islam in mozambique some historical and cultural perspectives

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Islam in Mozambique: Some Historical and Cultural PerspectivesS. Von Sicard

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Islam in Mozambique: Some Historical and CulturalPerspectives

S. VON SICARD

Abstract

Islam in Mozambique has a history that goes back to at least the tenth century. The

records show that the region was known and well frequented by Muslim travelers

and traders. By the middle of the fifteenth century, permanent and flourishing

commercial and religious sultanates had been established along the coast and

some had penetrated up the Zambezi. The arrival of the Portuguese introduced

the centuries-long confrontation between Christians and Muslims. Prior to the

arrival of the Portuguese, some Indians had found their way to the area. By the

eighteenth century, Islam was well established and organized particularly in north-

ern Mozambique. The turuq, through their networks, contributed to the growth of

Islam. During the period leading up to independence in 1975, Muslims were orga-

nizing themselves into political action groups under the cover of social programs.

In spite of this, Muslims experienced considerable difficulties during the early

years of independence. From 1987, however, a gradual restoration took place.

Introduction

The earliest known Arabic sources refer to the country Mozambique as bilad al-sufala.

Thus al-Mas’udı who visited the coast in 304 AH/916 CE uses the term sufala in a

general manner. He speaks of the sufala of the Zanj as the limit of the Bilad al-Sudan.

Elsewhere he mentions that the sailors of “Uman travel on the sea of the Zanj as far as

the island of Kanbalu and Sufala”. In this context sufala may be interpreted as “low-

land” or “shoal”. Al-Mas’udı’s contemporary Buzurg b. Shahriyar also seems to think

of it as an area rather than a particular settlement. The distinctions become clearer in

al-Idrısı (493/1100–560/1166), who divides the East African Coast into four sectors:

Bilad al-Barbara, the present Somali coast; Bilad al-Zanj, the present coasts of Kenya

and Tanzania; Bilad al-Sufala, or Sufala al-Zanjı, Ard al-Tibr or Ard al-Dhahab (The

land of metal or gold); and finally Bilad al-Waqwaq an onomatopoeic name referring

to people whose language included clicks like the Khoisan, Xhosa, etc.1

The name Mozambique does not occur in Arabic literature before Ahmad b. Majid

(end of ninth/fifteenth century) who writes it as Musanbıj. The History of Kilwa which

was written around 1550 CE mentions Musanbıh. In Arabic literature and in sixteenth

and seventeenth century Portuguese sources it is simply the name of a town, never of

the country.2 According to tradition it is derived from Musa bin Biq, Musa Mbiki, or

possibly Musa Malik, the name and title of the sultan on the Island of Mozambique.3

Only after Mozambique Island became the main Portuguese settlement in 1568 was

the name applied to the whole country. Mozambique did not become the official

name until independence in 1975 having been known previous to the West as Portuguese

East Africa.

Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, Vol. 28, No. 3, December 2008

ISSN 1360-2004 print/ISSN 1469-9591 online/08/030473-18 # 2008 Institute of Muslim Minority Affairs

DOI: 10.1080/13602000802548201

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Methodological Concerns

Most of the historical material available goes back to Portuguese sources. These clearly

reflect the spirit of their time with its preconceived ideas, prejudices and vested interests.

So far hardly any sources have come to light from the official and personal archives in

Madagascar, the Comoro Islands, Zanzibar, Yemen, Hadhramaut, Oman and Iran.

The picture presented is therefore of necessity one-sided and limited. It is hoped

however that this paper will provoke others to take up the study of a much neglected

area in East Africa.

Terminology/Nomenclature

The literature presents names, whether of places, people or groups as well as various

technical terms in a variety of ways and spellings. An attempt has been made to standar-

dize these as far as possible. Where appropriate both the hijri (Islamic) and the masihi

(Christian) dates are given.

Early History

Mozambique’s earliest inhabitants are believed to have been nomadic hunter-gatherers,

possibly related to the Khoisan speaking San of South Africa and Namibia. From around

1000 BCE Bantu speaking peoples from the Niger Delta region in West Africa began

migrating slowly through the Congo basin, reaching Southern Africa some time after

the first century BCE.

The new groups possessed advanced agricultural skills and knowledge of iron-working

techniques. They lived in small, loosely affiliated chiefdoms. Some, like the Yao devel-

oped commercial networks across the country.

In the latter half of the first millennium CE, traders from Arabia began to arrive. The

main settlement was at Sofala. The original Sofala has long since been eroded and swept

away by the sea.4

Since trading links have existed for more than a thousand years, the history of Islam in

Mozambique can be divided into at least three periods, i.e. (a) seventh to fifteenth

century, (b) sixteenth century to independence in 1975, and (c) since independence.

Seventh to Fifteenth Century

During the first period, the Muslim presence was limited to coastal settlements such as

Sofala, Mozambique Island, Angoche, the Querimba islands and a few settlements along

the Zambezi. According to Eduardo do Couto Lupi two Muslims, Musa and Hassan,

arriving on Mozambique Island from Kilwa, came across a few Muslims who had pre-

ceded them. These early arrivals were referred to as mwinyi (Port. muinhe/monhe).5 By

the thirteenth century, the Indian Ocean was a Muslim sea thus laying the foundation

for a more permanent Muslim presence in Mozambique.6 By the middle of the fifteenth

century, Arab and Swahili traders had established a string of permanent commercial and

religious sultanates along the Mozambique coast between the islands of Angoche and

Mozambique in the north and Sofala in the south. The records indicate that by the

turn of the ninth/fifteenth CE, Sofala, south of present day Beira, was ruled by a

shaikh, appointed by the Sultan of Kilwa, in present day Tanzania. The establishment

of these enclaves marked the beginning of the process of incorporating Mozambique

474 S. Von Sicard


into the wider world culturally, economically and religiously. The Querimba Islands or

Ilhas do Cabo Delgado had a considerable Muslim population involved in the manufacture

of a cloth known as maluane, for which silk and cotton were woven and dyed with locally

grown indigo.7 At Mozambique dhows and vessels for the coastal trading were being

built. The high rate of return made foreign merchants content to enter into commercial

alliances with the ruling class or dominant local stratum and so remain outside the

system of production.8 Besides the main penetration into the interior along the Zambezi

other main Muslim trade routes into the hinterland developed along the Limpopo, Save

and Rovuma valleys.9 The coastal influence was marked by the adoption of Swahili

words such as fumo (chief), mwene (sub-chief), mujoge (Swahili trader).10 Islamic practices,

such as circumcision, were also accepted.11

The main items of trade seem to have been gold, metals and ivory mainly from the

interior. Mangrove poles, with their resistance to insects became an important export

over the centuries, particularly to countries where wood for house construction and fur-

niture is scarce. Beeswax, ambergris, pearls, gum copal (trachylobium verrucosum), and

India rubber (landolphia kirkii) also seem to have been exported.12 European sources

have made much of the slave trade particularly during the nineteenth century. That

slaves were part of the trade goes without saying, but European sources have failed to

distinguish between the trade and slavery itself. It therefore seems appropriate to

Smee’s statement that “The Arabs are justly famed for the mild treatment of their

slaves. They are not overworked, are allowed to live on their master’s estate and grow

their own food, and seem fairly happy and contented”.13 The main trade in this

respect seems to have been with Madagascar and was thus part and parcel of a regular

phenomenon in Afro-Malagasy society as much as it was in Middle Eastern and

European societies.14

Not until the sixteenth century do the records presently available describe the settle-

ments in some detail. Duarte Barbosa writing around 1517/18 CE claims that the south-

ernmost Muslim settlement was on the Bazaruto Islands in the present day Inhambane

District. Further north at Sofala he claims that the Muslims had been settled for a long

time and spoke Arabic. They wore silk or cotton loin-cloth, with cloth over their

shoulders like capes, and turbans or caps. In Angoya (Angoche) however the people

spoke their own language. Further north he notes the town of Mozambique built on

three islands, the governor of which was a sharıf. Other places such as Quelimane and

Ibo were ruled by local sultans.

Sixteenth Century to Independence in 1975

At the beginning of the sixteenth century, the Portuguese began to establish some trading

posts on the sea route to Goa. For the first four centuries of their presence in what is

today Mozambique, their penetration into the interior was minimal, except for along

the Zambezi river, and their impact on the country as a whole was insignificant. Not

until after the Berlin Conference of 1885 did they feel obliged to occupy more effectively

the territory they laid claim to.

