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THE ISLAMIC POLICY OF PORTUGUESE COLONIAL MOZAMBIQUE, 1960–1973*

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  15 November 2012

MÁRIO MACHAQUEIRO
MÁRIO MACHAQUEIRO*
Affiliation:
Centre for Research in Anthropology, Universidade Nova de Lisboa
*
CRIA-Centre for Research in Anthropology, Faculdade de Ciências Sociais e Humanas, Universidade Nova de Lisboa, 1069–061 Lisboa, Portugalmaarma@fcsh.unl.pt
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Abstract

Drawing its information from different documents in Portuguese and French archives, this article examines the evolution of Portuguese colonial policies towards Islam, focusing on the special case of Mozambique. Such policies evolved from an attitude of neglect and open repression, prevalent in the early years of the colonial war that broke out in 1965, when Muslims were perceived as the main supporters of the anti-colonial guerrilla in northern Mozambique, to an approach that tried to isolate ‘African Muslims’ from foreign influences in order to align them with the Portuguese. The article analyses the latter strategy, assessing its successes and failures, and the contributions made by several of those who were involved.

Type
Articles
Information
The Historical Journal , Volume 55 , Issue 4 , December 2012 , pp. 1097 - 1116
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2012

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Footnotes

*

I would like to thank Prof. Fernando Amaro Monteiro for his well-known generosity in sharing his vast experiences, and also for his advice on the research project ‘Muslims under pressure’. I am also grateful to Sandra Araújo for her work in the Portuguese archives.

References

1 Amidst many examples, see Resende, S. S., Falsos e verdadeiros caminhos da vida (Lourenço Marques, 1948)Google Scholar; Rodrigues, S., ‘Os Maometanos no futuro da Guiné’, Boletim Cultural da Guiné Portuguesa, 9 (1948), pp. 229–31Google Scholar; Quintino, F. R., ‘No segredo das crenças – das instituições religiosas na Guiné Portuguesa’, Boletim Cultural da Guiné Portuguesa, 16 (1949), pp. 706–15Google Scholar; Franklin, A. S., A Ameaça Islâmica na Guiné Portuguesa (Lisbon, 1956)Google Scholar; and Pedro, A. M., Influências político-sociais do islamismo em Moçambique (relatório confidencial): missão para o estudo da missionologia africana (Lisbon, 1961)Google Scholar.

2 Rodrigues, ‘Os Maometanos no futuro da Guiné’; da Mota, A. T. (1954), Guiné Portuguesa, i (Lisbon, 1954)Google Scholar; Quintino, ‘No segredo das crenças’, p. 709; Gonçalves, J. J., O mundo árabo-islâmico e o Ultramar português (Lisbon, 1958), p. 73Google Scholar; Gonçalves, J. J., O Islamismo na Guiné Portuguesa (ensaio sociomissionológico) (Lisbon, 1961), p. 26Google Scholar.

3 These fears were pervasive in an anonymous article, ‘O perigo do Islão em África’, Boletim Geral do Ultramar, 378 (1956), pp. 105–6. From the mid-1950s until the early 1970s, the intelligence and the political police in Portuguese colonies paid close attention to the situation in the Middle East as well as the possible connections between Islam, anti-colonialism, and communism: see ‘Bulletin for diffusion of information’, 21 Dec. 1965, Arquivo Nacional da Torre do Tombo (ANTT), SCCIM no. 412, fos. 940–7; information no. 686-SC/CI (2), ‘A problemática religiosa na Província – O islamismo’, 26 July 1967, ANTT, PIDE-DGS, SC, Proc. 6037 CI (2), pt 1, fos. 13–14; and ‘O islamismo: factor político em África’, Mar. 1971, ANTT, SCCIM no. 413, fos. 193–213.

