Yara Costa: new religious colonialisms in Mozambique

Wahabi Islam and evangelical Christianity are both growing in this tolerant and multicultural country. Multinational companies are extracting wealth and security companies profiting from social conflict. And Sharia utopia conflicts with the desirefor consumer goods. Costa spoke to The Prisma.

"They are taking over, they are now in parliament, and I think that this is what happens when fundamentalist religion -of all kinds- gets to places where the state doesn't reach and starts educating people in religious schools."

Yara grew up in Mozambique, one of the most multicultural countries in Africa, and her new documentary "Entre eu e Deus" (Between god and I) tells the story of Karen, a young Muslim woman who advocates for Sharia (Islamic law), while still being a feminist and wanting to solve problems of poverty and inequality. Costa's family is like many others with Catholic and Muslim members, and for centuries the religions have cohabited, with people of one faith often attending services of the other.

But in recent years fundamentalists have been coming in opening new churches and mosques and trying to impose 'pure' intolerant versions of each religion. The phrase, 'a person of Asian origin' has recently started being used on news programmes. Some multinational corporations are exacerbating inequality and profiting from social tensions, while others profit from this.

Eric Prince the head of the Blackwater security firm that made a lot of money in Iraq, has recently signed a contract with the Mozambican government.

I had a long conversation with Yara after the showing of her film at DocLisboa. and it can be read in full with photographs where it was first published in ThePrisma Multicultural Newspaper here: https://theprisma.co.uk/2018/11/26/yara-costa-new-religious-colonialisms-in-mozambique/