Matriliny, Islam and Gender in Northern Mozambique

Abstract

Using gender as the major line of difference, the paper examines the diversity within Islam in northern Mozambique, in which, despite strong historical ties to the Swahili world and waves of Islamic expansion, as well as attempts to establish and police an Islamic 'orthodoxy', matriliny continues to be one of the main cultural features. Concentrating on two coastal regions, Mozambique Island and Angoche, and on three urban zones of the modern provincial capital, Nampula City, the paper addresses the reasons for the endurance of matriliny, through historical processes that brought about different currents of Islam, and discusses the ways in which the colonial and post-colonial state, while attempting to control the often conflicting Islamic and African 'traditional' authorities, have contributed to the perpetuation of this conflict as well as to the endurance of matriliny.

Modernity and Matrifocality: The Feminization of Kinship?

“…the Akan and Ashanti in West Africa, the Yao in Malawi, the Bemba in Zambia, Nayars in India and Minangkibau of West Sumatra). In a number of settings, matriliny rather unexpectedly coexists with generally patriarchal social relations, for example the Islamic Tuareg (Rasmussen, ) where matriliny is very ancient, and more recently in Muslim communities of northern Mozambique (Bonate, ).…”

“…See, for example, Bonate (: 152) for northern Mozambique where community courts resolve inheritance disputes in favour of children over matrikin.…”

Politics, religion and human flourishing in Mozambique

“…It was in this context that a group of Muslims created the Islamic Congress in 1983. 31 In 1992, the government through the Ministry of Health and Ministry of Culture, sponsored the creation of the Mozambican Association of Traditional Doctors, 32 paving the way for an open participation of African religions on human flourishing programmes. In the same year, Frelimo lifted the ban on traditional healing.…”

“…In the same year, Frelimo lifted the ban on traditional healing. 33 Frelimo regulation of religious activities shows the importance of religion in human flourishing. As Fox has observed, "when governments restrict and regulate the state's dominant religion, it is often an acknowledgment of the continuing importance of religion in the public sphere".…”

Corpos de violência, linguagens de resistência: As complexas teias de conhecimentos no Moçambique contemporâneo1

“…Na região, as filiações religiosas dos Amakhuwa configuram-se de forma bastante clara: se um makhuwa é cristão ou muçulmano, poderá ser previsto com um grau elevado de precisão com base na sua residência familiar, actual ou histórica, e pela influência dos processos de missionação: a oeste e a sul de Nampula são predominantemente católicos. Os muçulmanos estão em toda a província, mas são a maioria na região litoral (Bonate, 2006). As outras igrejas têm tido, até aos últimos anos, menor influência.…”