Portuguese Attitudes and Behavior

During the colonial period Muslims suffered constant persecution, part of which was a

kind of retaliation for the centuries of Muslim occupation of Portugal.15 A grave example

of the Portuguese attitude was Baretto’s order to slaughter all Muslims at Sena as he

Islam in Mozambique 475


suspected them of poisoning the water supply causing the death of the Portuguese. The

reality was that they were dying of malaria.16 In 1720, the Holy Office of the Inquisition

ordered that Muslims should not be allowed to serve as pilots, captains and sailors on

ships sent from Asia to Mozambique. The order was repeated in 1723 to avoid, as the

inquisitors saw it, the evil which might afflict Mozambique. Resulting from this was

the order to remove the Indian Paymaster at Mozambique, Basire Maali (Bashir

Musa), because, it was argued, of the evil results of his residence as he was employing

the profits of his position in the worship of his false prophet. He proved to be too rich

and powerful and the order was never implemented.17 A further example is Elton’s

report that in 1874, Shaikh Ali Heri of the Mosembe district had been sent to Portugal

as a prisoner, presumably for opposing Portuguese rule.18

An amusing development from this period is that hereditary chiefs, almost all of whom

were Muslims, who ruled a number of chiefdoms along the coast, e.g., Quitangonha,

Sancul, Sangage and Angoche, were paid an allowance by the Portuguese who con-

sidered them to be their vassals. However, for their part, the chiefs, as true Muslims,

regarded these payments as a tribute, or jizya, paid to them by the King of Portugal,

as a dhimmi, whose appropriate activity was trade.

The Role of the Indians

Indian traders, including Muslims from the West Coast of India (Malabar) traded with

the East African Coast long before the arrival of the Portuguese. Vasco da Gama found

Hindu traders at Mozambique Island when he visited it in 1499. With the coming in of

the Portuguese, those contacts increased and became more permanent. There were

Indian traders in Manica in the 1560s and Indian soldiers fought in the local wars in

Zambezia in the 1640s.19 The Hindu traders referred to as Baneanes came to Mozambi-

que Island under the guise of being Portuguese subjects particularly from 1686 when the

Banyan Company of Mazanes of Diu was granted a charter by the Count of Alvor.20 The

charter did not include trade with the hinterland, but was limited to operations on the

island. The instability along the northern part of the coast after the fall of Mombasa

in 1698 led many Indian traders to move their operations to Mozambique Island.

Although considered as Portuguese subjects, they were not treated as equals by the Por-

tuguese and suffered from racial, cultural and economic antipathy and discrimination.21

They were not always welcomed by the local rulers either. At Dambarare Indians as well

as the Portuguese were killed in 1693.22 A special license was issued in 1727 allowing

Indian Muslims to trade on the mainland, but they were prohibited from owning

slaves. The Muslims were in 1728 prohibited from converting Africans to Islam or

trade in baptized slaves.23 None of the above regulations applied to the East African

Muslims as it would have been impossible to implement.24 In 1730, Indian Muslims

were permitted to keep slaves as long as their parents or grandparents had been

Muslims.25 In 1736, an order was issued in Goa against the ‘Moors’ teaching their doc-

trines to the Africans. A few years later the Archbishop of Mozambique lamented

Muslim success in conversion in comparison with the Church’s failure. He noted their

easy access to Quelimane, Sofala and Inhambane and their freedom to practice their

religion. Not surprisingly he began to argue against their right to exercise their religion

at all.26 In the 1740s and 50s there were restrictions on the right of Indians to hold prop-

erty and boats, to trade with the Yao and other local people. In order to travel from

Mozambique Island to the mainland they were required to have a pass or license.27 In

1759, five Indian Muslims were sent back to Mozambique from Inhambane because

476 S. Von Sicard


they had established Arabic language schools for the local Africans.28 The Indians were

generally petty traders dealing in ivory, cereals, cattle and slaves. They were also the

bankers and main suppliers of spices and general merchandise on whom the Portuguese,

to their chagrin, became dependant.29

Penetration and Nature of Islam

A report from 1789 notes that the Muslims who traveled inland from Angoche were dili-

gent in spreading their faith.30 The nineteenth century became a period of revival and

jihad aided by an increase in contacts across the Indian Ocean and the trade routes

into Central Africa.31 Already at the beginning of that century it was estimated that

there were 15,000 Muslims in the Cape Delgado region and some 20,000 in the

coastal hinterland of Mozambique Island.32 According to oral tradition, one young

man, a Musa Momadi from Angoche, accompanied a relative who was a sharıf and a

hajji on an extended da’wah expedition into the interior as far as the Lugenda valley.

After his return to the coast, he traveled to Mozambique Island, Zanzibar, the

Comoros and northwest Madagascar. His relative, however, was concerned with con-

verting the people he came across including the Yao, who by this time had migrated as

far as the Shire valley.33 In the light of this and the possibility that other dedicated

Muslims were spreading the faith, it is not surprising to find the Governor of Mozambi-

que commenting on the extraordinary advance of Islam in the interior in 1852.34

As on the other parts of the coast, the propagation of Islam was primarily undertaken

by people of mixed Arab and African blood, referred to in the sources as mestizos. Elton

in recording people taken as prisoners when slave dhows were captured notes one

Hummadi b. Saleh from the Yusi River area who claimed to be an ‘alim. He was remun-

erated for teaching the boys the Qur’an by being given slaves. Hummadi had complained

that he had been deprived of his Qur’an which he wore around his neck enclosed in a

cover called a bahasha. The Qur’an was returned to him. There is also the mention of

Ibrahim and Abid from Muscat, who had married Makua women and had lived

among them for some time.35 The penetration is indicated by the fact that by the

1870s, women in their mid-twenties are recorded as having Muslim names.36 The

impact can also be gauged by the report that around 1880, Ali, a Comoro trader at Quis-

sango, and other Muslims had farms along the coast in which they grew sesame (gingil

(Ar. juljulan)).37

It would seem that by the 1880s most major Yao chiefs had embraced Islam. Their

settlements were centers for the spread of Islam through Qur’an schools. The growing

Muslim presence is documented in a report from 1893 that shows that Muslims were

active along the Licungo River and Maganja da Costa north of Quelimane. Five

Muslims had established a school at the mouth of the Moniga River, about 100 miles

north of Quelimane, and were recruiting disciples and students along the coast.38

The reasons for the growing Islamization were varied and complex but undoubtedly

had to do with closer association with Muslim trading partners on the coast, the

increased prestige of Islam through the Al-Busaid dynasty and its representatives

along the coast. The presence of Swahili scribes, scholars and traders and the desire to

correspond with coast contacts as well as their availability to produce Islamic charms

or talismans (Sw. hirizi; Ar. talasım; cf. Greek telesma) at a time when the area was

experiencing turmoil through the encroachment of European interests, also contributed

to the spread of Islam.



The development of Islam in Malawi had repercussions for Mozambique. Thus an

important shaikh who influenced the developments of Islam on the Mozambican side

of Lake Malawi was Issa Chikoka, who obtained his ijaza from ‘Abdallah b. Haji

Mkwanda (c. 1860–1930) at Makanjila’s in present day Malawi.39 Another important

Yao shaikh active on the Lichinga plateau in northwestern Mozambique was Mzee

Chiwaula, who studied at Nkhotakota.40

An interesting development during the latter part of the nineteenth century was the

establishment of a madrasah in Lorenco Marques by Abu Bakr Effendi (d. 1880), a

Kurdish scholar sent to the Cape in 1862 to build up the Muslim community there.41

Coutinho records meeting Yao caravan leaders at Quelimane who claimed to be

Muslims and who carried the Qur’an carefully wrapped in a fold of their cloth.

