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Publication year
Muslims of northern Mozambique and the liberation movements
Resource type
Author/contributor
- Bonate, Liazzat J. K. (Author)
Title
Muslims of northern Mozambique and the liberation movements
Abstract
Despite the fact that the liberation war occurred in northern Mozambique, where a considerable number of Muslims lived, their contribution to the independence struggle has been little studied. This paper focusses on their participation in two nationalist liberation movements, Mozambican African National Union (MANU) and Frente de Libertação de Moçambique (FRELIMO), and demonstrates that the prevailing idea in scholarship about Muslims’ aloofness from the liberation struggle is unjustified. It argues that Muslim support and participation in the liberation movements stemmed primarily from grassroots African nationalism. Like most Africans, Muslims wished to end colonialism and recover their land from the Portuguese. African Muslims of northern Mozambique were well suited to support these movements, because Islam and chieftainship were linked to each other. Chiefs were believed to be the ‘owners’ and ‘stewards’ of the land, and a majority of Muslim leaders, whether traditional chiefs (régulos, in Portuguese) or Sufi leaders (tariqa khulafa’, in Arabic), were from the chiefly clans. Most importantly, Muslims of northern Mozambique had close historical and cultural ties to Tanganyika and Zanzibar, especially through Islamic and kinship networks. The involvement of Muslims in the liberation movements of those regions, in particular in Tanganyika African National Union (TANU), inspired and encouraged the Muslims of northern Mozambique to support MANU and FRELIMO, especially since these two movements were launched in Tanganyika and Zanzibar with TANU backing and the participation of Muslim immigrants from northern Mozambique.
Publication
Social Dynamics
Volume
35
Issue
2
Pages
280-294
Date
September 1, 2009
ISSN
0253-3952
Accessed
11/03/2021, 11:36
Library Catalogue
Taylor and Francis+NEJM
Extra
Publisher: Routledge
_eprint: https://doi.org/10.1080/02533950903076378
Citation
Bonate, L. J. K. (2009). Muslims of northern Mozambique and the liberation movements. Social Dynamics, 35(2), 280–294. https://doi.org/10.1080/02533950903076378
Themes / Temas
Geography / Geografia
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