islam, both in belief system and way of life seemed to have a natural attraction to many of the locals, and it was often not difficult to convince people to join the faith.  As a result, the Mozambican Muslim communities inherently lacked radical impulses, and tended to be moderate in their beliefs and tolerant of others.  While there were violent altercations between Muslim and non-Muslim entities, these tended to be over territory or treasure, and were not usually religiously fueled contests.

 

While the ardently Catholic Portuguese arrived in Mozambique and founded their colonial capital at the Ilha de Moçambique, near the midpoint of the northern Mozambique coast, in 1507, they were more interested in the slave, gold and ivory trades, and showed only very limited interest in the religious beliefs of the locals.  Moreover, the Portuguese did little to colonize the country beyond their coastal outposts, leaving most of region under the control of its traditional leaders.

 

The Omani Empire (founded 1696) established a vast archipelago trading posts along the coasts of East Africa from Mogadishu down to northern Mozambique, creating the so-called ‘Swahili Coast’, while forging trading links that extended deep into the interior.  The Omanis’ focus was on the slave trade, and, in this process, they forged close relations with tribal chiefs.  This facilitated the conversion of many indigenous communities to Islam.

 

For generations, Portugal continued to do very little to develop northern Mozambique, nor did it much concern itself with the religious affairs of its people.  While Christian missionaries in northern Mozambique had some modest success in converting non-Muslims to their faith, as was the case in most other parts of the world, converting Muslims proved completely futile.

 

In 1891, Portugal chartered the (largely British backed) Niassa Company to develop northern Mozambique, founding many new towns, mines and plantations, while building roads and railways.  This facilitated the spread of Islam, as it allowed the construction of new mosques and madrasas in the interior, often near major transport junctures, leading to the conversion of the locals.  This trend intensified after World War I, whereupon Islam came to grow rapidly, in both the number of the faithful and its geographical scope in northern Mozambique.

 

Of relevance to what would later transpire, the spread of madrasas ensured that the Muslims of northern Mozambique had one of the highest literacy rates in Sub-Saharan Africa, and even common laborers often possessed their own cheaply printed Islamic books.

 

As noted, the Portuguese attitude towards Islam in northern Mozambique traditionally ranged from totally disinterest to neglectful tolerance.  However, that all changed upon the rise of Portugal’s Estado Novo regime (1933-74), led by Dr. António de Oliveira Salazar, which had a pronounced conservative Catholic ideology.  It moved to modernize and centralize the administration of Mozambique and considered Islam to be inherently inimical to its vision, a principal that was formally codified in a Condordat with the Vatican.  The Estado Novo regime embarked upon a policy of harassing Muslims in northern Mozambique (as opposed to outright suppression), that sought obstruct the building of new mosques, while sending more missionaries to the region to pursue (futile) attempts to convert Muslims.

 

The Estado Novo regime’s attempts to contain Islam in northern Mozambique coincided with dramatic changes in the outlook of the local Muslim communities, brought about by their exposure to ideas from Muslim clerics and organizations in the Middle East and British India (later Pakistan and India), through personal connections due to travel, as well as literature and radio programmes that promoted an assertive form of politically charged Islam that called for the creation of global Islamic community and the overthrow of infidel colonial masters.  The effectiveness of this propaganda was greatly aided by the high literacy rate of the Muslims of northern Mozambique, and while its messages did (not yet) advocate outright violence, the direction of travel was unmistakable.

 

By the 1950s, major cracks were forming in the Estado Novo regime’s authority in Mozambique.  As independence movements broke out across Africa, most Mozambicans, who were long tired of colonial rule, came to believe that Portugal’s days in their country were numbered.  Many adopted powerful international ideologies as a pathway for liberation.  While many Christian Mozambicans came to follow Socialist liberation movements, many of the Muslims of northern Mozambique adhered to a program of political Islam.  Indeed, Portuguese officials came to notice that many Muslim communities were increasingly less cooperative towards their rule, with their relationships with local muftis becoming strained.

 

The Estado Novo leadership was deeply troubled by the new Islamic trends in northern Mozambique, but struggled to understand it origins and nature and were unsure how to confront what they saw as a potent threat to their rule.

