CORE Metadata, citation and similar papers at core.ac.uk Provided by LSE Theses Online The London School of Economics and Political Science A Country of Trial: Islamic Reformism, Pluralism and Dispute Management in Peri-Urban Northern Mozambique Christian Laheij A thesis submitted to the Department of Anthropology of the London School of Economics for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy, London, January 2015 DECLARATION I certify that the thesis I have presented for examination for the PhD degree of the London School of Economics and Political Science is solely my own work other than where I have clearly indicated that it is the work of others (in which case the extent of any work carried out jointly by me and any other person is clearly identified in it). The copyright of this thesis rests with the author. Quotation from it is permitted, provided that full acknowledgement is made. This thesis may not be reproduced without my prior written consent. I warrant that this authorisation does not, to the best of my belief, infringe the rights of any third party. I declare that my thesis consists of 88,227 words. 2 ABSTRACT This thesis presents the results of 23 months of fieldwork conducted between 2010 and 2012 in Nampula City, northern Mozambique. It analyses the manifestation of Islamic reformism in the city’s urban periphery where social organisation has historically been structured by principles of Makhuwa kinship and post-socialist citizenship, while religious life is dominated by Makhuwa ritual specialists, the Catholic Church and Sufi orders. Recently, however, the ranks of Sufi orders have been dwindling. The decline has been matched by a sharp increase in the number and influence of reformist mosques. With financial support from international Islamic donors, reformist mosques seek to bring local understandings of Islam in line with globally-oriented Salafi-inspired interpretations. The thesis describes the appropriation, contestation and impact of these interpretations. There are three main findings. First, I found that Islamic reformism unsettles existing conceptions of personhood. The majority of city dwellers combine their religious and national sense of belonging with Makhuwa notions of relatedness and conceptualise the self as interdependent. In contrast, reformists define themselves in relation to the divine, and objectify the self as they seek to make it available for self-fashioning. Second, the significance of this reorientation lies in its epistemological ramifications. A variety of social forms in northern Mozambique, including neighbourly assistance, the administration of justice and political relations, are premised on the understanding that events in this world are structured by invisible forces. Attempts of Islamic reformists to orient themselves towards God lead them to perceive reality in more objective terms, and consequently, their participation in neighbourhood sociality changes. Thirdly, this reorientation is tentative. In a setting where many do not share the outlook of reformism, it produces dilemmas and uncertainties. People cope with these uncertainties using strategies of confrontation, negotiation and compromise. Islamic reformism and other dimensions of social life become, as a result, mutually constitutive. These findings have several theoretical implications. The recent trend in anthropology has been to study Islamic reform movements through the lens of practices of ethical self- 3 fashioning. This thesis argues that this focus is too narrow. My data shows that the multiplicity and complexity of the life worlds of Muslims need to be considered, and that attention should be paid to questions of how Islamic reformism shapes social practice as a system of knowledge. 4 TABLE OF CONTENTS Abstract………………………………………………….……………. 3 List of Figures………………………………………….….………….. 8 Acknowledgements.............................................................................. 9 Chapter 1. Introduction……….........……….............……………….. 11 1.1 Islamic reformism in Nampula City: historical background…….......………….14 1.2 Pluralism, Islam and articulation………………………………………............. 23 1.3 Islamic reformism and dispute management ………………........………... 27 1.4 Contextualisation and sub-themes…………………………………......………. 31 1.5 Summary: themes and questions…………………………………….......……... 44 Chapter 2. Fieldwork in Bairro Acordado…………………….....… 46 2.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………. 46 2.2 Bairro Acordado: general characteristics ……………………………………... 48 2.3 Approach………………………………………………………………………. 54 2.4 Field sites………………………………………………………………………. 55 2.5 Methods………………………………………………………………………... 71 2.6 Chapter outline…………………………………………………………………. 81 Chapter 3. Peri-urban matriliny……………………………………. 84 3.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………. 84 3.2 A retrospective on matrilineal marriage……………………………………….. 