Coastal Muslims however ridiculed the Yaos who claimed to be Muslims saying that

they were mushrikun.42 It is therefore not surprising to find that Chiefs Mazeze and

Said Ali and people in the Quissango and Pemba districts were pretending to be strict

Muslims. In spite of this the records show that there was a lot of syncretism. A surviving

account narrates the installation of a chief at Quitangonha in 1874 where the ceremony

combined Islamic, Makua, Portuguese and Swahili rituals. The Portuguese officials

arrived by boat. Two lines of women, singing and dancing, and playing cuche-cuches

(wooden spoons), walked into the water to greet them. A procession formed, and the

Portuguese army played the national anthem, catholic hymns were sung and patriotic

marches performed. There followed a service of prayers in the mosque. Flour was

placed on the new chief’s head.43

At the beginning of the twentieth century there were fifteen mosques and ten Qur’an

schools in the Angoche region. The basis for this may be found in the writings of a

Comorian who recorded the migration of learned men to Angoche to teach Arabic

and sharı’ah.44 All the monhes were said to be able to write their own language in

Arabic script, in fact on the island itself numerous Muslim women were said to be

able to read and write using the Arabic script.45 The Portuguese seeking to subdue

the north and considering that Muslims and local Africans were making common

cause found the situation intolerable and as a result ransacked the town of Angoche in

1903 destroying houses and mosques.46 In spite of Portuguese efforts Muslim commu-

nities with Qur’an school were a growing force in the hinterland in 1905. Islam was being

spread peacefully by Muslim traders, as well as walimu, shurafa with their religio-magic

knowledge and mafundi (artisans) using a hut, a veranda or the shade of a tree, teaching

the children Swahili.47 The most influential Muslim on the mainland north of Ibo was

one Haji Musa Yusufu. On Quirambo island there was a tomb venerated because it con-

tained the remains of a sharıf who had come from Angoche many years earlier.48

Turuq

Muslim religious brotherhoods did not appear in Mozambique in any systematic and

organized form until the end of the nineteenth century. By that time, both the Qadirıyya

and the Shadhilıyya brotherhoods were established on Mozambique Island. The latter

was established by students who went to a school in Kilwa established by Husayn

b. Mahmud, himself a khalıfa of the Hadrami sharıf Muhammad Ma’ruf b. Shaikh

Ahmed b. Abi Bakr (1853–1905) of Moroni, Ngazidja, one of the Comoro islands. In

1896, a trader and a member of the Yashrutıyya, Amir b. Jimba from Moroni, settled

in Mozambique. In 1897, Muhammad Ma’ruf visited Mozambique Island and

appointed two individuals as joint leaders of the order.49 The exclusion of

478 S. Von Sicard


Amir b. Jimba led to serious tension necessitating an arbitrator (Sw. msuluhishi; Ar.

hakam) being sent from Comoro. The struggle seems to have had socioeconomic

grounds. By 1924–1925 the mother house in Madina had to intervene and a new

branch, the Shadhiliya al-Madhaniya was established. Ten years later in 1936 another

schism took place with the establishment of the Shadhiliya Itifaq.50

The Qadirıyya seems to have been established by ‘Ali Msemakweli, a Yao who as a

khalıfa of Husayn b. ‘Abd Allah al-Mu’in spread the order to Northern Mozambique

by way of Kilwa. The Qadirıyya Sadate was established in Mozambique in 1904 by

Isa b. Ahmad from Zanzibar.51 The latter was a branch of Uways b. Muhammad’s

branch of the Qadiriyya more commonly known as the Uwaysıyya. When Isa

b. Ahmad returned to Zanzibar in 1925 he handed over the leadership to a local

Muslim by the name of Momade Arune (Muhammad Harun). A sub-branch of the

tarıqah was founded in Angoche at this time. After Momade Arune’s death in 1929

the tarıqah was split due to leadership rivalries leading in 1934 to the formation of the

Qadirıya Baghdadı branch. A further split took place in 1945 with the establishment

of the Qadirıyya Jilanı. The Baghdadi branch in turn split in 1953 with the establishment

of the Qadirıyya Baghdadı Hujat Salihın. A fifth branch, the Macheraba (mashraba – the

place of refreshment, restoration), was established in 1963 when the leadership of the

Sadate branch was taken over by Mahamudo Selemangy, a descendant of Daman

Muslims who originally had come to Mozambique from Gujarat. Mecufi in Cabo

Delgado became an important Qadirı centre under ‘Abd al-Majid in the 1930s.52

Developments which facilitated the growth of Islam during the second decade of the

twentieth century included the construction of the railroad from Lumbo, on the main-

land opposite Mozambique Island, which began in 1913, the advance of Indian

Muslim merchants beyond the coast and towards the end of World War I the presence

of a considerable number of Muslims in the British forces engaged in the war with

von Lettow’s forces. As a result the turuq established branches in the principal settle-

ments such as Nampula and Cabo Delgado. Mosques were constructed for the men

and zawaya (enclosed spaces) for women.53 Carvalho has suggested that the turuq

were religious and political constituencies of the different factions of local society.54

Just as in the case of the rest of the East African coast, Muslims from different parts of

the world arrived bringing a variety of cultural and sectarian backgrounds. This has had

its repercussions into the present, where Muslims in different areas of the country have

tended to remain confined and isolated from one another.

The Indian Muslims had their own mosques, which were well built and ornate. They

had cemeteries for their own exclusive use and brought and supported their own a’imma

(plural for imam) from India. The Indian Muslims observed the ordinances of the

Qur’an and the sharı’ah strictly. They observed what is haram, fulfilled the requirements

of ablutions and frequented the mosques assiduously. The African and mestico (Portu-

guese for ‘mixed race’, i.e. descendants of unions between African women and Arab

or Portuguese men) Muslims have their own mosques built as thatched huts which

were indistinguishable from other huts. Their observance of Islam was less vigorous.

Their attendances at mosques were less frequent and their prayers and recitations less

perfect because of their ignorance of Arabic language and the absence of any of the

required texts in local vernacular. All male Muslims, whether Indian or African, were

circumcised. They wore the malaia, also referred to as cabaia, and wore the cofio or a

turban.55 The wearing of these clothes was a clear mark of the Muslim influence.

Antonio Ennes writing in 1913 claimed that Islam was spreading like a weed because it

was not being cultivated. He observed that it had no assistance from the civil authorities,



its members were not wealthy, there was no clergy, no outstanding representatives to

imitate, yet it was gaining ground rapidly in the northern districts and at Inhambane.56

In Balane he found people observing Islamic practices, thoroughly performing ablutions

before entering a mosque and being heard reciting the Qur’an inside but there were few

signs of the propagation of Islam. He reported that the children at Inhambane were

receiving instruction in what he describes as “booths covered with palm leaves”. He

reported that a Makua had described Islam as a fashion, indicating that people were

becoming Muslim by imitation, stimulated by self interest in acquiring the malaia

giving a person some status. This in turn led them to accept Islamic practices and

created solidarity.57

Half a century later Goncalves claims that the picture which Ennes painted of Islam

held true and that the situation in the early 1960s was the same. The statistics available

indicate that there were around 66,000 Muslims in Mozambique in the mid-1950s.58

At that time it was estimated that there were 1,956 Orientals and 15,188 Indians.59

Goncalves summing up the widely fluctuating statistical information comes to the con-

clusion that if one were to take the estimates of the civil servants trained in this field, the

probably figure for Muslims in Mozambique in the mid-1950s was somewhere between

700,000 and a million out of a population of around six million.60

Writing in the early 1960s Goncalves claimed that Islam was spreading rapidly

throughout the country noting that there were mosques in Beira, Quelimane, Lorenco

Marques (Maputo), etc. However, he notes that almost all Muslims in Lorenco

Marques were Isma’ili.61

Representatives of the Isma’ili community were established at Inhambane and Queli-

mane at an early stage. By the 1950s they were to be found on the Island of Mozambique,

in the area of Porto Amelia and in Maputo and their number in the country was esti-

mated at 1,700. The community has, like other Indian communities been closed from

an ethnic, but open from a social point of view having established educational,

medical and sports facilities for the community. Its work has been centered around

the Jamat Khanas, which are understood to be the property of the Aga Khan. Its

members are primarily business people, some of whom have been and are quite powerful.

They use their means to strengthen those in the community who are not as well off. They

are not involved in da’wah. Ali Khan visited Mozambique on behalf of his grandfather in

1957, and then in his own right as the Aga Khan in 1958.62

Referring to a work by G. Cota, Goncalves notes that the Makua reflect a strong

mixture of African, Arab and to some extent Indian blood, so that he describes the

Makua between Moma and Tungue as being to a large extent mestico. By far the most

islamized of the people were the Swahili who used that language to communicate. He

also notes that the Yao have been strongly influenced by Islam, whereas the Makonde

have hardly been touched. The same is implied for the area south of the Save River

(also known as the Sabi River).63

In a chapter dealing with the customary laws of Islamized people, Cota states that the

Islamic influence was particularly evident when it came to pre-nuptial agreements, prop-

erty regulations, marital duties, inheritance, etc. He refers to the fact that a man could

disinherit a nephew or son for ingratitude or disrespect to a paternal grandmother as

well as practices contrary to the sharı’ah. Cota observes that the only true religious

marriages were between Muslims and that these were celebrated in accordance with

qur’anic teachings.64

Portuguese policy towards Islam can be said to have been marked by hysteria and

paranoia. They seem never to have abandoned the Roman Catholic crusade that

480 S. Von Sicard


characterized their concept of “civilising mission”. Some of their fears related to the fact

that Muslims in Mozambique looked to Zanzibar as the centre of Sunni Islam and source

of Islamic publications; they viewed the Sultan as their protector, remembering his name

during the Friday khutbah, even though he was an Ibadhi. This was enforced by the fact

that the leader of the Qadirıyya Sadate between 1929 and 1963 referred to himself as the

Sultan’s representative to Mozambique.65

Portuguese fears were further exacerbated, first by the “Mecca letter” scare of 1908

and then by the “defense of Ethiopia letters” circulated in Cabo Delgado and Mozam-

bique Districts in 1937. Believing that Muslim traders were circulating the letters the

colonial authorities took action against the promoters of Islam and closed Qur’an

schools and mosques in the two districts on the pretense that they had no legal licenses.