 

In 1956, the Junta de Investigações do Ultramar, the intellectual arm of the Portuguese Colonial Ministry, established the Centro de Estudos Políticos e Sociais do Ultramar, an organization to study socio-political movements in Portugal’s colonies, led by Adriano Moreira, the future Colonial Minister.  In 1959, the Centro created the Missão para o Estudo da Missionologia Africana, a body that sought to both promote Christianity in the colonies, while investigating the other religions that existed there.

 

In early 1960, the Missão commissioned Albano Mendes Pedro (1915 – 1989), a Catholic priest and scholar, to travel to northern Mozambique to undertake one of the first serious studies of the origins and nature of the new political Islam in East Africa.  Pedro seemed highly qualified for such a mission, as he had served for many years as missionary in northern Mozambique and had cordial relations with many local Muslim leaders.  He was also a longtime student of Islam and how it manifested itself in the region.  From his writings, he comes across as a highly intelligent yet deeply flawed figure.  His analysis of the nature of political Islam in East Africa is extremely astute, and he seems to have genuine respect for the how the Muslim faith had been able to expand, thrive and adapt in the region.  Yet, at the same time, he possessed a radical and archaic (i.e. Crusader-like) zeal for spreading Christianity that comes across as entirety fantastical, especially compared to his measured and insightful treatment of the rise of political Islam.

 

Albano Mendes Pedro’s Relatorio in Focus

 

Upon his return from an intense two-month mission to investigate the nature of Islam in northern Mozambique, Albano Mendes Pedro wrote a ‘Confidential’ report, restricted for the review of senior Portuguese colonial officials.  The secrecy was necessary, as Pedro made many unvarnished and controversial statements that, if made public, might anger stakeholders in Mozambique, as well as causing diplomatic problems with various Islamic countries, some of which with Portugal maintained cordial relations.

 

Pedro’s Relatorio, dated Lisbon, May 31, 1961, consists of two distinct halves.  The first articulates a brilliant exploration of the history and current state of Islam in northern Mozambique.  In generally measured terms, back up firsthand observations and statistics, Pedro describes how the traditionally peaceful, locally oriented and moderate Muslims of the region had been indoctrinated by foreign concepts of a new politically charged Islam that calls for the formation of a global Islamic community, throwing off the shackles of infidel colonizers.  Specifically, he shows how Muslim communities in northern Mozambique have come to directly report to muftis in places such as Muscat, Baghdad and Cairo, whereupon they forged direct connections with proponent of an incendiary political Islam, while they read foreign books and listened to radio programmes that reenforced the same.  Here Pedro is convincing, and his writing is important for being one of the first serious studies if the roots and rise of Islamism in East Africa and of the nexus that existed between the Middle East and Pakistan, etc. and that region.  Moreover, his study has a broader significance, as it helps to explain the development of radical political Islam in various other parts of the world.  The enduing importance of this part of Pedro’s Relatorio is borne out by the fact that it is heavily cited in modern academic literature, considered a seminal primary source.

By contrast, in the second half of the Relatorio, Pedro’s tone seems to change as he proposes a plan for how to counteract the rise of political Islam in northern Mozambique.  His solution is to ramp up Catholic missionary activities in the belief that they will succeed in converting Muslims to the ‘true faith’ (an almost totally absurd notion in this context).  Especially when compared the sobre and brilliant analysis in the first part of his work, his writing here seems vitriolic, intolerant and even a little ‘kooky’.  It is indicative of a complex personality confronting a complex issue.

Turning directly to the Relatorio, in its introduction (which is written in the third person), it is noted that the author is a missionary who had worked many years “in the north of Mozambique, has devoted some attention the study of Islam, as this religion has numerous followers there and plays an important role in the social life of those territories and their people”.

Pedro continues that there is an urgent imperative to “study the problems that Islam poses to Catholic missionization, the Missão da Missionologia of the Ministry of the Colonies” and so “sent the aforementioned missionary to begin his study in loco.  He left on September 12, 1960, and retuned the Lisbon on November 21 of the same year.  During this time, he launched an inquiry into the religious life of the Dioceses of Quelimane, from Nampula to Amélia, and worked personally on collecting information in Lourenço Marques.  He dedicated time, especially in the Districts of Moçambique and Cabo Delgado… The materials and information collected serve as the basis for reflections of great importance, from a missionary point of view… At the same time, elements of a religious nature were collected, [and] also of political interest spontaneously appeared… [these observations are] not insignificant, [and will make a] …modest contribution to the attitude that the Nation needs to take, in the face of the political-religious phenomenon of Islam in Mozambique” (p. 1).

