Religious Women in Africa: The Missionary Work of the Servants of Our Lady of Fatima from a Colonial to a Post-Colonial Context

This paper sets out not only to explain how the Servants of Our Lady of Fatima became a missionary congregation in Mozambique in the late Portuguese colonial period (1972-1975) but also to detail the impacts of their activities in the post-colonial period in Mozambique. This process highlights the pastoral and theological approaches of the Servants. The missionary women were empowered during the early years of independence. This historical context was marked by changes in the ecclesiastic structures and pastoral approaches as well as changes in church-state relation during the transition of Mozambique to independence and the "sixteen years war"(1977-1992).