The ban was however lifted in 1938.66

New Religious and Political Ripples

By the 1960s the isolation of Muslims in Mozambique was breaking down. The colonial

authorities discovered that Muslims were seeking education in Tanzania and Arabia.

Islamic publications from Cairo and Mumbai were available and Muslims were keen

to acquire literacy in Arabic. People were listening to Sauti’l-Arab min al-Qahira and

becoming aware of their religious roots. Arab and Islamic phonographs from Egypt

were circulating. It was reported that Yao Muslims looked to Baghdad and coastal

Muslims to Oman for religious leadership. African nationalism was gaining ground

among the Muslims which was linked to Arab anti-Portuguese propaganda. In the

light of this it is possible that clandestine Islamic associations were being established

as early as the 1950s.67

This was nothing new because Islamic revivalist movements had been opposing colo-

nial rule in northern Mozambique since the 1920s, when some Muslim leaders protested

against the abuses of forced labor, low wages and land appropriation in the Quelimane

area. From the 1930s, Muslim Africans and various Indians organized themselves into

interest groups that carried out political action under the cover of social programs,

mutual aid, cultural and athletic activities.68 From an Islamic point of view, the situation

became even more acute from 1942 when Mozambique became Portugal Ultramar (term

used to refer to Portuguese territories overseas). Forced labor, arbitrary taxation, obli-

gation to plant cash crops, and the lack of social improvement produced an acute discon-

tent among the Africans which led to the awakening of a national consciousness.

Given the total absence of liberty to form political organizations under the Portuguese,

the African Mozambicans living abroad, in Tanzania, Zimbabwe and Malawi, came

together to form the Mozambique Liberation Front (FRELIMO—Frente de Libertacao

de Mocambique) in 1962. An armed struggle began in 1964, but not until after the

1974 coup d’etat in Portugal did Mozambique gain its independence in 1975.

During the armed struggle the colonial policy changed, designed to win the support of

the Muslim community against the forces of FRELIMO, which the colonial authorities

thought had alienated the Muslims because of its Marxist policies. The Portuguese

administration sought to work through the Muslim religious leadership, i.e. the turuq,

which they considered a conservative, local force against more radical, internationally

organized expressions of Islam bent on political subversion.69 The Portuguese auth-

orities capitalizing on the new situation that arose after the abolition of the Sultanate

of Zanzibar in 1963 utilized the new links between the Muslim leadership in Northern

Mozambique with the Comoros and invited the Mufti, Sayyid Omar b. Ahmad b.



Abu Bakr b. Sumayt al’Alawi to settle disputes between the turuq.70 They also embarked

on publishing an official, Portuguese language version of abstracts of Al-Jami’ al-Sahıh of

al-Bukharı (194–256 AH/810–870 CE).71

Some Muslims were involved in the liberation struggle. Thus FRELIMO’s rep-

resentative in Cairo was a Muslim by the name of Sharffudin Muhammad Khan.

He later represented the movement in the United States. An office was also opened in

Algiers.72 Islam’s influence received a boost when various Arab countries offered to

train the freedom fighters. Thus some 130 of them were sent to Algeria for training.

FRELIMO established international relations with the Arab League and the Organiz-

ation of Islamic Conference73. Although such links might have led to religious friction,

FRELIMO’s policy was to combat religious intolerance in its ranks.74 There is no

mention in FRELIMO’s educational program of Qur’an schools, but it would seem

that traditional institutions like the poro/sande initiation institutions were acknowl-

edged.75 It is possible that to some extent Muslim influence would have been spread

through these, as had been the case with other initiation practices in the region.

In view of the fact that the liberation struggle was predominantly in the north, Muslims

of Indian origin who lived in the southern part of the colony and adhered to the Hanafi

legal tradition, with their orientation to Durban and Karachi, did not play an important

role. The Indian communities, which represented peripheral groups, continued to run

small scale commercial ventures, and, where possible, bush (rural) trading centers76

and small shops in towns. As closed communities they hardly had any contact with

Africans, Europeans or Indian groups other than in business. Some of their students

attended universities or enrolled in professional courses at technical schools in Portugal.77

Since Independence

After independence in 1975, the Muslim leadership which had cooperated with the colo-

nial authorities was discredited. Some Muslim associations were banned in 1976.

Muslims on the other hand who had had restriction imposed on them during the colonial

period gained some freedom. However, the civil war which erupted soon after indepen-

dence and lasted until 1992 between FRELIMO (which had transformed itself into a

Marxist Party) and the Resistencia National Mocambicana (RENAMO—Mozambique

National Resistance Movement) which sought to restore democracy in Mozambique,

did not serve the Muslims well.78 By 1980 Mozambican Muslim students in exile in

Dar es Salaam were denouncing the repression of Islam by the FRELIMO govern-

ment.79 Until around 1982 the regime was characterized by hostility to organized reli-

gion in general. There was considerable harassment including throwing pigs into

mosques. Virtually all religious communities lost property during the nationalizations.

Such property often included schools or facilities for religious observance. Religious

associations were forbidden and attempts were made to prevent religious activities any-

where but in mosques. An indication of the difficulties Muslims were experiencing may

be found in the fact that only one Muslim is recorded as having undertaken the pilgrim-

age in 1981.80 The attitudes began to change after the establishment of RENAMO and

the destabilization which this movement created with the help of South Africa and

Rhodesia. FRELIMO found that its treatment of Muslims provided reasons for both

Saudi Arabia and Oman to send supplies to RENAMO. South Africa and the Comoro

Islands also served as conduits for supplying RENAMO from 1983 to 1989. That situ-

ation made any allies, including the religious communities acceptable. Thus in 1983

482 S. Von Sicard


FRELIMO officially recognized the new national Council of Muslims of Mozambique

(CISLAMO—Concelho Islamico de Mocambique).81

Contrary to FRELIMO practice it was reported that whenever RENAMO attacked a

village often the mosque or church were the only buildings left undamaged. There seems

to have been a more positive attitude to religion in RENAMO circles. Their bases exhib-

ited this in the form of mosques and churches.82

Restoration and New Legislation

With the accession of Joachim Alberto Chissano in 1987, FRELIMO began a gradual

restoration of social legitimacy to religious bodies of all kinds. In that year Mozambique

hosted the fifth Southern Africa Islamic Youth Conference. Although developments were

still limited to the Maputo area, it was an indication of the new trend. In a speech to the

Central Committee in March 1988, Chissano stated that FRELIMO aspired to:

A society where every citizen advances along with the advancement of our

Fatherland, and a society where the people will benefit from the wealth gener-

ated by the work and intelligence of the Mozambican people.83

Such a spirit was welcomed by the Muslims as it expressed in socialist terms the very

foundational principles of the ummah. By mid-1988 confiscated properties were being

returned.84 The situation improved further when article 19 of the 1975 constitution

which affirmed that there “exists an absolute separation between the State and religious

institutions”, and “activities of religious institutions must conform with State Laws” was

changed in 1990 to “The state shall respect the activities of religious denominations in

order to promote a climate of social understanding and tolerance and to strengthen

national unity”.85

The 1989 Law on Religious Freedom requires religious institutions and organizations

to register with the Ministry of Justice, reveal their principal source of funds and provide

the names of at least 500 followers in good standing. At the end of 2000 there were

394 distinct religious groups registered with the Department of Religious Affairs of

the Ministry of Justice. Among Muslims only the Sunni and Isma’ili communities are

registered.86

The government routinely grants visas and residence permits to da’i. Some of these

have established madaris in many places, particularly in the northern provinces. The

Tabligh Islamic Call Society is active in the country. The constitution gives religious

groups the right to own and acquire assets. They are allowed by law to own and

operate schools. Religious instruction in public schools however is prohibited.87

Although all places of worship nationalized by the State in 1977 have been returned to

their respective religious organizations, certain Muslim communities have complained

that other properties such as schools, health centers and residences are still in govern-

ment hands.88

The elections of 1994 returned FRELIMO to power. The 1999 elections in which

FRELIMO gained 133 deputies and RENAMO 117, reflected a better balance

between the two parties. Rather revealing was the fact that out of FRELIMO’s 133 depu-

ties, only one seems to be a Muslim, whereas out of RENAMO’s 117, twelve were

Muslims. The lists of deputies do not make it clear if any representative of the Indian

Muslims has been elected to parliament.89 Thirteen parties contested the 1999 election.

