Peace and War in Mozambique： The Colonial Power and Islam＇s Impact （Twentieth and Twenty-First Century）

This paper studies the Islam＇s impact in relation to the violence of the colonial and post-colonial state at the centre and north of Mozambique in particularly at the Zambezia and Tete Provinces. Revisiting and cross-checking sources available in the archives, especially the Mozambique Historical Archive, it is possible to determine Islam＇s expansion by analysing the reports of the colonial administration, interviewing the social participants of this process, and understanding the complexity of the phenomenon before and after the independence, thus enabling the rethinking of the violence, reconstruction, and reconciliation within the Mozambican society. The confrontation of the material produced by the colonial authorities in reports of the civil administration, of the so-called native business between the army and the police and the independent movements, especially the Mozambique Liberation Front （FRELIMO）, suggests a clandestine operational network with initiatives of Mozambican identity affirmation under the designation of ＂subversive＂ in the colonial days. A fact worth noting： the ＂control＂ function of the Muslim communities, both in the colonial state apparatus and in the post-colonial times, as a phenomenon of continuity.