In chapter ‘I – The Arrival of Islam in Mozambique’, it is recalled that Islam arrived in northern Mozambique with Arab traders in the 9^th century.  The region became very demographically diverse, featuring Arabs and indigenous tribes, as well as recently arrived Indian and European immigrants.  Pedro remarks that “Of all the religions arriving from abroad, Islam is the one with the largest number of believers and the one that has most infiltrated the native peoples.  The Arabs gave the north coast of Mozambique, with blood and miscegenation, a religion and a mysticism” (p. 2).

Moving on to ‘II – The Expansion of Islam in Mozambique’, Pedro writes that “Among the most prominent virtues of Islam, expansionist dynamism stands out.  This virtue is congenital historically and became part of Islam as the specific nature of the religion of Allah”.  Despite the “warlike fury” of Islam during its early centuries, “in Portuguese East Africa, warlike undertakings did not have notable traces. Penetration took place, firmly and decisively through commercial, family and social relationships.”

Historically, the Arabs in northern Mozambique were heavily involved in the slave trade, whereupon they “established extensive relations with native peoples. These relations resulted in prestige, thanks to goods, power, culture and of exoticism.  The Muslim immigrants often took social relations to the point of marrying native women”.  The patriarchal family heads of the Muslim clans “although they were not very religious, imposed the widespread adoption, in the family, of the principles, uses and customs of Islam” (p. 3).

The expansion of Islam took place gradually though “commercial and family life… The native societies of the interior always took refuge in their own mentality and in its impenetrable spaces, Islam was content with penetrating the coastal strip where people of Arab decent dominated”.  Over time, Islam expanded into near inland areas, and in recent times the expansion was aided by the fact the that Portuguese had pacified the areas, as they allowed freedom of movement and religion, Muslim scholars “took the doctrine of the Koran further and further”.

During the 19^th century Islam was limited to secular centres, such as Quelimane, Angoche, Sangage, the littoral islands, Mossuril, Matibane, Lurio, Porto Amélia (Pemba), Quissanga, Mocímboa da Praia and Palma, plus, the “isolated nucleus” of the Mataca region on Lake Niassa [Malawi].  However, since World War I, Islam has spread throughout Niassa and Zambezia, forming notable pockets” “parallel to the main centres” and “close to the largest junctions of communications routes”.

In the ‘III – Dimensions of Islam in Mozambique Today’, Pedro notes that in the last 50 years or so, “Islam had made considerable progress with the district of Quelimane, Moçambique, Cabo Delgado and Niassa.  There is no circumscription or administrative post that does not have some mosque and the beginnings, at least, of some Muslim community… all of them related to commercial centres and railway, road and pedestrian communication crossings”.

The 1950 census recorded 612,335 Muslims in Mozambique (the 1960 census was not yet available but will surely show growth), of the 3.2 million people who live in Mozambique north the Zambezi River, 800,000 (25%) are Muslims.  The percentage of Muslims in the northern districts are in: Quelimane (2.5 %), Mozambique (10%), Cabo Delgado (50%) and Niassa (70%).  In the coastal towns of the Palma, Porto Amélia (Pemba), Mécufe and Mossuril the Muslim population is over 95%.

However, the prevalence of Muslims falls as one moves inland, as the faith “finds obstacles in the mentality of the natives, in their matriarchal regime and in Christianity, which is increasingly developed” (pp. 4-5).

Concerning ‘IV – The Vitality of Islam in Mozambique Today’, Pedro remarks that “A thousand years of permanence in the freshness and authenticity of Allah’s name in Mozambique… The profession of faith had always been the same, moral have been invariable, and the pillars of religious life have also remained identical.”