4 Gonçalves, O mundo árabo-islâmico.

5 J. Dias, Minorias étnicas nas Províncias Ultramarinas, confidential report of 1956, ANTT, AOS/CO/UL-37, 1; Dias, J. and Guerreiro, M. V., Missão de estudos das minorias étnicas do Ultramar Português – relatório da campanha de 1958 (Moçambique e Angola) (Lisbon, 1959)Google Scholar; Dias, J., Guerreiro, M. V., and Dias, M., Relatório de campanha de 1959 (Moçambique, Angola, Tanganhica e União Sul Africana) (Lisbon, 1960)Google Scholar.

6 On the initiatives of Don Eurico Dias Nogueira, see his Missão em Moçambique (Vila Cabral, 1970), Da missão em Moçambique à missão em Angola (Coimbra, 1972), and Episódios da minha missão em África (Braga, 1995).

7 Cann, J. P., Counterinsurgency in Africa: the Portuguese way of war, 1961–1974 (St Petersburg, FL, 2005), pp. 143–6Google Scholar.

8 See information no. 24/67, 17 Nov. 1967, ANTT, SCCIM no. 413, fos. 91–103, and information no. 2479 from the cabinet of political affairs of the overseas ministry, 7 Feb. 1968, ANTT, SCCIM no. 413, fos. 68–83.

9 da Cruz, L. C., ‘Alguns aspectos da subversão na província portuguesa da Guiné’, Ultramar, 32 (1968), pp. 125–47Google Scholar; Vieira, G. B., ‘Contribuição dos muçulmanos portugueses da Guiné para a estabilidade nacional’, Revista Militar, 10 (1971), pp. 595–613Google Scholar.

10 See Dias, Minorias étnicas; Carvalho, J. V., ‘O islamismo negro’, Missões, 2, Ano 9 (1956)Google Scholar; Gonçalves, O mundo árabo-islâmico; Mota, Guiné Portuguesa; Felgas, H., Influência dos árabes na África actual (Lisbon, 1965)Google Scholar; and annual report of psychological action, 31 Dec. 1965, CTIG, Bissau, Arquivo Histórico Militar (AHM), 44/1/844/4, fos. 1–253.

11 Among many examples of theorists of Islam Noir, some of whom held high positions in the administration of French Senegambia, see André, P.-J., L'Islam Noir: contribution à l’étude des confréries religieuses islamiques en Afrique Occidentale suivie d'une étude sur l'Islam au Dahomey (Paris, 1924)Google Scholar; Gouilly, A., L'Islam dans l'Afrique Occidentale Française (Paris, 1952)Google Scholar; Deschamps, H., Les religions de l'Afrique noire (Paris, 1954)Google Scholar; and Froelich, J. C., Les Musulmans d'Afrique Noire (Paris, 1962)Google Scholar. On the history of the articulation between the ‘scientific’ theories of ‘black Islam’ and the governance policies regarding Muslim populations in French sub-Saharian possessions, see Harrison, C., France and Islam in West Africa (Cambridge, 1988)Google Scholar, and Robinson, D., ‘France as a Muslim power in West Africa’, Africa Today, 46 (1999), pp. 105–27CrossRefGoogle Scholar. For a criticism of the orientalist prejudices inherent to the French conception of African Islam and their influence on the Portuguese perception, see L. Bonate, ‘Traditions and transitions: Islam and chiefship in northern Mozambique, ca. 1850–1974’ (D.Phil. thesis, Cape Town, 2007), pp. 9–12.

12 See, for example, the document produced by the Working Group on Islamic Issues, ‘Breve esquemática do pensamento muçulmano, com vista à inserção e caracterização do movimento wahhabita’, which was attached to a secret memo issued by the delegation in Mozambique of the direction general of security, the new name the Portuguese political police received in 1969: ‘Movimento “Wahhabita” ou “Unitários”’, in secret information of the direction general of security, delegation of Mozambique, ‘Actividades islâmicas em Moçambique’, Proc. P-57-A/SR-1, exemplar no. 2437/72/DI/2/SC, 31 July 1972, ANTT, PIDE-DGS, SC, Proc. 6037 CI (2), file 2.

13 Harrison, France and Islam; Robinson, D. and Triaud, J.-L., eds., Le temps des marabouts:itinéraires et stratégies islamiques en Afrique Occidentale Française v. 1880–1960 (Paris, 1997)Google Scholar.

