Historical Connections and Resistance Strategies in XIXth c. and Early XXth c.in Northern Mozambique

Abstract

This study attempts to unravel the relations established among several social players when a "resistance alliance" was organized by chiefs from Angoche, Sangage, Sancul and Quitangonha and the macua-imbamella and namarrais groups in the face of Portuguese government interference that resulted in a series of actions such as firearms, ammunition and warriors exchange and simultaneous attacks to administrative posts and Portuguese military in northern Mozambique (Nampula Province) at the turn of the XIX th century 1 .The term "resistance alliance" is frequently found in source documents used in research for this project and it will be used in this paper with the same meaning, that is, to describe the relationship established among main political representatives in the region that confronted Portuguese colonial political mechanism at the turn of the XIX th century. The set of sources used for research includes letters, minutes, reports, travel journeys and memoires from different archives and libraries in São Paulo, Rio de Janeiro, Lisbon, Paris and Maputo. In this sense, letters from northern Mozambique sultans and chiefs at the Mozambique Historical Archive are worth mentioning due to the richness of details and the intimacy with facts that deal with the daily life aspects of these relationships 2 .There are few historiographical papers on the history of northern Mozambique societies and more specifically, on the makeup of the "resistance alliance" at the turn of the XIX th century (