Matriliny, Islam and Gender in Northern Mozambique

JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 139 MATRILINY, ISLAM AND GENDER IN NORTHERN MOZAMBIQUE1 by LIAZZAT J.K. BONATE (Eduardo Mondlane University and University of Cape Town) 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. Introduction Northern Mozambican Muslims represent a paradox with respect to Islam and gender. While Muslim culture here was historically linked to the Swahili world, matriliny continues to be one of its main features. This paper addresses the persistence 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. Based on fieldwork in Angoche and Mozambique Island, and in three sub-locations of Nampula City, namely NamicopoNametequiliua, Carrupeia and Muhalla, the paper focuses on African Sunni Muslims.2 This paper shows that in a relatively small area, like northern Mozambique, Islam is a complex discursive field with different currents © Koninklijke Brill NV, Leiden, 2006 Also available on line – www.brill.nl Journal of Religion in Africa, 36.2 JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 140 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 140 Liazzat J.K. Bonate resulting from historical waves of Islamic expansion and attempts to establish and police an Islamic ‘orthodoxy’. Islam in Mozambique revolves around the politics of ‘sacred authority’, and ‘competition and contest over interpretation of the symbols and control of the institutions’ (Eickelman and Piscatori 1996: 5; 46-80). During the fieldwork, three main competing groups could be discerned: so called ‘African Islam’; Sufi Orders (t/dikiri in local vernacular; Ar., sing., tariqa, and pl. turuq); and the Islamists, known as the Wahhabi in Mozambique. Each of them represents a historical layer of Islamic expansion and reform, and a way of defining ‘orthodoxy’ and of approaching gender. The subject of matriliny, Islam and gender in Mozambique has received little scholarly attention. Some limited contemporary information is to be found in the reports on gender, for example that by Casas, da Silva et al. (1998), and reports for WLSA (Women and Law in Southern Africa Research Project) by Casimiro, Andrade et al. (1992; 1994; 1997, etc.; see also Francisco 1988: 8-9; Medeiros 1985: 24-25). These studies seldom acknowledge women’s access to power, even among those living in the context dominated by matriliny, as in northern Mozambique. ‘The fact that society was organized on a matrilineal basis’, maintain Casas, da Silva et al. (1998: 24) ‘did not imply, however, that it were not the men who held the power.’ As with much Portuguese colonialist writing, contemporary scholarship on Mozambique tends to essentialize Islam and view coastal regions such as Angoche and Mozambique Island as ‘profoundly Islamic’, opposing them to Muslims of the mainland who are described as not ‘true’ Muslims but followers of ‘syncretic’ beliefs (Casas, da Silva et al. 1998: 95; Casimiro, Andrade et al. 1994: 67).3 In a scholarship that conceives of Islam in monolithic orientalist ways, matriliny and Islam are perceived to be mutually exclusive and the conversion to Islam is thought of as inevitably leading to patriliny, virilocality and patriarchy (Casimiro, Andrade et al. 1994: 61-63, 67; Martins 1992: 6). However, as Jean Davison (1997: 39-40, 54-56) points out, Islam’s theoretical predilection for patriliny, virilocal marriage and spatial segregation of genders has not been adopted wholesale in Africa and is not consistent everywhere. In northern Mozambique, Islam and matriliny co-exist and the region itself stands as a good example of the resilience of matriliny ‘despite the odds’ (Peters 1997: 189-211), including those related to Islam. JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 141 Matriliny, Islam and Gender in Northern Mozambique 141 Islam in pre-colonial northern Mozambique Before the nineteenth century, Islam in northern Mozambique was mostly confined to the coastal regions and had distinct Swahili characteristics derived from its association with the Shirazi clans at the coast. The Angoche ruling Shirazi clan of the Anhapakho (pl.; sing., Nhapakho) in particular had enjoyed dominant positions, because they had escaped the Portuguese ravages of the sixteenth century and took over the traditional Swahili trade on the decline of the leading Swahili settlements of Quelimane, Inhambane and Mozambique Island (Newitt, 1972a: 402). As Nimtz (1980: 30, 107-108) and Pouwels (1987: 32-37; 82-83; 91-94) emphasize, the term ‘Shirazi’ on the Kenyan and Tanzanian coasts refers to ‘the founders’, ‘original rulers’ or ‘a core of a relatively ancient descent group’, who identify themselves as the muyini, the ‘lords’ of the lands under the Swahili settlements. The Angoche Shirazi clan of the Anhapakho also claim to be the ‘founders’ and alleged first-comers to the land/territory.4 In this role, the Anhapakho ‘own’ the land and oversee its distribution to the later arrivals to whose allegiance they have special claims through marriage and kinship relations (Lupi, 1907: 145; Amorim, 1911: 115-16; Geffray, 2000: 114-15, 125-42). The latecomers expect to receive a portion of land from the first-comers in return for tribute and loyalty. The first-comers give wives, usually sisters or some other relatives to the important latecomers, who then become their kin. Murphy and Bledsoe (1987: 123-147) note that the idiom of firstcomers based on the dual principle of land (territory) and kinship provides the basic historical reference point in political life of the matrilateral Kpelle. This analysis is equally accurate for the peoples in modern Nampula province, both on the mainland and on the Swahili coast, all of whom are matrilineal. As with the Kpelle, here ‘kinship and territory constitute semantic resources which are put to rhetorical use in the political process’ (Murphy and Bledsoe 1987: 123; Bonate 2003b: 115-43). In this region, people claim matrilineal clanship, mahimo or maloko (pl.; sing., nihimo or nloko in Emakhuwa, lihimo in Ekoti) descending from a common female ancestor symbolically identified as errukulo (‘a womb’) or nipele (‘a breast’) (Amorim 1911: 100-104, 115-16, 145; Lupi 1907: 144-148; Hafkin 1973: 78-80; Geffray 2000: 85-104, 170-78). This is true for Angoche, too, whose Anhapakho group is made up of four major clans (Nhandare, Nhamilala, Nhatide and M’bilinzi), the alleged JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 142 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 142 Liazzat J.K. Bonate descendants of four sons of a mythical woman founder (Lupi 1907: 162-67; Hafkin 1973: 49-50, 204-205; Mello Machado 1970: 391-92). The growing demand for slaves during the rise of the nineteenthcentury international slave trade (slaves for export) offered an exceptional and relatively quick chance to accrue wealth for ports such as Angoche, whose opportunities increased considerably on account of the European anti-slave trade abolitionist movement (Botelho 1936: 157-165; Capela 1993: 23-35; Pélissier 2000, vol. 1: 52, 57-58, 158-60; Bonate 2003b: 115-43; Bonate 2005a).5 By the mid-nineteenth century, however, some of the Anhapakho, under the leadership of Musa Mohammad Sahib Quanto (?-1879), took steps to seize the opportunity of capturing and selling slaves themselves, and, for that purpose, to bring the mainland under the aegis of Angoche (Lupi 1907: 174, 182-198; Amorim 1911: 4-5; Coutinho 1935: 10-31; Botelho 1936: 232-39).6 Following Musa’s operations, Angoche turned into an important destination for slave traders from the interior, and the Anhapakho were able to build up a web of alliances through conquest and kinship relations all over the region that allowed them to raid and access mainlanders for enslavement (Cunha 1885: 46; Neves 1901: 8, 21; Hafkin 1973: 344). Musa’s projects impacted on the ‘ethnic’ and territorial transformations already under way, resulting in the creation of the new paramount chiefdoms, and new ‘ethnic’ identities. The web of these paramount chiefs (the monhé, or the muyini of Muslim faith) and their subordinates made up the bulk of slave raiders, who established limits between themselves (the Maca, Muslims and ‘civilized’) and those to be enslaved (the Makua and Lomwe, derogatory terms, meaning savagery, i.e., ‘non-Muslims’ and ‘uncivilized’), and respective territories (Cunha 1885: 43, 46; Lupi 1907: 70, 106, 178-79; Branquinho 1969: 306; Bonate 2005a). Musa’s conquests, on the one hand, contributed to the greater expansion of Islam.7 On the other hand, they fundamentally altered local perceptions of Islam by allowing the mainland Africans to embrace