Regarding the rising ‘Tensions’ between Islam and Christianity in northern Mozambique, is is commented that “a) The fundamental imperative of Islam is the reduction of the entire world to the cult of Allah.  For this purpose, there is the Africa Association, the World Federation of Islamic Missions, the International Union of Islamic Service, numerous editorials and vast literature, including several periodical publications… International Islam is currently possessed by impatience for the conquest of all of Africa.  The Africa Association, the Africa League and the Pan-African Division of the Afro-Asian Group works towards this objective.  At their disposal were capitals, peoples, editorials, Radio Islam of Cairo… there is no territory in Africa, even Angola, where there is not some Muslim explorer, acting as an advance guard, to carry out reconnaissance of the assets and collect the information that will allow the attack plan to be organized… Always with the aim of expansion and total domination promoted, Festivals are held, reunions are convened, messages are distributed, prestigious chiefs are invited from far way, cars are rented, and large amounts of money are spent.  The believers are confident in the certainty of Islam’s final victory” while the non-Muslims “are impressed… by those who can triumph”.

As for b) is “the nationalist sentiment [is] throbbing in the hearts of believers. Islam is a nation-religion.  According to the principles of the Koran, the land is sanctified by the existence of mosque and an Islamic community cannot depend on outsiders.  The Islam of the natives of Mozambique never accepted Portuguese rule as definitive”.  He continues that “The current African nationalist agitation makes the Muslim chiefs of Mozambique deliriously happy” and they look forward to taking power from their white overlords (pp. 8-9).

The local Muslim leaders are highly confident in their authority, such “that not even the highest powers of the white people can resist them.  This becomes evident when they manage to reconstruct banned mosques, release prisoners or withdraw from announced government plans that are contrary to Muslim interests”.

 

Pedro opines in c) that “Africa Muslims sigh in anguish for not having a developed culture”, a very contentious point, by which he means that they have not yet developed a sophisticated “profane culture”.  Many are not satisfied with their local options, and they increasingly seek higher Islamic education abroad, going to Tanganyika or Arabia, before returning to Mozambique.  While it is “not known” what “anti-Portuguese and anti-Christian” concepts they many have acquired, habits, attitudes, books, records and radio messages from abroad now form the core of their daily lives.  Now many foreign Muslim books are sold in Mozambique (p. 10).

 

It is said that Islamic books follow four categories of classification, being schoolbooks, religious books, books for all people, and works of high doctrine only for preachers.  All are based on extracts from the Koran, with or without commentaries.

 

Pedro recalls that, while in northern Mozambique, he personally encountered many books printed in Bombay, Lahore and Cairo between 1930 and 1960, ranging from very cheap to expensive.  He estimates that there are over 400,000 Islamic books in Mozambique.

 

The Mozambican Muslims’ “enthusiasm for literacy in Koranic Arabic” had led to the establishment of many “mobile courses” throughout the region, teaching the Koran and Arabic to men, women and children alike, filling a vacuum left by the shortage of Western schools.  Even in rooms in “huts in which there is no furniture” there are Islamic books, while workers and servants always carry Islamic pamphlets in their pockets (p. 11).

 

Worryingly, many Muslim community leaders and students now travel to Moscow, Cairo and New Delhi.  Radio Islam, broadcasted from Cairo in Arabic, Swahili and Guajarati, is eagerly listened to and its messages are spread futher orally.  Islamic books are also now published in Lourenço Marques.  Mozambique is deeply “affected by Islamic propaganda… [and] it is in this sense that all these factors made for the creation of a unified Islamic community… beyond the existing political frontiers”.

 

Cleverly, Muslims propagandists also produce catchy songs with Islamic messages (Mozambicans love music).  Translations of the Koran are made in the vernacular, while traditionally discouraged, it is now promoted for practical reasons.

 

In e) it is noted that the “Means of information added to tradition, family teaching and the indoctrination of masters… a large part of the native portion of Mozambique is born, lives, feels and acts even at death in the Islamic way”.  He continues that “Mozambican Islam is…going through a phase of painstaking efforts to deepen and intellectualize” (pp. 12-4).

 

As for Mozambican Islam’s “Dependency” on foreign entities, Pedro notes that “Islam, whether Sunni or Shiite, has no autonomous organization in Mozambique”, as different communities are responsible to foreign leadership.  The Muslims of the Ajuas in the Lake Niassa region is responsible to a mufti in Baghdad, via Nairobi, while Muslims along the coast of Northern Mozambique answer to Muscat, Oman.  Moreover, there are less formal, but very important, links between various Mozambican Muslim communities and clerics in Dar es Salaam, Zanzibar, Nairobi, Mombasa, Cairo, Mecca, Baghdad, Lahore and New Delhi.  As such, “Mozambican Islam owes it guidance to Egypt, Arabia, Iraq and Pakistan for most of its inspiration”, playing “a decisive role in the spiritual life of a multitudes of Mozambicans” (pp. 14-5).

