Spying on Muslims in Colonial Mozambique, 1964-74

(Hardback)

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Revealing Portugals counterinsurgent spying on Muslims during Mozambiques liberation struggle, this book uses archival and field work to study Muslim responses to counterinsurgency and armed nationalism that led to Mozambiques freedom from colonial rule. Paying particular attention to the intricate set of realities Muslims faced during the colonial war, and their responses to Portuguese efforts to woo them against armed nationalism, Arajo shows how some elements of the Muslim community supported Portuguese counterinsurgency, while others defied it. Exploring complex interconnections between Muslim culture, Portuguese intelligence-gathering practices, and colonial and nationalist propaganda, Spying on Muslims in Colonial Mozambique brings a novel insight to the study of colonial counterinsurgency. Drawing scholarly attention to view this period of Portuguese colonisation as a matrix of lived realities pushing and pulling Muslim communities in opposite directions, this study enhances our understanding of colonial security strategies in Mozambique during the liberation war and their legacies in the post-colonial era.

Author Bio

Sandra Arajo is Associate Researcher at the Institute of Social Sciences of the University of Lisbon, Portugal. Her post-doctoral work focuses on the role of Portuguese intelligence during the liberation wars.