Islam, who, in the spirit of jihad, were given an option of conversion in order to escape enslavement. Islam became an inclusive and broader faith of all Muslims identified as the Maca, not limited to the Shirazi Swahili clans alone as before. However, because it was primarily extended to the ruling elite, the chiefs of the mainland, whose power and authority, like that of the Swahili, rested above all on the premise that they were lords of the lands (the muyini/mwene/monhé ) descending matrilineally, and on their identity of Muslim rulers, Islam did not alter the matrilineal ideology. The lineages of the chiefs, as the descendants of the first-comers, represented a link between the world JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 143 Matriliny, Islam and Gender in Northern Mozambique 143 of the ancestral spirits left behind and the spirits of the new homeland. They had to appease the spirits of the new land if it was vacant, or expel them together with its previous owners. Through these relations to the spiritual world, the first-comers were responsible for the wellbeing and fertility of the land and its inhabitants that were ensured through appropriate ritual performed by the pia-mwene, the elder uterine sister of the chief, and by the m’kukukwana, the wizards of the chiefly lineages. Among matrilineal people of northern Mozambique, the pia-mwene represented a symbolic link between current children and the spirit of their Great Ancestor Mother (Hafkin 1973: 80, 205; Mbwiliza 1991: 63, 69-71; Geffray 2000: 85-88). As such she presided over important political decisions. Scattering the epepa, the sacred flour of the chiefs’ clan, she asked for answers and guidance from the spirits of ancestors about when to start a war, or how to proceed with criminals. The blessing of the ancestors through her epepa ensured plenty of food and the fertility of women. It was from the epepa ‘that the chief ’s power as guardian of his people and protector against evil spirits was embedded’ (Mbwiliza 1991: 69-71). Because matriliny prevailed and the role of the apia-mwene continued to be crucial, the status of women in northern Mozambican Muslim societies during this time was not challenged to a great degree (Neves 1901: 11; Camizão 1901: 4-5; Lupi 1907: 80, 87, 142-44; Amorim 1911: 102-04, 124-134; Branquinho 1969: 331; Mello Machado 1970: 181-192, 221). Moreover, female Muslim chiefs, such as the ‘queens’ Naguema of the Namarral, Mwana Saiemo of M’tumalapa, Maziza of Meze, to mention only a few, took an active part in and greatly benefited from slave trading networks (Albuquerque 1897: 11, 50, 60; Camizão 1901: 9, 14, 16; Botelho 1936: 497, 500; Elton 1879: 196).8 Colonialism and Islam Notwithstanding the Portuguese political rhetoric of domination, up to the early twentieth century the attempts to consolidate the Portuguese sovereignty in this region were futile. At the turn of the century, the Portuguese conducted systematic and well organized military operations, and were also supported by the metropolitan government, which felt an urge to demonstrate ‘effective occupation’ of its African territories and delineate the borders of its colonies because of the pressure and threat from the British.9 In comparison to other settlements with a Muslim population, Mozambique Island had been in decline since the mid-nineteenth century, JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 144 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 144 Liazzat J.K. Bonate because it was impeded by the abolitionists from taking part in the international slave trade. Its situation was further aggravated when its role as a colonial capital ceased in 1897, when the Portuguese settlement of Lourenço Marques in the south was proclaimed capital of Mozambique. The Island stopped benefiting from international trade because colonial economic interests were redirected towards South African networks. It was into this environment that the Shadhiliyya and the Qadiriyya Sufi Orders had arrived in 1896 and 1905 respectively (Branquinho 1969: 352-353, 358; Carvalho 1988: 59-66). Thus, in Mozambique, as elsewhere, the crisis of power aggravated by economic and social crisis resulted in the emergence of charisma and the new Sufi Orders (Gilsenan 1982: 28-30; Constantin 1988: 67-90). At Mozambique Island, amidst overwhelming chaos, the old Muslim establishment, especially the ‘Moors’, had welcomed and become engaged with the Sufi Orders sooner than other regions of northern Mozambique.10 With the advent of the Orders, the centre of Islam in northern Mozambique began shifting away from the Swahili settlements, in particular Angoche, to the Mozambique Island region,11 with the ‘Moors’ attempting to seize Islamic authority from the hands of the Swahili and Muslim chiefs.12 As in other Swahili and East Central African Muslim societies, the new Sufi Orders challenged the old Islamic authority linked to the chiefly power of the lords of the lands, by establishing the authority of learning, centered on written Islamic sources, and a written ijaza (Ar., a document that situates the Order within a chain of transmission, silsila/isnad, proving the authenticity of the Order and legitimacy of its khalifas). The rituals associated with chiefly Islam and the matrilineal ideology came under attack.13 As in other parts of the Swahili world, the reform took the contours of a ‘dufu war’, a war against drumming in religious rituals.14 The continued competition over Islamic authority between chiefly power and Sufi Orders had the result that, on the one hand, many Muslims from prominent families came to regard chiefly and Islamic authorities as incompatible and, as the case of Abdul Kamal Megama indicates, opted to renounce the Orders’ khalifa-ship on taking up the position of a lineage chief and vice versa ( João 2000: 61-62; Alpers 2000: 313).15 On the other hand, the two Sufi Orders had themselves split into several others as a result of competition between those Sufi shaykhs who allowed ‘pre- Sufi’ practices and those who opposed them (Branquinho 1969: 362). JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 145 Matriliny, Islam and Gender in Northern Mozambique 145 While the Orders challenged the old Islamic authority linked to chiefly power on religious grounds, European colonialism impacted on matriliny and the power of the chiefs remained in place. First, the Portuguese conquests had interrupted internal historical processes that were in motion, the constant fissions and fusions in northern Mozambique at the time of their conquest. As mentioned earlier, northern Mozambique was going through a process of formation of territorial chiefdoms and of new ‘ethnic’ identities in response to the dynamics of the region’s involvement in the international slave trade. By fixing these internal processes in texts and maps, the Portuguese locked in time, so to speak, the ideologies related to these processes. Second, the Portuguese reconstructed and maintained the legitimacy of ‘the traditional chiefs’ throughout the twentieth century, using them to exert colonial control over territorial units and local people (West 1997: 89; West and KloeckJenson 1999: 471, 473-76).16 With this, the colonizers safeguarded a continuity of the ideology of matriliny, the fundamental long dureé discursive reference framework of the northern Mozambican peoples, which, through its idiom of first-comers and the semantics of land and kinship, encompassed both territorial units and ‘ethnic’ identities. Thus, though Portuguese colonialism had little effect on the internal Muslim debates, it was instrumental in maintaining the ideology of matriliny. The Portuguese also allowed for female chiefs to preserve their positions until the end of the colonial era in 1975.17 From the 1970s, Islamists, the graduates of Arabic and Pakistani Islamic universities, began to surface (Monteiro 1993a: 91-95; Monteiro 1993b: 270-71, 413). The first Islamists emerged in southern Mozambique, where, in 1971, Muslims complained to the Portuguese provincial government about Abubacar Hajji Musa Ismael ‘Mangira’, an outspoken graduate of the Shari’a Department of Medina University. The Portuguese colonial government was concerned with Muslims of northern Mozambique, who were very likely to become involved in the liberation movements, because of their historical and cultural ties to neighbouring countries, especially Tanganyika. Between 1968 and 1972, the Portuguese undertook studies to locate the ‘true’ Islamic authority in Mozambique in order to gain its alliance against the liberation movements. The studies identified Sufi Orders and Sufi shaykhs as holding a