The vague title of this book fails to indicate that the subject is Mozambican Islam in late colonial and post-colonial times. The topic is of crucial relevance to the future of Mozambique, for a large and growing proportion of the population is Muslim, especially in the north, with Nampula as its centre. Islam was generally neglected in the colonial period, except at its very end, and was a taboo subject for much of the time that Samora Machel was in power. However, a growing volume of work o..

Clarence-Smith, William Gervase

OpenEdition

 
Lusotopie
Recherches politiques internationales sur les espaces
issus de l’histoire et de la colonisation portugaises 
XVI(2) | 2009
Afrobrésiliennité ? Luso-afrobrésiliennité ?
Lorenzo MACAGNO, Outros muçulmanos. Islão e
narrativas coloniais
Lisbon, Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, 2006, 254 pages
William Gervase Clarence-Smith
Electronic version
URL: http://journals.openedition.org/lusotopie/197
ISSN: 1768-3084
Publisher:
Association des rechercheurs de la revue Lusotopie, Brill, Karthala
Printed version
Date of publication: 1 June 2009
Number of pages: 206-262
ISSN: 1257-0273
 
Electronic reference
William Gervase Clarence-Smith, « Lorenzo MACAGNO, Outros muçulmanos. Islão e narrativas coloniais
 », Lusotopie [Online], XVI(2) | 2009, Online since 08 October 2015, connection on 21 April 2019. URL :
http://journals.openedition.org/lusotopie/197 
This text was automatically generated on 21 April 2019.
Tous droits réservés
Lorenzo MACAGNO, Outros
muçulmanos. Islão e narrativas
coloniais
Lisbon, Imprensa de Ciências Sociais, 2006, 254 pages
William Gervase Clarence-Smith
REFERENCES
Lorenzo MACAGNO, Outros muçulmanos. Islão e narrativas coloniais, Lisbon, Imprensa de
Ciências Sociais, 2006, 254 pages, illustr., bibl., ISBN 972-671-182-7.
1 The vague title of this book fails to indicate that the subject is Mozambican Islam in late
colonial  and  post-colonial  times.  The  topic  is  of  crucial  relevance  to  the  future  of
Mozambique, for a large and growing proportion of the population is Muslim, especially
in the north, with Nampula as its centre. Islam was generally neglected in the colonial
period, except at its very end, and was a taboo subject for much of the time that Samora
Machel was in power. However, a growing volume of work on Mozambican Islam is at last
appearing in print, not least in the Lusotopie special issue of 2007.
2 Lorenzo Macagno has written a work that is more anthropology than history. There are
many useful  indications as  to  Islam’s  colonial  past,  but  the chronological  framework
weaves backwards and forwards disconcertingly,  and the focus is  on the twenty-first
century.  That said,  the author has made some interesting use of  archives,  as well  as
secondary sources and oral interviews. He also provides helpful black-and-white photos,
some of them showing text in Arabic script.
3 The central thrust of Macagno’s work consists in presenting the struggle between “Sufi”
and “Wahhabi” forms of Islam as roughly mirroring the transition from colonialism to
independence,  even  if  these  general  labels  should  be  treated  with  great  care.  The
Portuguese mainly backed Sufi brotherhoods in their last decade in power, although they
failed to co-opt the Rifa’i order, for reasons that remain unclear. The brotherhoods in
Lorenzo MACAGNO, Outros muçulmanos. Islão e narrativas coloniais
Lusotopie, XVI(2) | 2009
1
turn  manipulated  the  Portuguese  by  labeling  reformers  as  anti-colonial.  As  long  as
Samora  Machel  stuck  to  his  anti-religious  rhetoric  after  independence,  both  sides
suffered, but the relaxation of Frelimo’s religious policies tended to favour the Wahhabi,
who denounced brotherhoods as collaborators with colonial rule. The change in Frelimo’s
stance was hastened by the spread of Renamo’s guerrilla operations, although Macagno
correctly  points  out  that  Renamo was not  so much pro-Muslim as  adept  at  painting
Frelimo as anti-Muslim. An attempt to unite Mozambican Islam in 1982 failed, and two
major associations persisted. The Conselho Islâmico was reformist and broadly aligned with
Sa‘udi Arabia, whereas the Congresso Islâmico tolerated Sufism and was oriented towards
Pakistan. This seems, in part, to have reflected sources of funding, the Conselho receiving
aid  from  Sa’udi  Arabia,  and  the  Congresso financed  by  the  South  Asian  business
community.
4 Macagno’s treatment of Sufism is full of rich ethnographic detail, especially in the case
studies presented in chapters 4 and 5, but his generalizations pose problems. He claims
that Sufi orders were only introduced into northern Mozambique in the late nineteenth
century,  whereas  it  would  probably  be  more  accurate  to  say  that  Sufi  orders  were
revitalized at that time, notably the ancient Qadiri and Shadhili brotherhoods. He also
portrays the orders as traditionalist,  and thus viscerally opposed to modern reforms,
