BATUQUE SEM TAMBOR: ISLAMIZAÇÕES E INICIAÇÕES NA ILHA DE MOÇAMBIQUE

Abstract

This paper belongs to a research conducted in Ilha de Moçambique between 2019 and 2020, when I participated in a series of rituals generically called “batuques” in Mozambican Portuguese and, more precisely, ikoma or mwali (initiation rites) in the emakhuwa language. I attempt to describe and offer some reflections based on a rite to which I have been invited by a friend and mwali counselor, Saida Issufo. This particular rite seemed at odds with others. In contrast to the great parties with mockeries and loud expressions by the invitees, this ritual was discrete; the participants were quiet, wore hijabs, and were focused on counseling. In other words, that was a rite without climax, dance, and drums (batuque). Such contrast, allied with later conversations with Saida and other women, is the starting point for some considerations on the recent adaptations of ritual practices of makhuwa women in the north literal of Mozambique connected to the experience of the reformist Islamism locally called halissuna.