Muslim Religious Leadership in Post-Colonial Mozambique

Abstract

Based on archival and fieldwork research, this paper outlines in its first part the history of the formation of various types of Muslim religious leaderships during pre-colonial and colonial periods. Islam in Mozambique, especially in the northern part of the country, existed among Africans long before the arrival of the Portuguese in the fifteenth and sixteenth centuries. It was linked to the World of Swahili, i.e. the East African coast and the Comoros, from the time of its formation. However, European colonial expansion drove the immigration of Indian Muslims from the Portuguese territories of Gujarat, India and later from British East Africa. How the resulting social, ideological, and racial differences among this leadership have been reflected and played out in relation to the state, the competing Muslim religious groups, and the international Islamic organisations in the post-colonial Mozambique, is the focus of the second part of this article.

Full text

Muslim Religious Leadership in Post-Colonial Mozambique
LIAZZAT J. K. BONATE
Eduardo Mondlane University, Maputo
South African Historical Journal 60 (4) 2008
ISSN: Print 0258-2473/Online 1726-1686
DOI: © Unisa Press pp. 637-654
637
Abstract
         
            
       


  
           


         
     



Keywords: 
Introduction






 
        



   indigenato 

     assimilado    
 

638 LIAZZAT J. K. BONATE

               

  

   
         

Muslim Leadership in Colonial Mozambique


           


    
1

  

Maca  Makua and Lomwe




2

apia-mwene
apiamwene     
  nihimo      

the mahumu   humu   
m’kulukwana
      mwalimu and sharifu 
    
  
Lusotopie
 
Slave Routes and Oral Tradition in Southeastern Africa

 Law, Custom and Social Order: The Colonial Experience in Malawi and Zambia 
Peasant Intellectuals: Anthropology and History in Tanzania

 

  

         kitabu    
Qur’an


those classes.

tariqa turuq t/dikiri   
      3
       

silsila ijaza
  shaykhs. These shaykhs  
            
    
  

          
turuq 

turuq

      
      


  
 




            

       

indigenato,
          
            
 Arquivo

 

640 LIAZZAT J. K. BONATE
4
    
      
          
 shaykhs      


          
    



Wahhabis.
 
called sukutis
dhikr     turuq     
        
Deobandis
        
India.5Deobandis

Wahhabis,     Ahl al-Sunna
SunnaWahhabi

   khalifa         
6

              dhikr
 
            


 



O Islão, o Poder, e a Guerra: Moçambique 1964–74 (Porto: Universidade

   

  

         

 

 641
   7   


Deobandis
             

 Shari’a8 He
Wahhabis tariqa
  Deobandis and
sukutis.
           
      10   
Wahhabism  

 
Qur’an and
the HadithShari’a
11
mawlid, ziyara
dhikr 
hiriz 
shirk
bid’a
kufr


12            
7. Ibid
 O Islão, o Poder, e a Guerra
  Lusotopie   

Cahiers d’études Africaines
      
          

 O Islão, o poder, e a guerra
 African Islam and Islam in Africa:
Encounters Between Sus and Islamists         
Muslim Politics 
 Muslim Identity and Social Changes
in Sub-Saharan AfricaMuslim
Politics
   

    
RFHOM, 
 

642 LIAZZAT J. K. BONATE
13




          
 14 en masse

      

Barelwis (alleged
shaykh
sponsored ziyaraturuq
their madrasas.15

       ziyara processions in




 madrasa           
16 
17


18

        association stopped

 
 
 




 



             

 

 

 643
 and the Indian-
Wahhabi

Muslim Leadership and the Post-Independence State in 1975–1983
          


      

20
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



   hajj     
         

        Id     



 
  




 





   Grupos Dinamizadores
  


 Kupilikula: Governance and the Invisible Realm in Mozambique

 

644 LIAZZAT J. K. BONATE
21
 
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   
        22 In order to

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murid
  








      
colonial period. The Wahhabi  
         
23



Wahhabis
      

            

 24

       
           
 murid
 

 
The Shade of New Leaves: Governance in Traditional Authority
Indigenato
African Affairs
 

 Anuaril Isslamo

 

 645


   
umma       
  25   


        
   

             
hajj

  
26

   
  imams     
27 The Wahhabis
        


Wahhabis


The Wahhabis
     Wahhabis   

  

shaykhs residing
Wahhabis in

tariqa-


, 
   
Muslim Identity and Social Changes
 

 
L’Afrique
Politique
 

646 LIAZZAT J. K. BONATE
guias
de marcha       


 


ulamaalim,
   
            
madrasa

          
        

           




ulama28
        

Internal Muslim Competition, the State and the Islamic NGOs (1983–2000)





           


hajj30
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 647
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            
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            
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             
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32

   
  
              

          
            
           
 

 hajj  

             
 
Wahhabis

ziyara and dhikr
    




   Miraj and Sha’aban
 
 
 

648 LIAZZAT J. K. BONATE
fard 33


           
ziyaramawlidhiriz
   



      
           
  

34
            
       
ulama
35

madrasas
        
private madrasas   shaykhs   shaykh     
madrasas 
madrasas


 
tariqa 

  madrasa  
 
sukutis

          
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             
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



The Return of the Graduates
      

            

    









         


         


  Id
ulama

 

650 LIAZZAT J. K. BONATE
     
  
     madrasas      




     










The ‘Traditional’ Muslim Intellectuals of Northern Mozambique

  


 
Wahhabis


         
            
           

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
    
    



       
             

 

 651
        
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
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             

         
    36     
    
      37    
             

         
38


             
 In this

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           
         
 shaykhs

            
              
dhikr 

  
          

    Controlling Knowledge: Religion, Power and Schooling in a West African Society

 Peasant Intellectuals, 20.
 Controlling KnowledgePutting Islam to Work: Education, Politics, and Religious
Transformation in Egypt 

 Controlling Knowledge
 Putting Islam to WorkMuslim Politics, 
 

652 LIAZZAT J. K. BONATE
  
khalifas  



       







            

     
          
            

          
khalifas 
tariqa

madrasas 
    madrasas  

khalifasturuq


Conclusion


     

Wahhabis, or


                





 

 653
            

          hajj    
             
versus  divide.


   
         


 

References
             
Lusotopie

Lusotopie
Shirazi into Monhé  
     
Slave Routes and Oral Tradition in Southeastern Africa

Le Fait Missionnaire
 Journal of Religion in Africa

Muslim Identity and Social Change
in Sub-Saharan Africa 
 Controlling Knowledge: Religion, Power and Schooling in a West African Muslim Society


Cahiers d’études africaines
Law, Custom and Social Order: The Colonial Experience in Malawi and Zambia


     Muslim Identity and Social Changes in Sub-Saharan Africa

Muslim Politics
  Peasant Intellectuals:Anthropology and History in Tanzania   

           

        
              
RFHOM,
 

654 LIAZZAT J. K. BONATE
    
The Shade of New Leaves: Governance in Traditional Authority

O Islão, o Poder, e a Guerra: Moçambique 1964–74


 Journal of Southern African Studies

L’Afrique Politique
    Indigenato 
African Affairs
African Islam and Islam in Africa: Encounters Between Sus and
Islamist.
Putting Islam to Work: Education, Politics, and Religious Transformation in Egypt.

Kupilikula: Governance and the Invisible Realm in Mozambique

 