significant geographical, numeric and religious power (Monteiro 1993a: 94; Monteiro 1993b: 303-311). During the last years of colonialism the Portuguese showed public support to Sufis as opposed to the Islamists, such as Abubacar ‘Mangira’. Nevertheless, Muslim chiefs and Sufi shaykhs played JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 146 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 146 Liazzat J.K. Bonate important roles in establishing contacts with liberation movements in Tanganyika, and in disseminating independence ideology in northern Mozambique (Branquinho 1969). Islamic authority and the post-colonial state Mozambique gained its independence in 1975 under the leadership of Frelimo, which was secularist, and redefined itself as a MarxistLeninist political party by 1977. A short period of religious persecutions and banning of the ‘traditional structures’ followed. However, after two meetings with delegations of the Muslim World League (Rabitat al-Alami al-Islamiyya with headquarters in Saudi Arabia), in 1980 and 1981, Frelimo reconsidered its positions towards Muslims and decided to create a national Muslim organization.18 The Islamic Council was established without the participation of the northerners, in a meeting between the government and a group of Maputo imams in January 1981, who elected Abubacar Ismael ‘Mangira’ as the co-coordinator of the Council, later its first national Secretary (Morier-Genoud 2002: 132-33). While ‘Mangira’ used political means to confront the jahiliyya, Shaykh Aminuddin Mohamad Ibrahimo, another graduate of the Medina University, became a mouthpiece and a theoretician of the new ‘ilm (Ar., religious learning) (Bonate 2005b).19 The government’s acceptance of ‘Mangira’ as a head of a national Islamic organization was perceived as the denial of their Islamic identity by Sufis and ‘traditionalists’, especially in the north. However, in 1982, President Samora Machel, in a meeting with religious representatives, deliberated that the various confessional groups should be grouped into national organizations to be registered with the Department of Religious Affairs of the Ministry of Justice.20 With this official authorization, Muslims in disagreement with Wahhabism created their own national organization in 1983, the Islamic Congress, to which most of the pre-colonial associations and confraternities, including Sufi Orders, became affiliated.21 The Islamic Council denounced confraternities and associations as incompatible with the spirit of Islam, linking them to the colonial power and ‘traditional authority’ as opposed to a ‘true’ and ‘legitimate’ Islamic authority of the ‘ulama with ‘adequate’ religious training.22 It opted to operate through local mosques and provincial and district delegations.23 By 1984, the Council established delegations and sub-delegations in almost all of Nampula province, including Mozambique Island, Angoche, JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 147 Matriliny, Islam and Gender in Northern Mozambique 147 Nampula City, Nacala, Memba, Mogincual, Netia, Monapo and Murrupula.24 The Council also established relationships with the Africa Muslims Agency of Kuwait, Jamiyya al-Da’wa al-Islamiyya of Libya, and alMerkaz of the Sudan, the Islamic Development Bank, and received scholarships to the universities of Al-Azhar and Medina, as well as of Sudan, Libya and Algeria.25 Access to university training through international Islamic NGOs has augmented the ranks of the Islamists. Ironically, even when Congress members accessed scholarships through the World Muslim League or the Africa Muslims Agency, both trying to uphold balanced relationships with the Congress and the Council, the graduates came back as Islamists and frequently joined the Council instead of the Congress. In 1998, 24 members of the Islamic Council in northern Mozambique abandoned the organization and created a new one called Ansar alSunna or Ahl al-Sunna, set up by the younger Islamists.26 Among the reasons for their withdrawal from the Islamic Council is its leaders’ alleged closeness to Frelimo, viewed negatively in Nampula Province, where the following of the opposition party, Renamo, is quite strong. Also, the Ahl al-Sunna members felt discriminated against by the Council’s leadership on religious and racial grounds. First, despite having a sound religious training from Islamic universities, they were allowed to occupy only subordinate and inferior positions both within the structures of the Council itself and in the institutions it controlled, such as mosques and madrassas. Second, the new generation of the ‘ulama was mostly of African origin as opposed to the first generation, such as Shaykh Abubacar ‘Mangira’ and Shaykh Aminuddin Mohamad Ibrahimo, who were of mixed Indian blood. In their desperate attempt to gain wider popular legitimacy among Muslims, the older Council leadership helped Muslim parliamentarians to stage the 1996 ‘Muslim Holidays’ Affair’, which proposed a law turning two Muslim festive dates, Id ul-Fitr (the end of Ramadan) and Id al-Adha (the end of Hajj and of ritual sacrifice, the qurban), into public holidays (Morier-Genoud 2000: 409-427). This prompted a strong reaction from Christians, despite the fact that Christmas is a national holiday (named Family Day), and from the opposition parties and jurists, who insisted that the proposal infringed upon the secular character of the Mozambican state and constitution. In March 1996, the majority of deputies at the Assembly voted in favor of the proposed law. When, after almost a year of debates, the Supreme Council declared it unconstitutional, JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 148 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 148 Liazzat J.K. Bonate it became a watershed for the decline of the old Council leadership’s authority in the eyes of both the ordinary Muslims and the Frelimo party. Shortly afterwards, the Ahl al-Sunna was created and in 2000, Shaykh ‘Mangira’ died of a heart attack in India. Shaykh Aminuddin took over the presidency of the Islamic Council as well as of the Mozambican ‘Ulama Council (Conselho dos Alimos de Moçambique) upon the death of Mangira. He has shown himself to be a shrewd leader by shunning direct participation in political life as well as by avoiding strong personal confrontations with the ‘traditionalist’ and Sufi Muslims. He has also distributed and delegated powers within both Councils to the young African ‘new’ ‘ulama. After independence Frelimo was not able to dismiss ‘traditional chiefs’ in most rural areas, and the ‘traditionalist ideologies’ have, to a great extent, continued to exist (West and Kloeck-Jenson 1999: 455-84). Renamo, on the other hand, embedded in northern and central Mozambique during the civil war, acted through local ‘traditional authorities’, contributing to the persistence of these ideologies as well. ‘Traditionalist’ ideologies also persisted, on account of the importance of land for subsistence and the value of kinship solidarity in an environment of political and economic uncertainties, caused by civil war and now by latent poverty. The 1997 Land Law has strengthened ‘traditionalism’ further and provided with a new lease of legitimacy the matrilineal ideology of northern Mozambique.27 Contest for ‘orthodoxy’ and the question of gender The emergence of the Islamists in Mozambique, as elsewhere, stirred up a new series of disputes over Islamic ‘orthodoxy’. The doctrinal ideology of Islamism in Mozambique, as elsewhere, is marked by puritanical scripturalism and tendencies to rationalize religious practices (Brenner 1993: 1-21). The Islamists demand a literal interpretation of the Islamic sources (the Qur’an and the Hadith) and ubiquitous application of the shari’a (Islamic legal principles), besides denouncing a ‘blind’ imitation of western lifestyles by Muslims. Their primary targets in Mozambique, as elsewhere, have been Sufi Orders, with whom they associate such activities as saint veneration, spirit-possession cults, Islamic medicines and magic, and celebrations of the Prophet’s birthday (mawlid ), all categorized as jahiliyya (Ar., ignorance), shirk (Ar., polytheism) and bid’a (Ar., abominable religious innovation). During fieldwork, the respondents tended to construct their discourse on gender around the knowledge of the shari’a, which became central JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 149 Matriliny, Islam and Gender in Northern Mozambique 149 to the disputes over ‘orthodoxy’. The fact that shari’a has become central in such a recent period does not mean that the concept did not exist before. Muslims of both Angoche