The following is an edited transcript of Sandra’s ISRF Congress V presentation, produced in collaboration with Matt Warren (Universal Impact). Sandra is a Junior Researcher at Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa (Portugal).

In November 2021, I heard that the ISRF had launched the initial round of its First Book Fellowships. At the time, I was working on a book proposal based on my doctoral research on colonial Mozambique for Bloomsbury Academic Press. And while I thought that getting the award was probably a very long shot, I decided to apply anyway.  

A few months later, in June 2022, the foundation reached out to share the astonishing news: my project had been selected for funding. SoI’d like to begin with a word of thanks to the ISRF, as well as the Global History and Culture Centre at the University of Warwick, which hosted me as a visiting research fellow during the award.

Truly, this award, combined with the position at Warwick, let me focus on my book without competing distractions, which was crucial to bringing the project to fruition. 

I am thrilled to share that the project has now turned into something tangible. My forthcoming book, Spying on Muslims in Colonial Mozambique, 1964–74, will be published by Bloomsbury Academic Press in early February 2025. 

So what’s the book about?

Ultimately, it investigates Portugal’s long, complex and violent imperial endgame.

It delves into the colonial intelligence landscape of the Portuguese Estado Novo (or New State) dictatorship and sheds light on a hitherto understudied part of the Portuguese empire’s intricate and fragmented intelligence community: the Mozambican branch of the SCCI (Serviços de Centralização e Coordenação de Informações de Moçambique, or Information Coordination and Centralisation Services of Mozambique) which was created in June 1961. 

It also explores SCCIM’s seminal part in Portugal’s counterinsurgent intelligence gathering and psychological warfare manoeuvres against Sunni Muslim communities during the ten-year liberation struggle, which began in September 1964 and eventually led to Mozambique’s independence in 1975. 

The book draws on research conducted in the SCCIM’s archival collection held at the Portuguese national archives. It also relies on oral testimony from former colonial security agents, military officials, and policymakers, as well as records gathered from several other relevant Lisbon-based archives. 

Administration and Intelligence Bureaucracies in the Portuguese Colonies

The first chapter provides an overview of colonial Mozambique’s security landscape. In particular, the chapter offers an insight into the ethos, mandate and development of the SCCIM.

I also scrutinise how SCCIM’s expanding responsibilities led to conflict with the Portuguese political police, PIDE/DGS (Polícia Internacional e de Defesa do Estado/Direcção-Geral de Segurança, International Police of State Defence/Directorate-General of Security). The competition between these two agencies led to a reduction of SCCIM’s mandate – and the service to focus on producing strategic intelligence, particularly on Mozambique’s various ethnic, linguistic, and religious groups, which included a Sunni Muslim minority. 

Muslim Communities in Mozambique

The second chapter delves into Mozambique’s Sunni Muslim communities. It discusses the emergence, spread and diversity of this religious minority, which had a significant presence in northern Mozambique. I also explore how Islam’s transnationalism helped propagate Sufi revivalism among African Muslims and  Islamic reformist movements among Mozambique’s Muslims of Indian origin. 

I then focus on Muslim communities under colonial rule, including how colonial officials sought to govern them, and Muslims’ mixed responses to these political efforts. The chapter concludes with a nuanced analysis of Muslims’ engagement with FRELIMO (Frente de Libertação de Moçambique/ Front for the Liberation of Mozambique) which was founded in 1962. 

Spying on Muslims in Colonial Mozambique

The next chapter examines SCCIM’s espionage infrastructure and how it gathered intelligence on Mozambique’s Muslims. It discusses the limited use of applied science to gain expert insights into Islam and Mozambique’s Muslim communities and reveals how the service’s use of informers often led to unreliable intelligence on the subject populations.

The chapter also tackles SCCIM’s Confidential Questionnaire on Islam, which was set up in late 1965, and led colonial officials to collect intelligence on more than 700 Sunni Muslim religious leaders throughout Mozambique. Analysis of the survey’s implementation illuminates the multiple challenges faced by SCCIM as it attempted to gather accurate intelligence and devise psychological warfare strategies directed at the colony’s Sunni Muslims.

Finally, I focus on SCCIM deputy Fernando Amaro Monteiro’s field missions to Mozambique’s Muslim areas from late 1968 onwards, to argue that these missions were driven to gain the support of Sunni Muslim leaders to bolster Portugal’s counterinsurgency efforts against FRELIMO.

Portugal’s Tug of War with Muslims Over the Liberation Struggle

The final chapter offers an overview of how Portugal tried to halt the spread of FRELIMO’s armed insurgency. It uncovers Portugal’s heavy-handed approach, which, from 1964 to 1968, shook northern Mozambique’s civilian populations, including Sunni Muslim communities and their leaders.

I also highlight the reasons underpinning the gradual, hesitant and disjointed shift in Portugal’s counterinsurgent tactics in Muslim areas. Particularly, the limited effectiveness of systematic repression in controlling these communities – and how this led to SCCIM’s attempts to co-opt the Muslim religious leadership as a bulwark against FRELIMO. Finally, the chapter tackles the psychological warfare tactics pursued from late 1968 to August 1972 to accomplish this. Ultimately, the progressive approach to co-opting Mozambique’s Sunni Muslim religious leadership failed to prevent the Portuguese empire’s collapse that followed the Carnation Revolution in April 1974.

Spying on Muslims in Colonial Mozambique, 1964-74 enhances our understanding of colonial security strategies in Mozambique during the liberation war, offering novel insights into the study of colonial counterinsurgency. Readers will form a holistic view of the Portuguese intelligence landscape and gain a comprehensive understanding of intelligence-gathering practices in colonial Mozambique. They will also learn about the intricate set of realities Muslims faced during the war and their responses to Portuguese efforts to win them over against armed nationalism.