Of particular interest from an Islamic point of view was the Mozambique Independence

Party (PIMO—Partido Independente de Mocambique) established in 1993. Its chairman



Yaqub Sibindy was also a candidate for the presidency. Its Standing Committee meeting

in Nampula in 1997 called for the party to change its name to the Islamic Party. The con-

stitution however bans parties based on regional, ethnic, tribal, racial or religious distinc-

tion. The attorney General Antonio Namburete therefore warned that the party would

be suspended since religio-political entities are dangerous as they can incite believers

into acts that would disturb the social order. In the event Partido Independente received

only 0.71% of the votes or ninth position out of twelve. There is however the Movimento

Islamico, a parliamentary caucus of Muslims from the ruling party, FRELIMO, which is

seen by some as being tantamount to a religious party.90

By the end of the 1990s Mozambique had become a member of the Organization of the

Islamic Conference (OIC) thus securing economic benefits. Tensions between the Sufi

leaders of the majority Muslims in the north and the more radical reformers based in

the south has led the former to split off from CISLAMO to form the Congresso

Islamico.91 In further attempts to gain the support of Muslims, FRELIMO recognized

the Islamic holidays of ‘Id al-Adha and ‘Id al-Fitr as national holidays in 1996. The Comu-

nidade Mahometana has its own homepage describing its religious basis and listing Abdul

Azziz Osman Latif as its president. The community has plans for an Islamic Cultural

Centre, a Friday mosque and a school for the community at large.92 A further indication

of the new lease on life for Muslims in Mozambique is the number of pilgrims registered

by the Saudi Arabian authorities which rose to 309 in 1999.93

African traditional rituals can be found in the practices of Muslims in Mozambique.

Thus Muslims commonly travel to the graves of ancestors to say special prayers for

rain. They also practice rituals of preparation for important events, examinations, first

job, swearing-in, etc., by offering prayers and pouring libations on the ground to

please the ancestors. Muslims, in search of good luck, healing and solution to problems,

consult curandeiros, traditional healers or spiritualists, some of whom are themselves

nominal Muslims.94

Interfaith cooperation takes place through the Forum of Religions established in 1997.

It is an organization for social and disaster relief composed of members of the Christian

Council of Mozambique; the Greek Orthodox Church; and the Muslim, Baha’i and

Jewish communities. The goal of the forum is to offer collective assistance to the

needy, without regard to creed. The forum was actively engaged in the disastrous flood-

ing in February and March 2000 and again in relief to the Zambezi District which was

struck when the Zambezi bursting its banks in February 2001.

During the year 2000, civil society and the media have highlighted religious aspects of

a draft Family Law. The debate has focused on the need for legal recognition of religious

and common law marriages, since at present only civil marriages are legal. A sticking

point is the Muslim opposition not to recognize polygamous marriages. Muslim

women have however demonstrated against polygamy. Some Muslim groups oppose

the section of the law that would raise the legal age of marriage to 16 for both men

and women.95

Conclusion

Although Islam has a long and prestigious history in Mozambique, the colonial period,

the struggle for independence, and the independence period have been detrimental to its

development. The Portuguese brought with them their preconceived ideas of Islam and

Muslims which resulted in harassment and persecution. During the years of the indepen-

dence struggle it was particularly Muslims in the North of the country, where Muslims

484 S. Von Sicard


are the majority, who suffered. With the declaration of independence under a Marxist

government, Islam and Muslims together with other religious traditions were under

duress or simply proscribed. By the mid-1990s, greater openness by the political

parties augured well for Muslims. The government’s secularist policies have, however,

had their impact on the community. Internal tensions between traditionalists and refor-

mers as well as cultural differences between the various ethnic groups in the Muslim

community have also contributed to a weakening of their potential for a real contribution

to the new nation. Some Muslims continue to practice a ritual of preparation or inaugu-

ration at the time of important events by offering prayers and spilling beverages on the

ground to please ancestors. Others consult curandeiros, traditional healers or spiritualists,

some of whom claim to be Muslims, in search of good luck, healing, and solutions to pro-

blems. External forces aligning themselves with different groups, including the arrival of

a significant number of South Asian immigrants, continue to undermine their efficacy in

bearing witness to the values inherent in Islam that could, given a chance, make a sub-

stantial contribution to the nation. External agencies help with medical and educational

development projects, including scholarships for studies in the Middle East and so

prepare members of the community for their place in building up the nation. Although

the attempts that have been made to co-ordinate the activities of various groups through

the Islamic Council of Mozambique and different publications like al-Furqan are prom-

ising signs, the tension between the Council and the Islamic Congress of Mozambique

both vying with each other for government patronage continues to undermine the

Islamic witness.

NOTES

1. A.M.b.M. Idrısı, Nuzhat al-Mushtaq fı Ikhtiraq al-Afaq [The recreation of him who yearns to traverse

the lands], 548/1154, cited in G. Ferrand, Relations de Voyages et Textes Geographiques, Paris: no pub-

lisher, Vol. 1, 1913, p. 59; see also F. Storbeck, Die Berichte der arabischen Geographen des Mittelalters

uber Ostafrika [The accounts of the Arab geographers of the Middle Ages regarding East Africa],

Berlin: Reichsdruckerei, 1913, pp. 42–50; G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville, ed., The East African Coast.

Select documents from the First to the earlier Nineteenth Century, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1961,

pp. 9–17; Martin Waldseemuller’s huge map of the world in 1507 includes a sheet portraying

Africa “according to the tradition of Ptolemy” but with the addition of the Portuguese discoveries,

in R.V. Toley’s Landmarks of Mapmaking, Ware, Herts: Wordsworth, 1989, p. 160, which has mon san-

biqui; Waldseemuller’s map made for Ptolemy’s Geographia of 1513 has mon mbiqui, in R.V. Toley’s

Landmarks, op. cit., p. 159.

2. However Ortelius’ map of 1570 has Mozambique marked for the hinterland. See R.V. Toley, Land-

marks, op. cit., p. 162.

3. M. Amra, “Islam in Southern Africa. A Historical Perspective”, Paper presented at the Islam in Africa

Conference, Binghamton University, 19–22 April 2001, p. 17; M. Fitzpatrick, Mozambique, London:

Lonely Planet Publications, 2000, p. 12.

4. An indication of this may be that Elton came across a settlement in the Quissanga area which he refers

to as Dhubbai. See J.F. Elton, Travels and Researches among the Lakes and Mountains of Eastern and

Central Africa, London: F. Cass, 1968, p. 229.

5. E. do Couto Lupi, Angoche. Breve Memoria sobre Uma dass Capitanias-Mores [Angoche. A short

memoir on one Capitanias-Mores], Lisboa: Ministerio dos Negocios da Marinha e Ultramar,

1907, p. 276. The term monhe seems at times to have been used in respect of the Indian Muslims.

See J.J.Goncalves, “Influencia arabo-islamica em Mocambique” [The Islamic influence in Mozambi-

que], in O Mundo Arabo-Islamico eo Ultramar Portugues [The Arab-Islamic World of Overseas Portu-

guese Territories], Lisboa: Junta de investigacoes do ultramar, 1962, pp. 267, 280. Alpers, however,

notes that the term applied to mixed Afro-Muslims, as opposed to Swahili, i.e. coastal Muslims. See

E. Alpers, “East Central Africa”, in The History of Islam in Africa, eds. N. Letzion & R.L. Pouwels,

Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2000, p. 309; M.V. Jackson Haight, European Powers and



South-East Africa. A study of international relations on the south-east coast of Africa 1796–1856, London:

Routledge & Kegan Paul, 1967, p. 39, for munhaes [soldiers] of the Monomotapa.

6. N. Levtzion, “Islam. East Africa”, in The Encyclopedia of Religion, ed. M. Eliade, New York: Mac-

Millan Publishing Co., 1987, Vol. 7, p. 355.