 

Regarding the political and social provisions facing Islam in Mozambique, Pedro relates that “The thinking of those responsible in Portugal still admits that it its possible and necessary to fight the Islam of the natives of Mozambique”.  However, there are “Bastards” in the Portuguese society who had forgotten their patriotism and have “already resigned in the face of the Portuguese-Islam duel taking place in Mozambique”.  For “agnostic mentalities”, the rise in Islam amongst Mozambican youth will fade “upon the arrival, of culture, technology and wealth”.  Pedro assets that “the superficiality of this attitude is regrettable”.

 

He continues that Islam has thrived and grown for thirteen centuries, and so it not a passing fancy, such that “Nothing allows us to expect that the modernization of political and social structures underway in Muslim countries will provoke an internal crisis of this religion.  On the contrary, it is possible that it will manage to find new stimuli for progress…”  Pedro warns that Islam has given Mozambicans “the strength of unbreakable passive resistance to Portuguese domination… the spirits are prepared…” (pp. 15-6).

 

It is at this juncture that Pedro definitively moves onto vitriolic rhetoric, motivated by zealous Christianity, that in some places is somewhat ‘kooky’.  Pedro dramatically writes that “The Portuguese people carry in their soul, from the beginning, the spirit of the anti-Islamic Crusade… Portugal wants Mozambique to be Portuguese, Christian and Western.  Islam wants Mozambique to be the land of Islam, Arabization and of the East.”

 

He opines that the current Portuguese footprint in northern Mozambique is not adequate to contain Islam, as the “presence of only a few thousand Portuguese, so often depersonalized and indifferent to anything other than material profits, and the action of a handful of missionaries, poor in resources of all kinds, cannot be considered an appropriate reaction to Islam…”.  He asserts that “Discovering the ways of effective opposition to Islam can only be done through the study of Islam itself” (pp. 16-7).

 

Yet, Pedro observes that it is not possible to contain Islam by suppressing it legally.  It is only possible to counteract it by offering “superior possibilities in parallel chapters”.  In the latter half of the body of the report (pp. pp. 18-45), Pedro outlines his (absurd) plan to oppose Islam in Northern Mozambique by expanding Christian missionary and propagandist activities in the region, dividing his designs into these categories: I. Catholic Churches and the Mosque; II. Catholic and Islamic Worship; III. Catholic Schools and Islamic schools; IV. Means of Extracurricular culture in Catholicism and Islam; V. Catholic Morality and Koranic Morality; VI. Christian Socialism and Islamic Socialism; VII. Christian Mentality and Muslim Mentality.

In his ‘Conclusions’ (pp. 45-9), Pedro makes seven points: 1. “The Political-religious phenomenon of Islam in Northern Mozambique has a decisive importance to the conservation or loss of that territory… as Islam cannot be integrated into the national community because it encompasses all believers in the Arab nation-religion, it is important to neutralize its resistance through appropriate institutions.  On the other hand, progressing every year 10 km into non-Islamized people, according to the opinions of Portuguese and foreigners already published, the press [producing Islamic books] must be stopped in its tracks, in Mozambique.”

In 2., it is said that “the State has in its hands a great means of justice and victory over Islam, lying in the administration, a justice system and a public force responsible for legality and freedom and respect for the lives of individuals.”  While Islam intends to impose its own law everywhere, different from that of the common Portuguese, it is necessary to move towards a single legal status for the entire territory and all people.

In 3., it is noted that the Catholic Church has “the institutional imperative of bringing the doctrine of Christ to all people, especially the Muslims”.  In 4., he remarks that “the State and Church had an alliance enshrined in the Concordat and a Missionary agreement.  In the face of Islam in Mozambique, the position of both prevents one from being a friend of Islam”.  Missionary schools should preach Christianity in local languages, even in Arabic, if necessary.