and Mozambique Island, and in their respective zones in Nampula City, identify themselves as followers of the classical Sunni Shafi’i maddhab, but its application historically has not been as strict as in other Swahili societies, and most of the problems and conflicts were resolved through kinship and family mediations. In the nineteenth century, the justice system became known as the shari’a both on the coast and among the peoples of the interior who converted to Islam (Lupi 1907: 80). However the notion itself was related to chiefly power and to the centrality of the Qur’an to Muslim life. The mwalimo (who had taken over the role of the m’kulukwana) assisted chiefs in administering justice, whereby the innocence of the suspected criminals was determined by their swallowing flour balls mixed with Qur’anic inscriptions or drinking the water in which those inscriptions were dissolved. Taking the oath of allegiance was also done on the Qur’an, in written form, the ritual called in Emakhuwa ommama mussafu (from Ar., mushaf; Swahili musahafu, a saint book, a book of prayers) (Cunha 1885: 48; Camizão 1901: 6; Lupi 1907: 193; Amorim 1911: 97; Mello Machado 1970: 255). The new Sufi Orders set upon correcting practices they deemed to be haram (Ar., prohibited. Martin 1976: 157) cites Portuguese sources indicating that the practice of Islam in northern Mozambique had become stricter at this time: ‘people started abstaining from wine and certain foods, and began attending mosques assiduously’, and had other ‘puritanical manifestations’ of religious zeal. The Orders sustained the importance of the shari’a, first by introducing the classical texts of the Shafi’i fiqh (Ar., jurisprudence), and second, at least two major Sufi shaykhs, Sayyid Ba Hasan Sayyid Abdurrahman and Momade Sayyid Mujabo, had claimed the title of mufti and were broadly recognised as such (Branquinho 1969: 409-411). The Orders also introduced a position of the shawriyya, acting as advisors in matters of shari’a, din (Ar., faith) and waqf (Ar., property), who could deal with murids’ family and private situations too. Though the Orders tried to undermine matrilineal ideology and the position of the pia-mwene, they also offered to women new avenues for religious authority and prestige. A female branch, a parallel structure of the male Sufi Order, emerged. The respectability of the new Sufi Orders was extended to women from local patrician families to the disadvantage of the former female slaves and mainlanders settling on the JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 150 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 150 Liazzat J.K. Bonate Island. The high-status Muslim women were initiated into the new Sufi Orders and began receiving a sound religious training from the new shaykhs. As their male counterparts came to occupy positions of relevance in the hierarchy of the Orders, up to the present day, female khulafah are from prominent local families, trained by the male founders of the Orders. For example, khalifa Khatidja Jamal, known as khalifa Khuttura, the khalifa of the Qadiriyya female branch, is from an important local family and received her ijaza from shaykh Sayyid Ba Hasan Sayyid Abdurrahman, who in his turn had had a silsila of the Order from Shaykh ‘Issa bin Ahmad, the founder of the Order in Mozambique.28 Despite the links between social position and religious standing, it was rather ‘the authority of learning’ in Eickelman’s (1998) terms, as with their male counterparts, at the base of the female religious power. Though they depended nominally on men, in practice the status of the female khalifa of the Order was as important as that of the male one. The female khalifa is hierarchically superior to men who are not khulafah. Some women, like khalifa Khuttura and khalifa Amina Umm Muhammad, held higher esteem and authority even in comparison to the male khulafah.29 During festivals of the turuq associated with the ziyyara ceremony, male as well as female khulafah received donations from the followers.30 Tombs of the pious female heads of the Orders, considered the walaya (Ar., pl., wali, sing., those who are close to God, saints), who performed karamat (Ar., miracles) and emanated baraka (Ar., blessing) has been regularly visited during the annual ziyyara. Names of these female walaya that came up during the interviews were, among others, Fatima Amur, Saquina of the Qadiriyya Bagdade, and Abuda Hafish of the Shadhiliyya Madaniyya.31 The Islamist discourse on gender is epitomized in a two-volume book by Shaykh Aminuddin Mohamad called A Mulher no Isslam (‘A Woman in Islam’), published in Matola in 2002. In this book, Shaykh Aminuddin advocates the ‘correct’ application of the shari’a on women’s issues. Like Islamists elsewhere, Shaykh Aminuddin does not digress very much from the positions of the four classical juridical schools with respect to women. In fact, he cites widely these sources, as well as providing for mostly negative examples of the Western ‘lax’ and ‘permissive’ lifestyles to denounce it. In Volume 2, pages 181-202, he points out that the ‘natural, biological differences between man and woman dictate woman’s inclination to maternity, her physical and psychological delicacy and emotionalism, and define the roles and obligations of two genders in society’. This understanding diverges significantly from matrilineal ideo- JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 151 Matriliny, Islam and Gender in Northern Mozambique 151 logy, in which a woman is viewed as a carrier of the biological and spiritual essence of a kinship group, holding power over its well-being in addition to that of the land/territory that it occupies. Aminuddin’s views also do not accord with either the mwalimo or the Sufi khalifa positions of a Muslim woman in this region. A mwalima, as a healer or a sorcerer, or the Sufi khalifa because of her religious learning and pious social standing, are in possession of powers that are beyond and above natural biological gender differences. Historically such women were powerful political and religious leaders. However, on pages 162-63, Volume 2 of A Woman in Islam, Shaykh Aminuddin affirms that a Muslim woman cannot lead a salat (Ar., a prayer) and cannot be a head of state, but he points out that the opinions of the fuqaha (Ar., pl., sing., faqih, an Islamic jurist) diverge with respect to her position as a judge. Shari’a and the private domain32 All those interviewed, ‘traditionalist’ Muslims and Sufis included, constructed their discourse on gender and Islam around the notions of Islamic law (the shari’a), using classical fiqh terms, such as nikah (Ar., Islamic marriage ceremony, locally nikahi), mahr (Ar., the dowry, locally mahari), zina (Ar., adultery), and talaq (Ar., repudiation, divorce, locally d/talaqa). Other fiqh concepts, such as the ‘idda (Ar., waiting period of a woman of three month after divorce and four months and ten days after widowhood), nafaqa’ (Ar., maintenance provided by a husband during marriage), ta’a (Ar., obedience of a wife to a husband during marriage), and nashiza (Ar., a disobedient wife), were not widely known by their Islamic names, but the principles themselves were acknowledged. The problem arose with Islamic notions of inheritance and the division of the property of a deceased Muslim, and the notions of the wali (Ar., legal guardian of a woman), the walaya (Ar., the father’s guardianship of children) and, the hadana (Ar., mother’s custody of children). These notions were in conflict with matrilineal ideology, especially when people lived in rural or suburban regions and within the solidarity of a matrilineal kinship group, and relied on subsistence agriculture. This was the case with the majority of Sufis. The ‘traditionalists’, such as chiefs and the mwalimo, who besides all the above worked with the ancestral and territorial spirits, were even more under the influence of the ideology of matriliny. In contrast, the Islamists often had formal education, and access to formal employment, besides enjoying support of the international Islamic NGOs. JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 152 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 152 Liazzat J.K. Bonate In Volume 1 of A Woman in Islam (29-30 and 337-50), Shaykh Aminuddin exposes the positions of the four law schools with respect to women’s property and inheritance rights and indicates portions of each of the heirs. However, in the region dominated by matrilineal ideology, the land is frequently under the control of a kinship group and cannot be alienated (Bonate, 2003a: 96-132). Unless a woman is a lineage or clan