7. M. Newitt, “The Southern Swahili Coast in the First Century of European Expansion”, Azania, Vol.

13, 1978, p. 116; J. dos Santos, Ethiopia Oriental e Varia Historia de Cousas Notaveis do Oriente [Eastern

Ethiopia and various histories of notable things in the East], Evora: no publisher, 1609, p. 81.

8. A. & B. Isaacman, Mozambique. From colonialism to revolution 1900–1982, Boulder, CO: Westview

Press, 1983, pp. 13ff., 17, 18, 21.

9. M.D. Newitt, Portuguese settlements on the Zambezi, London: Longman, 1973, p. 208.

10. Ibid., p. 198; J. Duffy, A Question of Slavery. Labour policies in Portuguese Africa and the British Protest,

1850–1920, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1967, p. 67. At one time they attacked and scuttled an entire

shipload of Muslim pilgrims. See P.B. de Rezende, “Breve trotado e epilogo todos os visoreys que tem

travido no estado da India” [Brief treatise and epilogue on all the vice-realms which have existed in the

Indian State], Bibliotheque Nationale de Paris, MS Portgugais No. l (no date). For the intolerant beha-

vior of Fr. Joao dos Santos during his time in Mozambique between 1590 and 1592, see J. dos Santos,

Etiopia Orientale, Lisboa: Bibliteca de Classicos Portugueses, 1981, Vol. 2, pp. 242ff.; P. Schebesta,

Portugals Konquistamission in Sudost-Afrika. [Portugal’s Conquest Mission in East Africa],

St. Augustin: Steyler Verlag, 1966, pp. 93ff. The term mujoge often appears in J.F. Elton, Travels

and Researches, op. cit., p. 30, without explanation. The term appears in M.V. Jackson Haight, European

Powers and South-East Africa, op. cit., 1967, p. 314, as mujojo (Port.) and on p. 315 as mujujo (Engl.).

Could it refer to a muyao? See R. Honwann, ed., The life history of Paul Honwana. An inside view of

Mozambique from colonialism to independence, 1905–1975, with an introduction by A.F. Isaacman,

Boulder & London: Lynne Rienner Publishers, 1988, which describes mudjodjos as Africans who

had converted to Islam and were from Zanzibar, Pemba and the Comoros (p. 94).

11. Documents on the Portuguese in Mozambique and Central Africa, ed. A. da Silva Rego, Lisboa: Centro de

estudos historicos ultramarinos, 1971, Vol. 7, pp. 504, 505.

12. G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville, “Mozambique” in Encyclopedia of Islam, second edition, Vol. 7, Leiden:

E.J. Brill, 1993, p. 245; J.F. Elton, Travels and Researches, op. cit., p. 206. Although Elton refers to

Landolphia Kirkii, it is more likely that the creeper he refers to was the rubber vine, Saba Comorensis

(Sw. mbungo).

13. Quoted by R. Coupland, East Africa and its Invaders, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1938, pp. 183ff.

Smee’s, Owen’s and others’ indignation had to do with the trade itself and the treatment of captured

people as chattels. E.H. Burrows, Captain Owen of the African Survey, Rotterdam: Balkema, 1979,

p. 123.

14. In Mesopotamia slaves from East Africa revolted in 696, and between 869 and 883 they threatened

the Caliphate in Southern Iraq. The Portuguese shipped slaves to Brazil. See R. Oliver & G. Mathew,

eds., History of East Africa, Oxford: Clarendon Press, 1963, Vol. I, p. 101.

15. T.H. Henriksen, Mozambique. A History, London: Rex Collins, 1978, p. 17.

16. J. Duffy, Portuguese Africa, Cambridge, MA: Harvard University Press, 1959, p. 37.

17. E.A. Alpers, Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa: Changing Patterns of International Trade to the Late

Nineteenth Century, Berkeley, CA: University of California Press, 1975, p. 92ff., referring to G.M.

Theal, Records of South-Eastern Africa, London: W. Clowes, 1898, Vol. 5, pp. 124–126. See also

A.A. de Andrade, Relacoes de Mocambique Setentista [Descriptions of Northern Mozambique],

Lisboa: Agencia Geral do Ultramar, 1955, p. 100, where the name is given as Baxira Mocalli

(Bashir Musa Ali?).

18. J.F. Elton, Travels and Researches, op. cit., p. 141.

19. No author listed, “Inquerito em Mocambique no anno de 1573” [Enquiry into Mozambique from

the year 1573], in Studia, ed. Alcantara Guerreiro, Vol. 6, no city of publication or publisher,

1960, pp. 7–19; Antonio Gomes, “Viagem que fez o Padre Antonio Gomes, da Companhia de

Jesus ao Imperio de Monomotapa; e assistencia que fez nas ditas terras de algus annos” [Antonio

Gomes, Travels made by Padre Antonio Gomes, Society of Jesus, to the Empire of Monomotapa

and the assistance made in those territories in different years], Studia, Vol. 3, no city of publication

or publisher, 1957, p. 241, referred to by M. Newitt, A History of Mozambique, London: Hurst &

Co., 1995, p. 181ff.

20. A. Lobato, Sobre Cultura Mocambicana [Regarding Mozambiquan Culture], Lisboa: Centro de

Estudos Historicos Ultramarinos, 1952, p. 125. For reasons why Indian traders appeared in such

486 S. Von Sicard


numbers on the East African Coast, see E.A. Alpers, Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa, op. cit.,

p. 90ff. Banian, Ar. banyan from Gujarati vaniyo—man of trading caste.

21. E.A. Alpers, Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa, op. cit., p. 92.

22. M.S. Alberto e F.A. Toscano, O Oriente Africano Portugues. Sıntese chonologia da Historia de Mocam-

bique [Portuguese East Africa. A chronological synthesis of Mozambiquan history], Lorenco

Marques: Minerva Cantral, 1938, p. 58; E. Axelsson, Portuguese in South-East Africa 1600–1700,

Johannesburg: Witwatersrand University Press, 1960, p.182.

23. E.A. Alpers, Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa, op. cit., p. 93, referring to G.M. Theal, Records of

South-Eastern Africa, op. cit., Vol. 5, pp. 143–145.

24. E.A. Alpers, Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa, op. cit., p. 93, referring to G.M. Theal, Records of

South-Eastern Africa, op. cit., Vol. 5, pp. 155–158.

25. E.A. Alpers, Ivory and Slaves in East Central Africa, op. cit., p. 94.

26. Ibid., pp. 92–94; E.A. Alpers, “East Central Africa”, op. cit., p. 305.

27. M.V. Jackson Haight, European Powers and South-East Africa, op. cit., p. 45.

28. A.A. Andrade, Relacoes de Mocambique, op. cit., p. 97.

29. M.V. Jackson Haight, European Powers and South-East Africa, op. cit., p. 79ff.

30. E.A. Alpers, “East Central Africa”, op. cit., p. 306 referring to J.J.N. de Andrade, “Descripcao da

Estrada em que Ficavao os Negocios da Capitania de Mossambique nos Fins de Novembro de

1789 com Algumas Observacoens, e reflecoens a causa da decadencia do Commercio dos Estabelec-

imentos Portugueses na Costa Oriental da Africa” [A description of the direction that had been taken

by the affairs of the Mozambique Capital by the end of November 1789 together with some remarks

and reflections on the cause for the commercial decline in the Portuguese establishments on the East

Coast of Africa], in Arquivo das Colonias [Colonial Archives], Lisboa: no publisher, Vol. 1, pp. 75–96,

115–34, 166–184, 213–35, 275–88.

31. M.D. Newitt, Portuguese settlements on the Zambezi, op. cit., p. 217; M.V. Jackson Haight, European

Powers and South-East Africa, op. cit., p. 141ff.

32. E.A. Alpers, “East Central Africa”, op. cit., p. 306. The level of Muslim penetration may be assessed

by the fact that the information most of the slaves imported to the Cape Colony at this time was from

Mozambique and that it was at the Cape that they embraced Islam. G.M. Theal, Records of the Cape

Colony, Cape Town: Govt. Printers, 1903, Vol. 6, p. 271, referring to a letter from the Earl of Caledon

to Viscount Castlereagh dated 4 February 1808.

33. E.do Couto Lupi, Angoche, Lisboa: Typographia do Annuario Commercial, 1907, p. 183; J. de

A. Coutinho, Do Nyasa a Pemba [From Nyasa to Pemba], Lisboa: Typographia do Companhia

Nacional Editora, 1893, p. 10f.