Pedro continues, with “5. Avoiding unnecessary friction with Islam is imperative.  Once people are attracted to another experience, Islam is left to fade away.  Provoking a fight with an insidious and bloodthirsty enemy would be foolish and reckless.”  While, in 6., fe notes that “a vigilant action by public authorities is needed to safeguard Christian morality is justified”, as immoral behavior discredit Christianity.

Finally, in 7., Pedro writes that “in defense of the infiltration of foreign mentalities, it is necessary to limit the circulation of [Islamic] Indian films among black people… [as well as] all other means of transmitting ideas.  Overflowing Asianism and orientalism has an unfavorable influence on the spirit of the of those to whom we strive to give a very different vision of the world”.

Epilogue

 

Pedro’s Relatorio was taken up very seriously by the colonial ministry in the runup to the Mozambican War of Independence (1964-74).  In good part due to his urgings, the ministry agreed to expand Christian missionary activities in northern Mozambique, although these efforts utterly failed to convert any Muslims, or to improve the level of cooperation between the Muslim communities and the Estado Novo regime.  During the war, northern Mozambique, especially the Cabo Delgado district, became one the epicentres of resistance to the colonial regime.  The Muslim communities were desperate to be rid of the Portuguese, and so formed an uneasy alliance with the FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique), the country’s main armed resistance group, which espoused a Socialist ideology that was supposedly against everything the Muslims stood for.

 

During the latter part of the war, the Portuguese made a concerted effort to ‘turn’ the Muslims of northern Mozambique, attempting to convince them that they would be better off with a new autonomy deal under continued Portuguese rule, instead of being controlled by the ‘Godless’ FRELIMO.  While some clerics were initially curious about the proposal, the great majority of Muslims wanted the Portuguese to leave their country – period.

 

In the wake of Mozambican Independence, the country fell into a period of chaos during the Mozambican Civil War (1977-92).  The Muslim communities of northern Mozambique had trouble with the FRELIMO government, which tried to restrict (but not ban) Muslim activities, echoing the harassment policies of the former colonial regime.  This only led to the strengthening and radicalization of Islamist sentiment amongst some sectors of the Muslim communities of northern Mozambique.

 

In the period following the civil war, the central government in faraway Maputo neglected affairs in northern Mozambique, creating a vacuum filled by locally formed radical Islamist movements, notably Ansar al-Sunni, which has spearheaded today’s insurgency in the Cabo Delgado province.

 

A Note on Rarity

Albano Mendes Pedro’s Relatorio is today exceedingly rare, which is not surprising, as it was a confidential document issued in only a handful of examples for high-level official use.  We can trace only 2 other examples in institutions, held by the Biblioteca Central do Ministério das Finanças (Lisbon) and the Michigan State University, while we are not aware of any sales records for any other examples of the report.

 

References: Biblioteca Central do Ministério das Finanças (Lisbon): MO/12/00279; Michigan State University: BP64.M57 P4; OCLC: 20305303; Edward A. ALPERS, ‘Islam in the Service of Colonialism?: Portuguese Strategy during the Armed Liberation Struggle in Mozambique’, Lusotopie 1999, pp. 165-184, esp. p. 170; Joseph Abraham LEVI, ‘Islam in Mozambique: A Not So Silent Presence’, in Jonathan White and I-Chun Wang (eds.), The City and the Ocean: Urbanity, (Im)migration, Memory, and Imagination. Proceedings of the 2010 International Conference on the Humanities and Social Sciences, Kaohsiung 2010 (Newcastle-upon-Tyne, 2012), pp. 96-121; Mário MACHAQUEIRO, ‘The Islamic Policy of Portuguese Colonial Mozambique, 1960—1973’, The Historical Journal, vol. 55, no. 4 (2012), pp. 1097–116, esp. p. 1098; Amaro MONTEIRO, O Islão, o poder e a guerra Moçambique, 1964-1974 (1993), p. 300.  Cf. Liazzat J. K. BONATE, ‘Muslims of northern Mozambique and the liberation movements’, Social Dynamics, vol. 35, no. 2 (September 2009), pp. 280–294; S. von SICARD, ‘Islam in Mozambique: Some Historical and Cultural Perspectives’, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, vol. 28, no. 3 (2008), pp. 473-490; Ana Cláudia VICENTE, ‘As semanas nacionais de estudos missionários (1962-1978)’, Lusitania Sacra, 2a série, 19-20 (2007-2008), pp. 302-28.