14 Alpers, E. A., ‘Islam in the service of colonialism? Portuguese strategy during the armed liberation struggle in Mozambique’, Lusotopie (1999), pp. 165–84Google Scholar; Cahen, M., ‘L’État Nouveau et la diversification religieuse au Mozambique, 1930–1974. ii. La portugalisation désespérée (1959–1974)’, Cahiers d’études africaines, 159 (2000), pp. 551–92CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

15 His writings were expanded in his Ph.D. dissertation, whose appendixes provide several documents previously unpublished: Monteiro, F. A., O Islão, o Poder e a Guerra: Moçambique, 1964–1974 (Porto, 1993)Google Scholar.

16 Vakil, A., Monteiro, F. A., and Machaqueiro, M., Moçambique: memória falada do Islão e da guerra (Coimbra, 2011)Google Scholar.

17 Vakil, A., ‘From the Reconquista to Portugal islâmico: Islamic heritage in the shifting discourses of Portuguese historiography and national identity’, Arqueologia Medieval, 8 (2003), pp. 5–15Google Scholar; idem, ‘Questões inacabadas: colonialismo, Islão e portugalidade’, in M. C. Ribeiro and A. P. Ferreira, eds., Fantasmas e fantasias imperiais no imaginário português contemporâneo (Porto, 2003), pp. 255–94; idem, ‘Pensar o Islão: questões coloniais, interrogações pós-coloniais’, Revista Crítica de Ciências Sociais, 69 (2004), pp. 17–52Google Scholar; and idem, ‘Do outro ao diverso: Islão e muçulmanos em Portugal: história, discursos, identidades’, Revista Lusófona de Ciência das Religiões, 5–6 (2004), pp. 283–312Google Scholar.

18 Bonate, ‘Traditions and transitions’, especially pp. 183–211. From this author, see also ‘The ascendance of Angoche: the politics of kinship and territory in nineteenth century northern Mozambique’, Lusotopie (2003), pp. 115–40, and ‘Roots of diversity in Mozambican Islam’, Lusotopie, 14 (2007), pp. 129–49.

19 See Bastos, S., ‘Ambivalence and phantasm in the Portuguese colonial discourse production on Indians’, Lusotopie, 15 (2008), pp. 77–95CrossRefGoogle Scholar, and Machaqueiro, M., ‘Ambivalent Islam: the identity construction of Muslims under Portuguese colonial rule’, Social Identities, 18 (2012), pp. 39–63CrossRefGoogle Scholar.

20 Information no. 24/67, 17 Nov. 1967, ANTT, SCCIM no. 413, fo. 100. All the translations are mine. I also translated the designations of the official documents to make their identification easier for readers unfamiliar with Portuguese.

21 Information no. 60/66, 27 Oct. 1966, ANTT, SCCIM no. 412, fo. 813.

22 Information no. 24/67, ANTT, SCCIM no. 413, fo. 100.

23 Ibid., fo. 98.

24 Ibid., fos. 98–9.

25 Ibid., fo. 101.

26 Ibid.

27 For the following argument, see information no. 26/67, 23 Nov. 1967, ANTT, SCCIM no. 412, fos. 111–13.

28 Xehe, a common word among Mozambican Muslims, designates an Islamic dignitary, respected for his knowledge of Islam, whom the leadership of an Islamic brotherhood can be ascribed to.

29 Information no. 24/67, ANTT, SCCIM no. 413, fo. 100.

30 Ibid.

31 See the copy of a memo of the government general of Mozambique, 14 Aug. 1963, and the note of the government general of Mozambique to the director of the SCCIM, 17 Oct. 1963, transcribing the note no. 108/E/7/3 issued by the government of Mozambique district on 24 Sept. 1963, ANTT, SCCIM no. 410, fos. 542–3, 550–3.

32 See the handwritten note signed by Amaro Monteiro, 21 May 1967, ANTT, SCCIM no. 413, fo. 261, in which he refers to a memo on the Wahhabi current that he sent to the governor general in 1963, a document that the administration completely neglected.

