Sandra Araújo

Dr Sandra Araújo

First Book Fellow 2022-23

Spying on Muslims in Colonial Mozambique, 1964-74

The project is a scholarly monograph grounded in meticulous archival work on Portugal’s counterinsurgency that targeted Muslim communities during Mozambique’s liberation war. It tackles the role Muslims played in colonial Mozambique paying particular attention to lived realities that they as colonial subjects faced during the colonial war, and their response to Portuguese initiatives to solicit their support as a bulwark against armed nationalism.

More information

Research outcomes

Araújo, S. (2025).

Spying on Muslims in Colonial Mozambique, 1964-74. Bloomsbury Publishing.

Blog posts

How Portugal spied on Muslims in colonial Mozambique

At the ISRF’s November Congress, Fellow Sandra Araújo revealed the remarkable hidden history behind her forthcoming book.

Areas of interest

Anthropology Mozambique Southern Africa Coloniality Intelligence Services Surveillance Islam Counterinsurgency Colonial Violence

Cohort

FBF1

Biography

Sandra Araújo holds a Junior Researcher position at Instituto de Ciências Sociais, Universidade de Lisboa. She was an awardee of the First Book Grant competition by the Independent Social Research Foundation, with the project Spying on Muslims in Colonial Mozambique, 1964-74, which explores how Portuguese intelligence services sought to exploit Muslim communities to back its counter-insurgent war during the liberation struggle in colonial Mozambique. For the duration of the award, Sandra was Visiting Research Fellow at the Global History and Culture Centre, University of Warwick. Her post-doctoral work focuses on the role of Portuguese intelligence during the liberation wars.

Biographical details correct as of 11.03.25