Colonial powers use a range of techniques to control their colonial populations. These include mixtures of violence and the exploitation of religious and other social divisions. How did Portugal improvise with these colonial practices to rule Mozambique? What were the effects?

In this in-depth and compelling study, Sandra Araújo uses archival and oral sources to uncover a full-fledged intelligence agency and explore Portugal’s counterinsurgent spying on Muslim communities during Mozambique’s liberation struggle.

She pays particular attention to Portuguese intelligence gathering practices, the social realities this imposed on Muslims residents during the war, and to popular responses to Portuguese efforts to turn them against FRELIMO’s efforts to free Mozambique from colonial rule. Araújo’s book contributes to a new understanding of colonial security strategies in Mozambique during the liberation war, and sheds new light on the history of colonial counterinsurgency more broadly.

Sandra Araújo is a Junior Researcher at the Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa. For the duration of her ISRF First Book Fellowship, she was a visiting researcher at the Global History and Culture Centre at the University of Warwick.

Sandra was joined by Mustafah Dhada, Professor of History at California State University, Bakersfield; and Martin Thomas, Professor of History at the University of Exeter. A Q&A will followed, moderated by Chris Newfield, ISRF Director of Research.