34. F.A. Monteiro, “As communidades islamicas em Mocambique: Mecanismos de communicacao”

[The Islamic Communities in Mozambique: Means of Communication], Africana (Porto), Vol. 4,

1989, p. 69. In 1866, D. Livingstone’s Arab guide at Cape Delgado indicated that no attempt had

been made to bring the Makonde into the household of faith although he noted that some

Makonde slaves at the coast had become Muslims. See D. Livingstone, Last Journals, London:

J. Murray, 1874, Vol. 1, p. 23f. Elton, while traveling in the area in 1875–1876, noted that Islam

was established in certain localities. Some Makua chiefs wore kanzus even if they were not

Muslims. See J.F. Elton, Travels and Researches, op. cit., pp. 171, 178, 197; J. de A. Coutinho, Do

Nyasa a Pemba, op. cit., pp. 40, 42, 44; cf. J. Stevenson-Hamilton, “Notes on a journey through Por-

tuguese East Africa, from Ibo to Lake Nyasa”, Geographical Journal, Vol. 34, 1909, p. 525f.

35. J.F. Elton, Travels and Researches, op. cit., pp. 171, 172.

36. J. Duffy, A Question of Slavery, op. cit., p. 68.

37. Ibid., p. 85 footnote; J.F. Elton, Travels and Researches, op. cit., pp. 206, 207, mentions that coffee grew

wild on the mountains in the region of the Nkomburi (Mecuburi) River (Nampula Province) and was

exported. In that area he encountered a “British protected subject from Cutch” who had been in the

area for 14 years, i.e. since 1862.

38. F. Desmaroux, “Informacoes acerca da situacao moral e religiosa e dos usos e costumes dos povos no

meio das quais a Missao dos Santos Anjos e destinada a exercer a sua influencia (Zambezi)” [Infor-

mation regarding the moral and religious situation and the habits and customs of the people among

whom the Holy Angels Mission is meant to exert its influence (Zambezi)], Boletim da sociedade de

Geografia de Lisboa [Bulletin of the Geographical Society of Lisbon], Vol. 14, 1895, p. 680f.

39. E.A. Alpers, “East Central Africa”, op. cit., p. 311; A. Thorold, “Yao Conversion to Islam”, Cam-

bridge Anthropology, No. 12, 1987, p. 24.



40. A.E. Alpers, “East Central Africa”, op. cit., p. 311; M.G. Amaral, O Povo Yao - Subsidios para o Estudo

de um Povo do Noroeste de Mocambique [The Yao People – Subsidy in regard to the study of a people in

Northeastern Mozambique], Lisboa: Instituto de Investigacao Cientifica e Tropical, 1990, p. 379;

R. Greenstein, “Shaykhs and Tariqas: The Early Muslim ‘Ulama’ and Tariqa Development in

Malawi (c. 1885–1949)”, Seminar Paper, History Department, Chancellor College, University of

Malawi, 1976/77, p. 22.

41. R.C.H. Shell, “Islam in Southern Africa 1652–1998”, in The History of Islam in Africa,

eds. N. Levtzion & R.L. Pouwels, Athens, OH: Ohio University Press, 2000, p. 338f.; M. Brandel

Syrier, The religious duties of Islam as taught and explained by Abu Bakr Effendi, Leiden: E.J. Brill,

1971, p. vff.; S.A. Rochlin, “Aspects of Islam in 19th Century South Africa”, Bulletin of the School

of Oriental and African Studies, Vol. 8, 1936, pp. 213–221.

42. J. de A.Coutinho, Do Nyasa a Pemba, op. cit., p. 46.

43. G.S.P. Freeman-Grenville, “Mozambique”, op. cit., p. 246.

44. Ibid.

45. F.A. da Silva Neves, Informacoes a cerca da Capitania-Mor de Angoche [Information about the Capita-

nia-Mor of Angoche], Mocambique: Impressa Nacional, 1901, p. 17.

46. J.P. de Sampaio Forjaz de Serpa Pimental, No Districto de Mocambique - Memorias, Estudos e Consider-

acoes (1902–1904) [Our Mozambique District – Memoirs, Studies and Considerations], Lisboa: no

publisher, 1905, p. 75.

47. Ibid., p. 158; E. Do C. Lupi, Angoche, op. cit., p. 176ff.; P.M. de Amorim, Districto de Mocambique—

Relatorio do Governador (1906–1907) [The District of Mozambique—Governor’s Report (1906–

1907)], Lorenco Marques: Imprensa Nacional, 1908, p. 74.

48. E.J. de Vilhena, Companhia do Nyasa—Relatorios e Memorias sobre os Territorios pelo Governador [The

Nyasa Company—Reports and Memoirs Regarding the Terriories by the Governor], Lisboa: Typo-

graphia da “A Editoria”, 1905, pp. 10f, 234f.

49. A.H. Nimtz, Islam and Politics in East Africa: The Sufi Order in Tanzania, Minneapolis, MN: Univer-

sity of Minnesota Press, 1980, p. 60

50. A.P. de Carvalho, “Notas para a Historia das Confrarias Islamicas na Ilha de Mocambique” [Mem-

oranda on the history of the Islamic brotherhoods on Mozambique Island], Arquivo (Maputo), 1988,

p. 61ff.; E.A. Alpers, “East Central Africa”, op. cit., p. 311. Ittifaq . Ar. Ittafaqa – agree, conform

wafiqa.

51. Sadate .Ar. saada—happy, prosperous, illustrious. Sadate comes from one of the plurals of “sayyid”;

“sadat”, which in Swahili, with its emphasis on open syllables, becomes “sedate”, hence the name

would imply “the Qadiriyya of the Masters”.

52. A.P. de Carvalho, “Notas para a Historia”, op. cit., p. 63ff.; B.B. Joao, Abdul Kamal-Megama (1892–

1966): “Pouvoir et religion dans un district de Nord-Mozambique” [Power and religion in a northern

Mozambiquan district], Islam et Societes au sud du Sahara [Islam and Societies South of the Sahara],

Vol. 4, 1990, p. 139ff.

53. Zawiya originally referred to the corner of a building, a small mosque, a prayer room. It then came to

refer to a building or group of buildings of a religious nature. Alpers, referring to the case of Mtumwa

bt. Ali b. Yusufu of Nkhotakota, has suggested that women played a more important role in the spread

of Islam through the turuq. E.A. Alpers, “East Central Africa”, op. cit., p. 313.

54. A.P. de Carvalho, “Notas para a Historia”, op. cit., p. 60ff.; cf. A.P. Caplan, Choice and Constraint in a

Swahili Community: Property, Hierarchy, and Cognatic Descent on the East African Coast, London: OUP,

1975, p. 94ff.

55. Malaıa would seem to indicate that the long white gown, known in Swahili as kanzu, originated

among the Malay. Cabaia is the Portuguese word for a Turkish tunic. Cofio refers to the embroidered

cap known in Swahili as kofia.

56. A. Ennes, Mocambique: Relatorio apresentado ao governo [Mozambique: Report presented to the

government], Lisboa: Sociedade de Geografia de Lisboa, 1913, p. 516.

57. Ibid., p. 517.

58. J.J. Goncalves, “Influencia arabo-islamica em Mocambique”, op. cit., p. 274, quotes A. de Souza

Franklin, A ameaca islamica na Guine Portuguesa [Regarding the Islamic threat in Portuguese

Guinea], who estimated the Muslim population to have been approximately 66,000 in 1956. J. de

Garcia Domingues, Influencia Arabo-Islamica no Ultramar [The Arab-Islamic Influence in our Over-

seas territories] (Estudos Ultramarinos. Revista do Instituto Superior de estudos Ultramarinos,

Vol. 5, Nos. 1–3, 1955, p. 268) estimated around 60,000 Muslims in 1955. The general census of

1950 gave the figure of 598,767 Muslims, while A. da Silva Rego, Curso de Missionologia (Lisboa:

488 S. Von Sicard


Centro de Estudos Polıticos e Sociais, 1946, as quoted in J.J. Goncalves, “Influencia arabo-islamica

em Mocambique”, op. cit.), estimated half a million in 1956. The January/February issue of Portugal

in Africa (Catolicismo no Ultramar Portugues, Vol. 13, No. 73, pp. 51–62, as quoted in J.J. Goncalves,

“Influencia arabo-islamica em Mocambique”, op. cit.), calculated that there were half a million

Muslims in the diocese of Nampula. O Missionario Catolico [The Catholic Missionary] (2nd Series,

Vol. 32, No. 31, July 1956), in an article entitled “Maometanos em Mocambique”, quoted from a

Fides report which referred to 563,000 Muslims in the diocese of Nampula. The Review of the

African Clergy (Lorenco Marques, 1965, p. 258ff.) estimated over 100,000 in the Dioceses of

Lorenco Marques, Beira and Quelimane (p. 258ff.). A.F.J. Peirone, “Importancia do Estudo da

Lingua e da Cultura Arabe para a Missionacaao dos Indigenas Islamizados de Mocambique” [The

importance of study of the Arabic language and culture for missionary work among the islamized

indegenes of Mozambique], Garcia de Orta, Vol. 3, No. 4, 1956, pp. 371–381, gives the number

as 700,000, in comparison with L. Massignon’s and Pellegrin’s estimates, which he quotes as

60,000 and 80,000 respectively; M. Brelvi, Islam in Africa, Lahore: Institute of Islamic Culture,

1964, pp. 539–543, gives the figure as 7%.