whereas  the  reality  was  more  complicated.  The  Rifa’i  order,  taking  centre  stage  in
chapter 5, is certainly not typical of the rich and varied tapestry that is mystical Islam.
5 Material on the Wahhabi strand of Islam is less ethnographically informed in this study,
and the presentation of generalizations is marred by certain problems. The origins and
genealogy of Wahhabi ideas are not discussed, and the author does not grapple effectively
with the immense problems involved in applying the label “Wahhabi” to various kinds of
fundamentalists, or simply reformists. The condemnation of angels, genies, “saints”, and
descendants of the Prophet as intermediaries between God and humans could be accepted
by many strands of Islam.
6 Moreover, the author’s approach excludes other currents of Mozambique’s Islam, notably
modernism and Shafi‘i loyalism, and this is related to another major omission, that of the
Hadhrami Arab factor. Despite citing a clutch of authors who have detailed the enormous
significance of Hadhrami sayyid families in the Islam of eastern Africa, Macagno seems
unaware of the long and complex influence of these people, who spear-headed moderate
forms of reformism. They have long dominated the Shafi’i school of law, and have also
acted through their own austere Sufi order, the Tariqa ‘Alawiyya. Usually based in the
Comoro  Islands,  these  Hadhrami  sayyid clans  descend  from the  Prophet  through  al-
Husayn, although they are often given the title of sharif in eastern Africa, technically
reserved for descendants of al-Hasan. Many recognizably Hadhrami individuals feature in
Macagno’s story, and he also notes the importance of the Comoro Islands in providing the
most reputed Islamic education in the region. However, he ignores the background in
Hadhramaut  (Yemen),  even  failing  to  provide  family  names.  This  is  particularly
unfortunate  in  his  otherwise  fascinating  account  of  how  one  Hadhrami  family  took
control of the Qadiri brotherhood in Mozambique.
7 Similarly, too little is said about the non-Shafi’i and non-Sunni origins of most South
Asian Muslims, who have been particularly important in financing Islamic activities in
eastern Africa. In discussing the 1906 split between Indian and African Muslims, Macagno
does not mention that Sunni Indian Muslims were generally of the Hanafi School of law.
This again needs to be considered in the question of the “Asian” mosque in Maputo in the
Lorenzo MACAGNO, Outros muçulmanos. Islão e narrativas coloniais
Lusotopie, XVI(2) | 2009
2
1960s. As for the sects, also mainly South Asian in origin and membership, he mentions in
a footnote that one of the five Islamic associations in Nampula in 2000 was Ithna ‘Ashari,
that is Twelver Shi’i. However, he does not go into detail, and he fails to explain why
there was none for the Khoja (the Nizari Isma’ili led by the Agha Khan), or the Bohora
(the Must’ali Isma’ili). This lack of sensitivity to non-Sunni Islam is compounded by not
mentioning that the sultan of Zanzibar belonged to the Ibadhi sect.
8 Macagno makes other points of interest, generally drawn from the pioneering work of
Edward Alpers for the colonial era, although he tends to wander away from his central
focus on Islam when discussing Portuguese colonialism and Frelimo. He notes that the
semi-official colonial category of evoluido suited polygynous Muslims with an education
largely in Arabic and Swahili, and that many opted for a bilhete de identidade after the
Portuguese reforms of the early 1960s. The switch in Portuguese attitudes to favouring
Muslims during the liberation war is noted, as well as the part played by Fernando Amaro
Monteiro in this process. Macagno also stresses the patrilineal attractions of Islam for
men in matrilineal societies, which predominate in northern Mozambique.
9 The presentation of the text is rather poor. The footnotes are gargantuan, containing far
too much substantive text.  Indeed,  many interesting observations are buried deep in
footnotes. Archival citations are at times misleading, leaving it unclear whether a source
has been published. The transliteration of Arabic terms does not follow the rules of the
Encyclopaedia of Islam, or any other standard format, to the point that it is sometimes quite
difficult to grasp what certain names and expressions refer to. To give but one example,
the famous Sayyid ‘Umar bin Sumayt, mufti of the Comoro Islands, appears as Saide Omar
Bem Simede.
10 Despite these various blemishes, this is a useful book. The ethnographic case studies will
stand  in  their  own  right  as  sources  for  future  historians  and  social  scientists.  The
interpretative framework will undoubtedly give rise to much controversy, and indeed
polemic, but this has the advantage of stimulating further studies on the neglected topic
of Mozambican Islam.
September 2009
Lorenzo MACAGNO, Outros muçulmanos. Islão e narrativas coloniais
Lusotopie, XVI(2) | 2009
3


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