AfricaBib 
bibliographic database
| Previous page | New search |
The free AfricaBib App for Android is available here
 Periodical article |
 Leiden University catalogue |
 WorldCat |
| Title: | Jehovah's Witnesses in Colonial Mozambique |
| Author: | Pinto, Pedro |
| Year: | 2005 |
| Periodical: | Le Fait Missionnaire: Social Sciences and Missions |
| Issue: | 17 |
| Period: | December |
| Pages: | 61-123 |
| Language: | English |
| Geographic terms: | Mozambique Portugal |
| Subjects: | Jehovah's Witnesses colonial period colonialism History and Exploration Religion and Witchcraft |
| External link: | https://doi.org/10.1163/221185205X00130 |
| Abstract: | This article examines the history of the Jehovah's Witnesses and the Watchtower (independent) movements in the former Portuguese colony of Mozambique up until 1974. It investigates why the Portuguese authorities spent a considerable amount of time and resources to investigate these movements, despite the fact that their number of followers was insignificant. The oldest reference concerning the presence of followers and adepts of those beliefs in Mozambique goes back to the 1920s, and illustrates the importance of migration for the spread of new ideas. During the Salazar regime, communism was identified as the main enemy. In this context, the colonial administration started to look with great caution at the activities of religious groups, and in particular movements such as the Jehovah's Witnesses, that were seen as liable to turn antinational. Moreover, Jehovah's Witnesses' pacifist ideas, conscientious objection, refusal to salute the flag and sing the national anthem were considered as subversive by the military and ultra-integrationist sectors of the colonial regime. However, the policy of the colonial government towards the Jehova's Witnesses was ambiguous, and repression and flexibility coexisted side by side. Bibliogr., notes, ref. [ASC Leiden abstract] |