33 F. A. Monteiro, ‘Moçambique, a década de 1970 e a corrente wahhabita: uma diagonal’, in O Islão na África Subsaariana (Porto, 2004), pp. 110–11; Bonate, ‘Traditions and transitions’, pp. 177–80. See also ‘Movimento “Wahhabita” ou “Unitários”’, ANTT, PIDE-DGS, SC, Proc. 6037 CI (2), file 2.

34 For a criticism of the cleavage drawn by the Portuguese authorities between the ‘traditional African Islam’ of Mozambique and the ‘reformist or progressive Wahhabi Islam’, of ‘Asian’ brand, see Macagno, L., Outros muçulmanos: Islão e narrativas coloniais (Lisbon, 2006), pp. 169, 180–2Google Scholar.

35 F. A. Monteiro, ‘Relatório de serviço no estrangeiro’, 26 July 1968, ANTT, SCCIM no. 412, fo. 440.

36 Ibid., fos. 445–6.

37 See Nogueira, E. D., Carta fraterna do bispo de Vila Cabral (Moçambique) Eurico Dias Nogueira aos muçulmanos da sua diocese – Cikalata ca Ulongo askovo jwa Vila Cabral Eurico Dias Nogueira kwa wacinasala wa cilambo cakwe (Vila Cabral, 1966)Google Scholar.

38 The process that I analyse in the following paragraphs is summarized in Bonate, ‘Traditions and transitions’, pp. 196–202.

39 See information no. 60/66, 27 Oct. 1966, ANTT, SCCIM no. 412, fos. 813–15, and information no. 24/67, ANTT, SCCIM no. 413, fo. 92.

40 Information no. 60/66, ANTT, SCCIM no. 412.

41 See Bonate, ‘Traditions and transitions’, pp. 103–6, and Macagno, Outros muçulmanos, pp. 171–5.

42 Dispatch no. 5029/K–6–23, 29 Sept. 1967, from the director of the cabinet of political affairs of the overseas ministry to the governor general of Mozambique, to which a copy of an anonymous and non-dated document was attached, giving several advices on policies to be followed regarding the Muslims, ANTT, SCCIM no. 413, fo. 106.

43 Information no. 24/67, ANTT, SCCIM no. 413, fos. 101–2. For the dispatch of the governor general, dated 11 Dec. 1967, see ANTT, SCCIM no. 413, fos. 88–9.

44 See dispatch no. 5029/K–6–23, ANTT, SCCIM no. 413, fos. 105–8.

45 See Macagno, Outros Muçulmanos, pp. 98–9.

46 See M. Machaqueiro, ‘Portuguese colonialism and the Islamic community of Lisbon’, in V. Bader, M. Maussen, and A. Moors, eds., Colonial and post-colonial governance of Islam: continuities and ruptures (Amsterdam, 2011), pp. 220–5. The PIDE, the Portuguese political police, kept a detailed file on Suleiman Valy Mamede, whose documents allow us to reconstruct his trajectory before the military coup that overthrew the dictatorship on 25 Apr. 1974. See ANTT, PIDE-DGS, SC, Proc. 13.890-SC/CI(2), NT-7700.

47 See ANTT, SCCIM no. 412, fos. 708–12.

48 Information no. 928/70/DI/2/SC, PIDE/delegation of Mozambique, P.° 58/SR-1, 14 May 1970, ANTT, Proc. 13.890-SC/CI(2), NT-7700, fos. 28–9. We may also find a copy of this document in ANTT, SCCIM no. 420, fos. 87–8.

49 Amaro Monteiro wrote several memos about Valy Mamede in an effort to curtail the latter's initiatives that might collide against the Islamic policy Monteiro was trying to implement: see information no. 7/696, 4 Mar. 1969, ANTT, SCCIM no. 420, fo. 55; information no. 15/970, 4 June 1970, ANTT, SCCIM no. 420, fos. 40–2; and information no. 19/70, 31 July 1970, ANTT, SCCIM no. 420, fos. 16–23.