chief, her situation with regard to land and household belongings, when divorced or widowed, depends on her residence pattern. If she lived virilocally on the husband’s kinship lands, then upon divorce or widowhood she frequently loses her usufruct rights over that land and the husband or his kin also can appropriate the house of the couple and all its belongings. If she resided uxorilocally on her own kinship lands, then she maintains her usufruct rights over the land and over the house and household belongings on divorce or widowhood. If the couple resided on independent lands, outside the lineage lands of either of them, in cases when, for example, they cleared virgin lands, then the husband could turn it into a bequest or pass it to his own direct offspring instead of matrilineal nephews and nieces. In this case, the widow’s access to this land after the death of the husband could be safeguarded through children. A divorced woman, in this case, runs the risk of losing the land and the house to the husband or his extended matrikin. The officials of the Community Court of Angoche pointed out that there have been many disputes lately related to inheritance involving children and nephews/nieces of the deceased.33 These cases were mediated by the families and kinship groups and were not brought to official justice. The Community Court officials believed that most of these cases were resolved in favor of the direct offspring of the deceased rather than in terms of matrilineal ideology. The Hadana and the Walaya concepts also clashed around matrilineal ideology, because a child belongs to the wife’s matrikin. Despite these cultural perceptions, some fathers fought for their children after divorce. In Angoche and Mozambique Island, on reaching puberty girls are subject to initiation rites. This stands true for suburban Muslims in Nampula City. Through initiation rites, not only gendered roles and notions of sexuality are transmitted, but cultural identities are passed down from the older generation. A girl before puberty is called marusi, while a virgin after her first menstruation is called numar. Among all Muslims, the idea that a Muslim woman should be a virgin on her first marriage prevails, and only a virgin has the right to elaborate JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 153 Matriliny, Islam and Gender in Northern Mozambique 153 marriage ceremonies, the nikahi. The first marriage of a virgin woman is called harusi. The consequent marriages are called halali (licit) as opposed to zina (sex outside marriage), which is haram (illicit). The term halali is frequent among the inhabitants of the Muhalla and Angoche, while for the people of Mozambique Island and other Muslims in Nampula City, except those originating from the Indian subcontinent, the term chuo is used. Marriages and divorces are quite frequent. During fieldwork in Angoche, of the 50 women between 25 and 70 years old interviewed, 47 indicated that the number of marriages during their lifetimes ranged from one to ten, the average being 3.5. The mahr was applied upon marriage among all northern Mozambican Muslims. On the first marriage, it was negotiated by the maternal uncle, brother, or father who posed as a wali. In matrilineal society, the maternal uncle has had precedence in this capacity, but recently the father has become as important, and, in cases of their absence, the brother or paternal uncle or grandfather became wali. The mahr could be expressed in trees, such as the highly valued coconut, cashew nut or fruit trees, as well as in furniture, jewelry, a house, a car or money. Those interviewed stated that these things were destined for the marrying woman alone and not for her kin. Even when the mahr was in money, it was spent for the woman’s benefit alone, while other items would become her private property. The mahr in the ensuing marriages was negotiated by the woman herself. Zina is conceived of differently by Muslims relying on local ‘traditions’ and by the Ahl al-Sunna and the Islamic Council members. Most of the Sufi and ‘traditionalists’ were inclined to consider sex outside marriage, be it consensual sex or rape, as first and foremost a violation of the principles of social norms and parental authority. This notion was conspicuously widespread in focus group discussions in the Muhalla and Carrupeia zones. Some of those interviewed maintained that they would ask for the consent of a girl to marry the one with whom she committed zina. If both parties involved agreed, parents would make them marry, but if a girl insisted on declining the marriage, or claimed that she had been raped, then a fine would be paid by the male party to the girl’s family. Most of the participants thought that marriage in these cases was the best solution for saving the girl’s family and her own honor, and also because she might stay unmarried and force her parents to support her continuously, or she might become pregnant, in which case there would be an additional mouth to feed in a poor family. Zina of a married woman was widely condemned, and often her repudiation by her husband ensued, but for more ‘traditional’ Muslims JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 154 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 154 Liazzat J.K. Bonate the dispute is sometimes settled by the payment of a fine to a husband. Zina of a man was not punishable. Except for two men interviewed, the Ahl al-Sunna and Islamic Council members in general relied on written Islamic sources, according to which zina itself was punishable by death, a penalty which, they were conscious, was not applicable in Mozambique because the state is secular. Although, in classical Islamic law there are several other forms of divorce, a talaq through repudiation (locally, in a written form) is the most widespread among northern Mozambican Muslims. After the talaq, a husband can remarry immediately if he wishes, and a wife can do so after a waiting period of three months (‘idda). According to the respondents, the frequency of divorces has increased significantly since independence because of political and economic instability. This situation was emphasized more in focus group discussions with Muslims from rural and suburban zones than with those from urban areas. Men’s polygamy was another reason for divorce. The respondents indicated two motives for the perseverance of polygamy in the present times. First, men have had to become very mobile in order to find jobs away from their homeland, and have married again in the location of their work. Second, many women were left unmarried or widowed because of the war and they have accepted becoming second or third wives. Those with a modern Islamic education, particularly members of the Islamic Council and Ahl al-Sunna, were aware that a Muslim man can marry up to four wives at one time according to the Qur’an, although it is not mandatory. Other Muslims were inclined to think that the number of wives could reach seven at one time, according to their understanding of the Prophet’s sunna, while some maintained that the number is not limited as long as a man can ensure equal treatment among all his wives. A husband was not required to obtain his first wife’s consent in order to contract subsequent marriages. However, most of the Muslim men underlined that, in the current environment of economic hardship, sustaining one wife and their children was a real challenge. Overall, it was rare to find a man with several wives; the most common number of wives, according to those interviewed, was one, followed by two; there were very rare cases of somebody marrying three wives. Muslims in general were aware that a man’s duty in Islamic marriage was to maintain wives and children, while the wife’s duty was to be obedient to her husband. Although they did not use Islamic terms, all female participants of our study expressed the obedience of a wife JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 155 Matriliny, Islam and Gender in Northern Mozambique 155 according to classical Islamic law, namely, as dressing modestly, not going out without the husband’s permission and being available for sexual intercourse any time a husband desires. The punishment for a disobedient wife also corresponded to classical Islamic law; a wife could not receive any maintenance from husband until she remedied her behavior. She could also be beaten, and, finally, she could be divorced without any support during her ‘idda. The t/dikiri members were more flexible than those of the Council and Ahl al-Sunna towards a disobedient wife. In the context of the increasing spread of HIV/AIDS in Mozambique, it