59. E. Mondlane, The Struggle for Mozambique, Hamondsworth: Penguin Books Ltd., 1969, p. 39. In

1967, it was estimated that there were 900,000 Muslims in the coastal zones of Cabo Delgado,

Mozambique and Zambezia. See T.H. Henriksen, Mozambique. A History, London: Rex Collings,

1978, p. 22, quoting A.B. Herrick, et al., Area Handbook for Mozambique, Washington, DC: US

State Department, 1969, p. 110.

60. The 1970 census gives the figure of 8,168,933 for the total population. J. Murray, ed., Cultural Atlas of

Africa, Oxford: Phaidon Press, 1981, p. 199. See R. Ammah, “New Light on Muslim Statistics for

Africa”, Bulletin on Islam and Christian-Muslim Relations in Africa, Vol. 2, No. 1, January 1984,

p. 18, gives the figure of 1,384,750, representing 13% of the total population of 10,375,000. The

Islamic Forum for Africa map and calendar for 2001 gives the figure as 29%, with 5,184,599

Muslims in a population of 17,877,927.

61. J.J. Goncalves, “Influencia arabo-islamica em Mocambique”, op. cit., p. 276.

62. Ibid., p. 281ff.

63. Ibid., p. 277, quoting G. Cota, Projecto Definitivo do Estatuto do Direito Privado dos Indigenes da Colonia

de Mocambique [A definitive project regarding the statutes of the civil law of the indigenes of the

Mozambique colony], Lorenco Marques: no publisher, 1946. See also p. 280.

64. J.J. Goncalves, “Influencia arabo-islamica em Mocambique”, op. cit., p. 277.

65. Referred to by E.A. Alpers, “East Central Africa”, op. cit., p. 314, referring to Departamento de His-

toria, 1993, p. 49, in Archivo Historico de Mocambique [Historical Archives of Mozambique], Maputo:

Fundo Governo Geral, Caixa 2450, Vol. 1, p. 56ff.

66. Ibid.

67. E.A. Alpers, “East Central Africa”, op. cit., referring to A.M. Pedro, “Influencias politico-sociais do

Islamismo em Mocambique (Relatorio Confidential)” [Islamic politico-social influences in Mozam-

bique (Confidential Report), Typescript dated 31 May 1961; Anonymous, “Islam in Mozambique

(East Africa)]”, Islamic Literature, Vol. 15, No. 9, 1969, p. 50.

68. E. Mondlane, The Struggle for Mozambique, op. cit., p. 106. A. & B. Isaacman, Mozambique. From colo-

nialism to revolution, op. cit., p. 73. See also M.D.D. Newitt, A History of Mozambique, London: Hurst,

1981, p. 131 and Branquinho, Prospeccao [Prospectives], pp. 56, 81, 108, as quoted by E. Mondlane,

The Struggle for Mozambique, op. cit.

69. F.A. Monteiro, “As communidades islamicas em Mocambique”, op. cit., pp. 80ff., 84ff.; F.A. Mon-

teiro, “Sobre a actuacao da corente ‘Wahhabita’ no Islao Mocambicana: Algumas notas relativas ao

perıodo 1964–1974” [On the activity of the Wahhabi movement in Mozambiquan Islam: Some notes

pertaining to the period 1964–1974], Africana (Porto), Vol. 12, 1993, pp. 85–111; O Islao, o poder, e

a guerra (Mocambique 1964–1974) [Islam, Power and the War. (Mozambique 1964–1974)], Porto:

Universidade Portucalense, 1993; E.A. Alpers, “Islam in the service of Colonialism? Portuguese

strategy during the Armed Liberation Struggle in Mozambique”, Lusotopie: Enjeux contemporains

dans les espaces lusophones [Lusotopie: Contemporary risks in lusophone areas], Paris: Karthala,

1999, pp. 165–184.

70. A.S. Farsy, The Shafıi Ulama of East Africa, ca. 1830–1970. A Hagiographic Account, Translated,

edited & annotated by R.L. Pouwels, Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin, 1989, pp. 99–102.

71. F.A. Monteiro, “As communidades islamicas em Mocambique”, op. cit., p. 83.

72. E. Mondlane, The Struggle for Mozambique, op. cit., pp. 120, 129.

73. Ibid., pp. 128, 197ff.



74. Ibid., pp. 130f.

75. Ibid., pp. 175ff.

76. “Bush” refers to “rural areas”, commonly used in East and South Africa, e.g. bush station, bush

school, etc.

77. Ibid., pp. 54, 67; 2000 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom: Mozambique, available online

at: ,www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/irf/irf_rpt/irf_mozambique.html., 01.02.01, p. 3;

According to the 1997 census, Indians represented 0.08% of the population. See online

,www.odci.gov/cia/publications/factbook/mz.htm.. “Indians in Mozambique”, Africa Today,

Vol. 10, February 1963, pp. 12–13.

78. J. Hanlon, Mozambique. Who calls the shots, London: J. Currey, 1991, p. 12.

79. F. Constantin, “Mozambique: Du colonialisme catholique a l’etat marxiste” [Mozambique: From

Catholique Colonialism to Marxist State], Les communautes musulmanes d’Afrique oriental (Pau)

[Muslim communities in East Africa (Pau)], No. 1, 1983, p. 89ff.; Anonymous, “Islam in Mozambi-

que (East Africa)”, op. cit.

80. M. Hall & T. Young, Confronting Leviathan. Mozambique since independence, London: Hurst & Co.,

1997, p. 86ff. See also R. Ammah, “New Light on Muslim Statistics”, op. cit., p. 18.

81. “Une-nos o amor a patria: Presidente Samora Machel aos dirigentes religiosos” [Love of the father-

land unites us: President Samoral Machel to religious leaders], Tempo (Maputo), No. 637, December

26, 1982, pp. 24–29; F. Constantin, “Mozambique: Du colonialisme catholique a l’etat marxiste”,

op. cit., p. 93.

82. M. Hall & T. Young, Confronting Leviathan, op. cit., p. 177.

83. Quoted in ibid., p. 201.

84. Ibid., pp. 200f.

85. Quoted in ibid., p. 212.

86. 2000 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom: Mozambique, available online at: www.state.

gov/www/global/human_rights/irf/irf_rpt/irf_mozambique.html, p.1.

87. Ibid., p. 2.

88. Ibid., p. 2.

89. See online: ,www.mozambique.mz/governo/eleicoes/deputa.htm.; According to Impact Inter-

national, Vol. 29, No. 11, November 1999, pp. 30–31, there were fifty-nine Muslim deputies in

the previous government.

90. Ibid., pp. 30–31; see online at: ,www.mozambique.mz/governo/eleicoes/finais.htm. 01.02.01;

2000 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom: Mozambique, available online at:

,www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/irf/irf_rpt/irf_mozambique.html., p. 3.

91. S. Siefert, “Muslime in Mosambik—Versuch einer Bestandsaufnahme” [Muslims in Mozambique—

Attempt at stocktaking], Bielefeld: Universitat Bielefeld Forschungsprogramm Entwicklungspolitik,

No. 36, 1994.

92. See online: ,www.paginaislamica.8m.com/communida.htm.

93. The statistics show that in 1996, there were 216 pilgrims; in 1997, 154; in 1998, 200; in 1999, 309;

and in 2000, 187 (Foundation of Pilgrimage for non–Arabic African Countries, Mecca). The lower

numbers seem to coincide with periods of tension or natural disasters.

94. 2000 Annual Report on International Religious Freedom: Mozambique, available online at:

,www.state.gov/www/global/human_rights/irf/irf_rpt/irf_mozambique.html., p. 2.

95. Ibid., p. 3.

490 S. Von Sicard