50 Monteiro, F. A., Traços fundamentais da evolução do Islamismo, com vista à sua incidência em Moçambique (Lourenço Marques, 1972), p. 18Google Scholar.

51 Monteiro, ‘Relatório de serviço no estrangeiro’, ANTT, SCCIM no. 412, fo. 445.

52 There are several documents on this project in the SCCIM archive, all of them signed by Amaro Monteiro. See e.g. information no. 28/968, 28 Dec. 1968, ANTT, SCCIM no. 412, fos. 332–4; information no. 19/70, 31 July 1970, ANTT, SCCIM no. 420, fos. 16–23; appendix to information no. 22/70, 26 Sept. 1970, ANTT, SCCIM no. 420, fos. 96–100; and information no. 11/971, 29 May 1971, ANTT, SCCIM no. 413, fos. 118–24.

53 The bulk of the enquiry, with all the answers gathered and sent by local administrators, can be found in ANTT, SCCIM nos. 409, 411, and 415–18.

54 Monteiro, ‘Relatório de serviço no estrangeiro’, ANTT, SCCIM no. 412, fo. 442; information no. 3/967, 9 Feb. 1967, ANTT, SCCIM no. 412, fos. 804–6.

55 For the bureaucratic steps that preceded the travels of Amaro Monteiro, see ANTT, SCCIM no. 412, fos. 138–47, 327–31; for the reports Amaro Monteiro wrote after his field-work expeditions, see ANTT, SCCIM no. 412, fos. 153–66, 318–22. Mohamad Amadá, a Muslim who was living in northern Mozambique in the late 1960s, asserted that today the elderly Mozambican Muslims of that region still treasure Amaro Monteiro's behaviour (interview on 5 May 2010).

56 Dispatch no. 150 of Jacques Honoré, consul general of France in Lourenço Marques, to the ministry for foreign affairs, 2 Dec. 1968, Archives Diplomatiques de La Courneuve (ADC), Afrique-Levant, Mozambique 1966–72, Politique intérieure – Questions religieuses, 59QO/34, Apr. – Dec. 1972.

57 For the preparation of the governor general's message to the Muslims of Mozambique and the instructions Amaro Monteiro gave for the ceremony, see information no. 18/68, 30 Oct. 1968, ANTT, SCCIM no. 413, fos. 229–31. A draft of the message can be found in ANTT, SCCIM no. 413, fos. 224–5. In the articles they dedicated to this topic, neither Alpers nor Cahen noticed the fact that it was Amaro Monteiro who wrote the governor's message and prepared the whole event: see Alpers, ‘Islam’, p. 177, and Cahen, ‘L’État Nouveau’, p. 575.

58 Information no. 26/968, 28 Dec. 1968, ANTT, SCCIM no. 413, fos. 48–9. Booklets with the message in Portuguese and its Swahili translation (written in Arabic characters) are kept in ANTT, SCCIM no. 412, fos. 256–82.

59 This sentence was actually the title of the information no. 18/68.

60 See Vakil, Monteiro, and Machaqueiro, Moçambique, pp. 72–3.

61 See note no. 207 by Jacques Honoré, consul general of France in Lourenço Marques, to the ambassador of France in Portugal, 13 Dec. 1969, Archives Diplomatiques de Nantes, Ministère des Affaires Étrangères, Lisbonne, Ambassade, Série B, n.° 734, PP 7–5: Mozambique – Affaires culturelles et sociales – Enseignement.

62 ‘Relatório de serviço nos distritos do Niassa, Moçambique, Zambézia, Tete e Manica e Sofala, de 1 de Julho a 2 de Agosto 69’, 9 Aug. 1969, ANTT, SCCIM no. 412, fo. 155.

63 On 8 Oct. 1966 the newspaper Diário de Moçambique reported the public praise that the Apostolic Nuncio addressed to the bishop of Vila Cabral for his initiative of the Fraternal letter to the Muslims.