was important to bring the issue of prevention into the fieldwork discussions. All those interviewed, whether they were Sufis, or members of the Islamic Council or of Ahl al-Sunna, were unanimous that the use of condoms was illicit (haram) in marriage or outside marriage. In fact, most of them stressed that they had never used a condom in their lives. First, they argued almost unanimously that the use of a condom was not indicated in the Qur’an, neither was it a practice of the Prophet Muhammad; therefore it could not be permitted on religious grounds. In Muhalla, two men and one imam indicated that in the context of the danger of contracting HIV/AIDS, perhaps, the ‘ulama could tackle better the question of whether using a condom was permissible. In Nametequiliua, a madrassa teacher was inclined to think that in an ‘unGodly and materialistic modern world’ with the spread of HIV/AIDS, using a condom becomes permissible. Female members of the Qadiriyya Mashiraba Sufi order from Nametequiliua zone thought that, in the face of the HIV/AIDS threat, the use of a condom was analogous to the use of preventative medicine, which is permitted in Islam. Other t/dikiri members, male and female, and the members of the Ahl alSunna and the Islamic Council did not share this position, opposing the use of condoms on principle. Second, it was argued that the use of condom would lead to sexual permissiveness and promiscuity. Muslims were unanimously conscious of the gravity of zina; thus, they argued, as they are not permitted to have sex outside or before marriage, the use of condoms for them is redundant. Some of the female respondents maintained that they could not possibly talk to their children about condoms, because ‘that would be the same as giving them a license for zina’. Third, in focus group discussions in Muhalla, Nametequiliua and Carrupeia, it was pointed out that the use of condoms was as illicit as masturbation. They also held that the wasting of a male seed (sperm) in a condom was tantamount to a killing of an unborn child. This JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 156 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 156 Liazzat J.K. Bonate approach indicates that these Muslims acknowledged that sperm plays a major role in the forming of a fetus and also believed that Islam does not provide grounds for abortion, which is contrary to the viewpoints of the classical Islamic jurists. The stipulations for abortion of the four classical madhhahib are described in Volume 2, pages 93-98, of A Woman in Islam by Shaykh Aminuddin. Fourth, they also believed that only God could determine the number of children given to a human being, and no human should intervene in this process. This position held by the Nampula Muslims indicated that they did not accept family planning and contraceptive methods. Most of the participants showed awareness about local traditional methods of birth control, but maintained that Muslims were not allowed to use them. They also pointed out that they knew, for example, from the experience of the Tanzanian Muslims, that spacing between births was beneficial for women’s health, but, in the end, it was for God only to decide whether a woman becomes pregnant or not. Only two men, one from Ahl al-Sunna and another from the Islamic Council, accepted the analogy (qyas) between the use of the condom and coitus interruptus (‘azl) practiced by the Prophet Muhammad. But even these two indicated that the use of the condom must be expressly prescribed as the medical solution only in cases of illness of one of the spouses, otherwise it was considered illicit (haram). The private domain is protected culturally from the intervention of the outside world. A Muslim woman should keep ‘domestic and bedroom secrets’ inside the house so as not to bring shame on her husband by making them public. Most of the family-related conflicts were resolved through kinship mediation, with some interventions from shaykhs and Sufi khulafah and shawriyya. Moreover, the relevance of the formal laws and official justice institutions was minimal. Northern Mozambicans, like the majority of the country’s population, lived outside the scope and reach of the state laws. Most of the marriages had only a religious or a ‘traditional’ character and were very rarely registered. Officials of the Judicial Court maintained that religious or ‘traditional’ marriages were not under their jurisdiction. They acted only when marriages were officially registered. Community Court officials also disregarded religious marriages and showed little tolerance and acceptance of the influence of the ‘ulama.34 In both instances there were very few family-related cases registered, a fact, they alleged, that was due to the reconciliation efforts of the community members themselves. Both instances worked with the colonial Portuguese Civil Code, and when they could not find any Article that answered the case in hand, they would try to reconcile JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 157 Matriliny, Islam and Gender in Northern Mozambique 157 the parties. Local women indicated that there was no instance in which the official justice system was a part of the solution to their problems. In 2004, Mozambique enacted a new Family Law (Lei No 10/2004, August 25, 2004), which recognizes, along with civil registration, ‘traditional’ and religious marriages (Articles 16 and 17). However, the Law does not define the concept of ‘traditional’ or ‘religious’ marriages, nor the structures that will sanction them. Articles 50 and 51 of the Law specify that for religious marriages a ‘competent religious dignitary’ and for the ‘traditional’ marriages a ‘community authority’ should be present. This makes it unclear how the Law is going to be applied in practice and how the rights of particular individuals, especially women and children, are going to be assured. It seems that many diverse ‘traditional’ institutions need to be defined, or created anew, legitimized locally, and then other regulations and institutions should be created in order to oversee their activities. The lawmakers did not explain to the public how they and the jurists would come to terms with these problems. Leading Muslim public figures were particularly vociferous in that, on the one hand, the Law recognizes religious marriages, including Islamic ones. On the other, it invalidates the shari’a by introducing a minimum marriage age of 18 (Articles 19, 30) and establishing an existing marriage as an impediment for a new marriage, i.e., it prohibits polygyny (Article 30). However, lawmakers continue to envision Muslims as uniform and Islam as monolithic and they are not familiar with the dynamics of the international debates surrounding the shari’a and the impact of the trans-national ‘umma (An-Na’im 2002: 1-23). Conclusion The lawmakers do not see why Islamic Family Law needs special treatment. This paper showed the degree to which this assumption was wrong for northern Mozambique, where Islamic identity and authority are diverse. This diversity resulted from specific local historical processes, involving pre-colonial, colonial and post-colonial politics, and influences of regional and trans-national Islam. Besides that, northern Mozambican Muslim communities have a unique characteristic in that they are matrilineal. As this paper attempted to demonstrate, matriliny has endured in this region despite strong historical ties to the Swahili world and Islam’s longue-dureé presence, and repeated attempts to establish ‘orthodoxy’, following several waves of Islamic expansion and reform. The question is, then, which view of Islam prevails in the face of the JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 3/13/06 6:20 PM 158 Page 158 Liazzat J.K. Bonate concrete legal cases? And, what should be done when the boundary between the ‘traditional’ and the Islamic is not clear-cut, as in the case of northern Mozambican matrilineal Muslims? INTERVIEWS I. NAMPULA CITY Manuel Nupie Umpavara, the regulo Namicopo, June 13, 2000. Shaykh Silvério Ali Sika, June 6 and 21, 2000. Shaykh ‘Umar Bisheikh, Nampula City, June 8, 2000. Shaykhs Abubacar Hussein and Hussein Cesar, June 19, 2000. Shaykh Sharamo Attumane, June 8, 2000 Shaykh Ibrahimo Abdallah, June 9, 2000 Arnaldo Padre, Muslim n’kulukwana (a traditional healer), June 17, 2000. Funti Artur Mwemed (a Muslim traditional healer), June 18, 2000. – Collective Interview with female Sufi khulafa, June 26, 2000: Sifa Lugar; Madina Daudo; Aziza Munagude; Khatija Abdallah; Zaki Yussufo; Zenha Kanapenha. – Collective Interview with male Sufi shaykhs, June 21, 2000: Hussein Fakira; Abakar