86 3.3 Maura’s unhappiness…………………………………………………………... 92 3.4 “Here in the North, we have a tradition”………………………………………. 100 3.5 “If they do not know what is right, how are we supposed to know?”…………. 107 3.6 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………... 112 5 Chapter 4. Sorcery and Islamic reform…………………………….. 114 4.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………. 114 4.2 Sorcery in the urban periphery…………………………………………………. 117 4.3 Dangerous neighbours…......…………………………………………………... 124 4.4 Being held back………………………………………………………………... 130 4.5 Salvationist Islam ……………………………………………………………... 135 4.6 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………... 140 Chapter 5. Ethics and morality……………………………....……... 142 5.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………. 142 5.2 Moral offence…………………………………………………………………... 146 5.3 Islamising the neighbourhood…………………………………………………. 152 5.4 Initiation rites…………………………………………………………………... 158 5.5 Pilot survey…………………………………………………………………….. 164 5.6 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………... 170 Chapter 6. Regimes of truth…………………………………………. 172 6.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………. 172 6.2 “Just go to any of the old mosques”…………………………………………… 173 6.3 Beating the Qur’an……………………………………………………………... 177 6.4 Sufi authority…………………………………………………………………... 183 6.5 “We have secretaries and courts now”………………………………………… 187 6.6 Speaking the truth ……………………………………………………………... 194 6.7 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………... 200 Chapter 7. Muslim politics…………………………………………... 201 7.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………………. 201 7.2 Changing patterns of knowledge transmission………………………………… 204 7.3 Emergent forms of mutuality…………………………………………………... 210 7.4 Muslim politics………………………………………………………………… 216 6 7.5 Challenging the ban on veiling………………………………………………… 222 7.6 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………... 228 Chapter 8. Conclusion.......................................................................... 230 8.1 A country of trial…………………......………………………………………… 231 8.2 Findings………………………………………..........…………………………. 236 8.3 Contributions……………………………………......…………………………. 239 8.4 Further research……………………………………..…………………………. 243 Bibliography…………………………………………………………. 246 7 LIST OF FIGURES Figure 1. Map of Mozambique……………………………………….....….. 15 Figure 2. Map of Bairro Acordado………………………………………..... 48 Table 3. Demographic characteristics of Bairro Acordado………......……. 52 Table 4. Demographic characteristics of respondents of neighbourhood survey, by section……………………………….………………... 68 Table 5. Demographic characteristics of respondents of neighbourhood survey, by religious group………………………..……………….. 70 Figure 6. Frequency of types of disputes in Nampula City……....................... 148 Table 7. Results of neighbourhood survey, by religious group…......……..... 166 Table 8. Results of neighbourhood survey, by religious group with grouped type of ethics violations…………………..……………... 167 8 ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS This study would not have been possible without the generous help of a number of individuals and institutions across various locations. First and foremost, I thank the people in Nampula City who participated in my research. Their warmth, hospitality and openness have been a source of inspiration for me. I cannot express enough my gratitude for the stories, experiences and everything they shared. “We are together,” people often told me during fieldwork, and that is what I would like to affirm here: we are together. In Mozambique I was affiliated with the Centre of African Studies at Eduardo Mondlane University in Maputo. I thank Dr. Carlos Arnaldo, Dr. Liazzat Bonate (currently at Seoul National University), Dr. Isabel Casimiro and Professor Armindo Ngunga for their help. Pedro Duce and Muemed Nury Cassimo from the National Institute of Statistics assisted with statistical data. Professor Mário Jorge de Brito and Dr. João Alberto de Sá e Bonnet from the Pedagogical University of Nampula City kindly provided additional support, and I am sincerely grateful to local authorities for the same reason. The judges from the City Court and the Provincial Court opened their doors and allowed me to do research at their courts. Fonseca Edite, the current Director of Nampula’s Provincial Department of Justice, agreed to collaborate in conducting a survey among Nampula City’s community courts, and I am indebted to the judges of these courts for their participation. Dr. Adelino Zacarias Ivala facilitated archival research. I would like to acknowledge Sraj Suleiman from Radio Haq, who sadly died last year. It was he who introduced me to the Islamic reformist scene of Nampula City. The various Islamic leaders I met over the course of fieldwork were helpful and generous with their time, whereby the assistance I received from the Nampula