64 This amazing revelation was confided to Jacques Honoré by Eurico Dias Nogueira himself. See dispatch no. 152 by Jacques Honoré, consul general of France in Lourenço Marques, to the ambassador of France in Portugal, 21 Dec. 1967, ADC, Afrique-Levant, Mozambique 1966–72.

65 For the backlash of the conservative factions within the Catholic church against a state approach to Muslims see the report of a priest, P. G. Moreira, sent to the Portuguese army in Mozambique, ‘Apontamentos sobre o Islamismo’, Sept. 1967, ANTT, SCCIM no. 410, fos. 49–138, and the letter he sent to Amaro Monteiro on 22 Aug. 1970 in which he declared: ‘I am absolutely opposed to those who have been … mollycoddling Muslims, while ignoring and mistreating Christians, or, in any way, putting them in an inferior condition to the faithful of Mohammed’ (quoted by F. A. Monteiro, ‘Postscript’, in F. P. Garcia, Moçambique: análise global de uma guerra, 1964–1974 (Lisbon, 2003), p. 305).

66 For analysis of several aspects of Amaro Monteiro's plan to attract the Muslim leadership of Mozambique, see Alpers, ‘Islam’, pp. 173, 177, 179; Cahen, ‘L’État Nouveau’, pp. 575–7; Bonate, ‘Traditions and transitions’, pp. 196–202; and Machaqueiro, ‘Ambivalent Islam’, pp. 52–5.

67 On the events that triggered this conflict and the way it affected the negotiations that preceded the public approval of the Portuguese version of the Hadiths, see Monteiro, O Islão, p. 284; Alpers, ‘Islam’, pp. 181–2; Cahen, ‘L’État Nouveau’, pp. 582–3; and Bonate, ‘Traditions and transitions’, pp. 207–8.

68 See Newitt, M., Portugal in Africa (London, 1981), pp. 241–5Google Scholar, and Afonso, A. and Gomes, C. M., Os anos da guerra colonial, 1961–1975 (Lisbon, 2010), pp. 654–761Google Scholar.

69 The encounter is reported in an autobiographical short story by F. A. Monteiro: ‘Depois do fim’, in Um certo gosto a tamarindo: estórias de Angola (colectânea de contos) (Braga, 1979), pp. 199–227.

70 Bonate, ‘Traditions and transitions’, p. 211.

71 See Vakil, Monteiro, and Machaqueiro, Moçambique, pp. 122, 128, 136, 144, 155, 170, 180, 216, 235.

72 According to Amaro Monteiro, Frelimo's department of information and propaganda recognized in 1972 that Portuguese psychological actions upon northern Muslims had been able to deter the effects of Frelimo's propaganda in the ‘Islamized’ areas. See Monteiro, A., ‘As comunidades islâmicas de Moçambique: mecanismos de comunicação’, Revista Africana, 4 (1989), pp. 81–2Google Scholar.

73 Aerogram no. A-68, sent by the embassy of Portugal in Cairo to the ministry for foreign affairs, 9 Oct. 1969, Arquivo Histórico-Diplomático (AHD).

74 Letters dated 11 and 14 June 1972, AHD, ministry for foreign affairs, direction general of political affairs, section of Africa, Asia, and Oceania, Proc. 945, Cota AB 1322 PAA.

75 Assessment of the information no. 19/70, 4 Aug. 1970, ANTT, SCCIM no. 420, fos. 14–15.

76 J.-L. Triaud, ‘Politiques musulmanes de la France en Afrique subsaharienne à l’époque coloniale’, in P.-J. Luizard, ed., Le choc colonial et l'islam: les politiques religieuses des puissances coloniales en terres d'islam (Paris, 2006), p. 272.

77 See L. Bonate, ‘Colonial and post-colonial policies of Islam in Mozambique’, paper presented at the workshop on Changes in colonial and cost-colonial governance of Islam: continuities and ruptures, organized by IMISCOE and ISIM, Leiden, 29–30 Aug. 2008.

78 See Vakil, Monteiro, and Machaqueiro, Moçambique, pp. 300–2.