Juma; Swanene Mekua; Absulhashim Tuakal; Swalehe Mziwa. – Collective Interview with the members of the Islamic Council, June 19, 2000: Selemanji Momade Hanifo; Habibo Amade; Abdulwahhab Qasim; Hasam Ibrahimo Arbi; Aisha Abdallah; Abdullatifo Mussaji. II. ANGOCHE Hasan Bashir, the regulo and the ruling Nhapakho, May 14, 2000, Qatamoio Island. Shaykh Adamji Karhila, May 14, 2000, Qatamoio Island. Sayyid Hassan, May 14, 2000, Qatamoio Island. Khalifa Zainab Swaleh ‘Macandinha’, May 9, 2000, Angoche City. Shaykh Mamade Abdallah, May 11, 2000, Angoche City. Shaykh Musa Ibrahimo Siraj, May 13, 2000, Angoche City. Chale Abdallah Yussuf, regulo Licuaro of Inguri, May 14, 2000, Angoche City. JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 159 Matriliny, Islam and Gender in Northern Mozambique 159 Shaykh Hasan Ali ‘Concaco’, May 15, 2000, Angoche City. Amina Hasan, May 13, 2000, Angoche City. Hajji Fatima Namuali, May 9, 2000, Angoche City. Shaykh Ali Ussene, May 18, 2000, Angoche City. Shamsi Ossufo, May 17, 2000, Angoche City. Shaykhs Eshtar Shurtiyya and Bramgi Mamade, May 17, 2000, Angoche City. Amina Musa Ussene, Maimuna Musa Piloto, Mwizala Ma’ruf, May 12, 2000, Angoche City. Mwalimo N’kulukwana (a traditional healer) Sayyid Khaled Nakapa, May 10, 2000. – Collective interview with male Sufi khulafa, May 11, 2000, Angoche City: Musa Piloto; Sayyid Hasan Abakar; Ussene Suleiman; Amade Swaleh; Sharifo Terno. – Collective interview with female Sufi khulafa, May 16, 2000, Angoche City: Muantimo Chamo; Mwaisha Yussufo; Fatima Abdallah; Mwaneima Mandiha; Faida Husein. – Collective interview with the members of the Angoche City Community Court, May 13, 2000: Florêncio Manuel; Raúl Cardoso; Fátima Amusse; Jamal Chale; Alberto Uhanhoboa. III. MOZAMBIQUE ISLAND Shaykh Muhammad Sandique, November 1, 1999. Shaykh Shaban Muzé, November 2, 1999. Shaykh Abdurrahman Amuri bin Jimba, November 2, 1999. Shaykh Faqui Sayyid Shamakhani, November 2, 1999. Khalifa Khuttura, Khatidja Jamal, November 4, 1999. Khalifa Nzima Bilale and Khalifa Shifa Yussufo, November 5, 1999. Shaykh Ali Daudo, November 5, 1999. Shaykh Ahmad Ali Musa, November 6,1999. Mwalimo (a traditional healer) Tamaleia Jamal, November 3, 1999. N’kulukwana- Funti (a traditional healer) Natalia Momade, November 4, 1999. – Collective interview with female leaders of the turuq, November 3, 1999: Mariamo Abudo; Waké Mutualibo; Mwaziza Ali. JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 160 Liazzat J.K. Bonate 160 – Collective interview with male leaders of the turuq, November 6, 1999: Yussuf Amade Swaleh; Mohammad Abubakar; Fadil Abakar; Arafa Ali; Salim Shamo; Asan Rashid; Attumane Bin Hussein; Shale Musa; Murid Muzé Nakuele; Shawriyya Adam Swaleh. ARCHIVAL DOCUMENTS AHM (MOZAMBIQUE HISTORICAL ARCHIVES, MAPUTO) FGG (FUNDO DO GOVERNO GERAL), Cxs. (Caixas): – Cx.226. Negócios Indígenas, D/6- Processo Geral, 1925-1948. – Cx. 899. Politica Indígena, 1959-1974 (2), Ficheiro dos Régulos de Cabo Delgado. – Cx. 901. Politica Indígena, 1959-74 (2), Ficheiro dos Régulos do Distrito de Moçambique. – Cx. 1008, 25-90. Correspondência recebida de Moçambique, 1900. – Cx. 1012. Correspondência recebida de Moçambique, 1902. ISANI (INSPECÇÃO DE SERVIÇOS ADMINISTRATIVOS E DOS NEGÓCIOS INDÍGENAS): – Cx. 76: Província do Niassa. Relatório da Inspecção Ordinária às Circunscrições do Distrito de Moçambique, 1936-37, pelo Inspector Pinto Correia, 3 Volumes. – Cx. 77: Relatório da Inspecção Ordinária ao Distrito de Nampula da Província do Niassa, pelo Inspector Administrativo, Hortênsio Estêvão de Sousa, 1948, 6 Volumes. SE (SECÇÃO ESPECIAL): – SE, No 20, Cotas S.E., 2 III, P. 6. Branquinho, J. A. G. de M. 1969. ‘Relatório da Prospecção ao Distrito de Moçambique (Um estudo de estruturas hierárquicas tradicionais e religiosas, e da sua situação político-social), Nampula, 22 April 1969’. In: Fernando da Costa Freire Prospecção das Forças Tradicionais—Distrito de Moçambique, Província de Moçambique, SCCI, Secreto. 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Kloeck-Jenson. 1999. ‘Betwixt and Between: “Traditional Authority” and Democratic Decentralization in Post-War Mozambique’, African Affairs 98, 455-484. NOTES 1. I am indebted to Dr Stephen Lubkemann for the review of the initial draft of this paper and his invaluable comments and recommendations. However, I am solely responsible for the views expressed in it and for any shortcomings. 2. There are also Sunni Muslims of Indian/Pakistani origin and the Shi’a (Isma’ili), not covered by this study. Muslims of Angoche and Mozambique Island perhaps could be best described as culturally Swahili. In Nampula City, immigrants from Mozambique Island dominate Namicopo-Nametequiliua and Carrupeia, while the Koti of Angoche make up the bulk of the Muhalla Muslims. The Koti began settling in the lands of the Wampula-mwene, where modern Nampula City stands, at the height of the slave trade JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 164 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 164 Liazzat J.K. Bonate during the nineteenth century. The Mozambique Island immigrants started coming to Nampula City with the beginning of the urbanization projects in the 1930s. Civil war, economic hardships and socio-political instability of the post-independence period drove new waves of immigrants to the provincial capital. Interviews with the régulo (from Port., ‘a traditional chief ’, ‘a small-scale king’) Namicopo Manuel Nupie Umpavara, Nampula City, June 13, 2000; Shaykh Silvério Ali Sika, June 6 and 21, 2000 Shaykh ‘Umar Bisheikh, Nampula City, June 8, 2000; and Mozambique Historical Archives (AHM), ISANI (Inspecção de Serviços Administrativos e dos Negócios Indígenas), Caixa (Cx) 77. Relatório da Inspecção Ordinária ao Distrito de Nampula da Província do Niassa, pelo Inspector Administrativo, Hortênsio Estêvão de Sousa, 1948 (6 Volumes), Volume 6, Concelho de Nampula, p. 1318. 3. Portuguese colonialists believed that Islam in coastal northern Mozambique was a ‘syncretism’ both in cultural and biological/racial terms, a mixture of local African biological stock with ‘pure Arab blood’ and of African ‘traditions and customs’ with ‘proper’ Islam (Lupi 1907: 163, 169-70, 176-177; Amorim 1911: 98; Branquinho 1969: 331). 4. Muyini (from Bantu, ‘the lord’), variations are mwene, muno, and the Portuguese also used monhé to convey the meaning of ‘a Muslim muyini’. The information related to the notions of muyini/mwene/ muno/monhé, and kinship and land (territory), and firstcomers status, among the Koti and the Makua is based mostly on oral data, which was collected during the fieldwork in Nampula Province in 1999-2000 through interviewing various régulos (pl., sing., regulo, Port., ‘a small-scale king’, an African chief ), including Hasan Bashir and his nephew, Shaykh Adamji Karhila, both Anhapakho at the Catamoio Island, Angoche District, May 14, 2000. (See also, Bonate 2003a and 2003b). 5. In 1815, the Vienna Treaty between Portugal and Great Britain on the gradual abolition of slave trade was signed. With the 1836 Sá Bandeira Decree, followed by the Decree of 1842 prohibiting the exportation of slaves, the ports of Mozambique Island and Quelimane from where slaves were exported earlier, became difficult destinations for slave traders (negreiros in Portuguese). 6. Musa had traveled and learned extensively during his teens while accompanying his uncle, an Islamic proselytizer, a hajji (a pilgrim to Holy Mecca) and a sharif (descendant of the Prophet Muhammad). Together they went to Zanzibar, Madagascar, the Comoros and to the Mozambican interior along the Rivers Zambezi and Lugenda. It seems that during these journeys Musa conceived of the project of Angoche’s expansion into the interior, which the widespread circulation of firearms and increasing armies of slave sepoys enabled. 7. Musa Quanto’s own upbringing and standpoint might have added some strength for the expansion of Islam, because apparently he had a solid Islamic education and knowledge through his association with a zealously religious sharif uncle and his travels around the most important Islamic centers of the East African coast. Hafkin (1973: 336-37) even suggests that one of the objectives of Musa’s military operations was proselytizing Islam among the people of the interior, and that he pursued a campaign of a purifying holy war ( jihad ). 8. Even among the coastal Swahili, a woman could become a paramount chief, as was the case in 1902 in Matibane when on the death of the shehe Musa Phiri was elected a ‘queen’. In 1936-37, the chief in Matibane was again a ‘queen’ named Cebo. AHM, FGG, Cx. 1012, and AHM, ISANI, Cx. 76, Relatório duma Inspecção às Circunscrições do Distrito de Moçambique (3 Volumes), pelo Inspector Pinto Correia (1936-37), Vol. 1, Capitulo IV, Politica Indígena, 84. 9. Especially, following the 1884-85 Berlin Conference and 1890 Salisbury proposal on the creation of the borders between the Portuguese and British colonies in Africa. The Treaty between Portugal and Lord Salisbury was signed in 1891. 10. ‘Moors’ is a Portuguese pre-twentieth-century term applied to Muslims, especially those descending from Muslim Indians and local African women. The Portuguese ter- JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 165 Matriliny, Islam and Gender in Northern Mozambique 165 ritories in Mozambique were subordinate to the Vice-Kings of India, which encouraged Indian immigration. In 1752, these territories were separated from India and the Mozambique Island became a colonial capital, but Indian immigration continued (Andrade 1955: 43, 96-101; Hafkin 1973: 59, 86-87, 90; Mello Machado 1970: 116). 11. The Portuguese began settling at Mozambique Island and the Terras Firmes (mainland) of Mossuril and Cabaceiras from 1508 onwards. According to oral tradition, on the settling of the Portuguese, the Shirazi clans of this region moved out and founded the Swahili Shaykhdoms of Sancul, Quitongonha and Sangage, all nominal subjects to Angoche Sultans (Botelho 1935: 340; Hafkin 1973: 8-10, 192, 240; Newitt 1978: 111-126). 12. Nevertheless, the new Sufi Orders came to Mozambique Island along traditional Swahili routes, approximately at the same time as in other parts of the East African coast and brought practically by the same people. First to arrive was the ShadhiliyyaYashrutiyya in 1897, following the visit of the shaykh Muhammad Ma’rouf bin Shaykh Ahmad ibn Abu Bakr (1853-1905) of the Comoro Islands, who was the founder of the Order in East Africa. The Qadiriyya reportedly was brought to Mozambique Island in 1905 by a certain shaykh ‘Issa bin Ahmad, originally from the Ngazidja in Comoros, who lived in Zanzibar (probably the same person as ‘Issa ibn Ahmad alNgaziji al-Barawi, a disciple of shaykh ‘Umar Uways bin Muhammad al-Barawi (18471909), the leader of the Qadiriyya in East Africa mentioned by Martin (1976: 152-55, 157-59). See also, Branquinho 1969: 353-54, 358; Carvalho 1988: 61, 63; Trimingham 1964: 98; Nimtz 1980.: 57, 202-n. 10. 13. The case of chief Suluho, a descendant of the shehe of Fernão Vellozo (Nakala) and a khalifa of the Qadiriyya Order, exemplifies this point. He argued persistently to Branquinho, the Portuguese Secret Service official, surveying the region in the 1960s, that he did not have a pia-mwene. But Branquinho made Suluho identify her (Branquinho 1969: 32). 14. Dufu (Swahili, from Ar., daff ) is a large frame drum, usually round, and made of wood and animal skin. In Mozambique, the reforms were against the use of drums in religious ceremonies and in ritual spaces in general. Most of the new Orders’ efforts seem to have been directed against the Rifa’iyya, called locally Mawlid or Molidi, and some ritual dances similar to modern-day Tufo (from Sw. dufu) dances in Mozambique, both accompanied by drums. One of the long-standing debates that originated at this period was over ‘correct’ performance of the funeral rites. This debate was an extension of the ‘dufu wars’, as it was common to use drums in funerals before the coming of the two Orders (Neves 1901: 13), and still is in place. It is called sukuti vs dikiri (from Ar. sukut, silent, and dhikr, the Sufi chanting) in Mozambique Island and among the Yao and, sukuti vs nashidi in Angoche (from Ar., nashid, clapping hands, being active, or in motion). In the 1930s, the Orders managed to eliminate drums, but the debate became concentrated on whether performing a loud dhikr was permissible or not (Thorold 1993: 85-90; Monteiro 1993a: 91; Alpers 2000: 134, 313; Bonate 2005b). 15. This trend can be traced to today. For example Shaykh Adamji Karhila, a nephew and legitimate heir to the ruling Nhapakho of Angoche, Hasan Bashir, has declined the mwene-ship on the basis that it was incompatible with the position of a ‘true’ shaykh. Interviews with regulo Hasan Bashir and Shaykh Adamji Karhila, May 14, 2000, Qatamoio Island, Angoche District. 16. The 1907 Portuguese Administrative Reform of Mozambique incorporated chiefs within the new colonial administrative system, making them effectively agents and employees of colonialism, the position reaffirmed by the 1933 and the 1961 Laws on Overseas Administration Reform (Serra et al., 2000, Vol. 1: 229-231; Decreto-Lei No. 23: 229 1933 and Decreto-Lei No. 43: 896 1961). 17. Article 117 of the 1933 Law on Overseas Administration Reform permitted the investiture of a woman for the post of local chief within the new colonial administrative system in cases where having a female chief was ‘a local tradition’, while ‘the attributes and duties of a female chiefs were similar to those of the male one’ (Decreto-Lei JRA 36,2_f3_139-166 166 3/13/06 6:20 PM Page 166 Liazzat J.K. Bonate No. 23: 229 1933). The 1938 Mozambique Interim Governor General’s proposal of uniforms for African chiefs included skirts for female chiefs, see AHM, FGG, Cxs. 226D/6. Individual files of the chiefs of Cabo Delgado and Nampula provinces, dated between 1959 and 1974, are kept in AHM, FGG, Cxs, 899 and 901. By the end of the colonial era, there were five female chiefs in Cabo Delgado Province, all Muslims; and three in Nampula Province, two of whom were Muslims. However, some apia-mwene were quite influential despite the fact that they were not actual chiefs (Branquinho 1969: 275, 278-82). 18. Letter from Dr. M.I. Momoniat, of Muslim World League to the President of Mozambique, Mr. Samora Machel, dated August 16, 1983. Archives of the Department of Religious Affairs, Mozambique Ministry of Justice, Maputo (DAR). 19. Shaykh Aminuddin has published a total of 13 books, including a sira (Ar., ‘biography’ or ‘history’) of the Prophet Muhammad in Portuguese and has a column in a weekly popular newspaper Savana. 20. Syntheses of the meeting with the Islamic Congress of Mozambique, Maputo, September 9, 1984. DAR. 21. Ibid. 22. Letter from Abubacar Mangira, May 31, 1986. DAR. 23. Ref No. 356/DAR/MJ/83. DAR. 24. Report No. 03/84, dated May 16, 1984, DAR. 25. Refs. 123/SG/84; 142/SG/86; 522/DAR/MJ/1985; 80/SG/1985; 66/SG/1986, DAR. 26. Interviews with Shaykh Mamade Abdallah, May 11, 2000; Shaykh Musa Ibrahimo Siraj, May 13, 2000; Shaykh Hasan Ali ‘Concaco’, Angoche city; and Shaykhs Abubacar Hussein and Hussein Cesar, June 19, 2000, Nampula City. 27. The Law has attributed legal rights to the ‘traditional authority’ by recognizing the right of ‘local communities’ to use land and benefit by occupation, in accordance with ‘customary norms and practices’ (Articles 7 and 9, 1997 Land Law). Such rights can be proved by testimonial proof presented by members of ‘local communities’ (Article 15, 1997 Land Law), who are also entitled to participate in the management of natural resources, conflict resolution and identifying and defining the boundaries of ‘community lands’(Article 24, 1997 Land Law). Thus, with the new Land Law, everybody is required to identify a ‘local community’ and a ‘local chief’ in order to access land. 28. Another example is Shifa Yussufo who is the khalifa of the female branch of the Qadiriyya Sa’adat, and a granddaughter of Shaykh Sayyid Ba Hasan. She was trained by Shaykh Ba Hasan, who gave her an ijaza. Collective interview with female members of the turuq, November 3, 1999 and collective interview with male members of the turuq, November 6, 1999, Mozambique Island. Also, interview with khalifa Shifa Yussufo, November, 5. 1999, and with Khatidja Jamal, khalifa Khuttura, November 4, 1999, both at Mozambique Island. 29. Collective interview with female members of the turuq, November 3, 1999 and with male members of the turuq, November 6, 1999, and with Shaykh Muhammad Sandique, November 1, 1999, all at Mozambique Island. 30. AHM, ISANI, Cx 76, Relatório duma Inspecção às Circunscrições do Distrito de Moçambique (3 Volumes), pelo Inspector Pinto Correia (1936-37), Vol. 1, Capitulo VII, Posto da Lunga, p. 99. 31. Collective interview with members of the female branches of Sufi Orders, November, 1999, Mozambique Island; May 2000, Angoche City; June, 2000, Nampula City. 32. This section summarizes fieldwork findings on Islam and private domain. The list of people interviewed precedes the references. 33. Collective interview with members of the Angoche City Community Court, May 13, 2000. 34. Interview with members of the Angoche City Community Court, May 13, 2000.