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From the Heart of Darkness
South African Islam
(Part Two)
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By Shafiq Morton**
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December
20, 2005
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In
the context of IslamOnline.net’s special coverage of Muslims in
South Africa, Shafiq Morton offers his perspective on the history of
Islam in the country. Below is the second of a three-part series.
We
have already examined how Muslims and others could have landed in
South Africa prior to the Portuguese and Dutch, from pre-Islamic
seafarers such as the Phoenicians, to the Chinese in the 14th
century. But now, it’s time to focus on the late 17th century, the
more traditionally accepted era of Muslim arrival to the Cape of
Good Hope.
Cape
Town, a picturesque seaport that nestles at the foot of the
granite-faced Table Mountain at the junction of the Indian and
Atlantic Oceans, is without doubt the seminal hub of South African
Islam. Even today, more than 50 percent of the country’s 2 million
Muslims live in the Cape Town area, where over 130 masjids serve
their devotional needs (Taraweeg Survey).
As
a seaport, Cape Town has always had a cosmopolitan population; the
Muslim community has reflected this demographic since day one.
To
this effect the Cape Times, a local newspaper, observed in 1882 that
no country on the face of the earth was “more mixed in its
inhabitants” than the Cape of Good Hope.
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Early Cape Town, a Dutch style town (1700’s) |
And
even today, if one attends the congregational Friday prayers in any
Cape Town mosque, a person will be confronted with the full spectrum
of humanity sitting in the rows. The “Malay” description applied
to Cape Muslims by the colonialists and apartheid authorities has
always been an acknowledgment of their Islam, rather than their
race.
That
Islam arrived in the Cape (Africa’s southernmost urban center) via
the Far East is a curious twist in an absorbing tale. North of the
equatorial belt, Africa is almost 70 percent Muslim, and it just
seems more plausible that the deen should have spread from the
north—but it didn’t.
And
this is what sets South African Islam apart from the rest of the
continent. Brought to the soil of Africa through oppression in
another part of the world, many of South Africa’s greatest Islamic
pioneers arrived in chains.
Professor
Yusuf da Costa writes that the slave trade was primarily responsible
for the “involuntary migration” of large numbers of Asian and
African people to other parts of the world, including South Africa.
Some were political exiles and prisoners who had opposed Dutch and
British colonization of their countries, and their numbers included
many Muslims (Pages).
Most
slaves (about 50 percent) came from India’s Malabar and Bengal
Coasts, with the rest hailing from Madagascar, Ceylon (now known as
Sri Lanka), Africa, and the Malay-Indonesian archipelago.
Thus,
maintains, da Costa, the “earliest Cape Muslims were part of the
involuntary migration from Africa and Asia that lasted from 1652 to
1834.” He also notes that a group of “free” Muslims,
“Mardykers,” found themselves at the Cape shortly after 1652.
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Jan van Riebeeck |
Hailing
from Amboyna, an Indonesian island, they were the servants of Dutch
officials returning to the Netherlands from the Far East. Jan van
Riebeeck, a Dutch East India Company administrator, had landed at
the Cape in 1652 to establish a way station for the Dutch fleet
(Mahida).
Van
Riebeeck was short of labor to tend his vegetable gardens near the
company fort on Woodstock Beach, so some of the Mardykers opted to
stay behind at the Cape in 1658. They were prevented from openly
practicing their Islam by the Statutes of India, a “placaat”
that forbade (on the pain of death) the public practice or
propagation of any religion except for the Dutch Reform Church.
The
Mardykers were, nevertheless, permitted to worship in private, and
it could be argued that it was this group that engendered a
semblance of social urban cohesiveness amongst the early Muslims.
They were joined by another group, this time the “Vryezwarten”
(Free Blacks), who were convict laborers indentured in 1743 to
construct a breakwater in Table Bay.
In
1770, the British traveler George Foster observed that a “few
slaves” were meeting weekly in the home of a “free Mahommadan to
read, or rather chant, several prayers and chapters of the
Qur’an” (Mahida).
Muslims were prevented from openly practicing their religion by the Statutes of India, a
“placaat” that forbade the public practice or propagation of any religion except for the Dutch Reform Church. |
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The
doyen of Cape historians, Dr. Achmat Davids, observes that the
Mardykers and Vryezwarten, who became relatively prosperous, were
vital players in consolidating Islam at the Cape. Although
economically co-opted by the Europeans, the “Free Black” Muslim
community thoroughly identified itself with its fellow Muslim slaves
and exiles, providing them with cultural refuge.
In
fact, there is later evidence that the “Free Black” Muslims not
only owned slaves themselves, but also married into the slave and
exile population—this in addition to providing the first property
on which to build South Africa’s first mosque and madrasah in 1798 [1].
While
the “Free Black” Muslims provided the infrastructure for Islam
at the Cape, it could be said that the exiled `ulama from the Far
East—“Orang Cayen” noblemen of the Malay-Indonesian
Sultanates—gave the community its spiritual impetus. They were
sent to the Cape to neutralize their influence in Southeast Asia.
In
1667, The Polsbroek left Batavia with three West Sumatran political
prisoners in chains. The Cape Archives report:
On
24 January 1667, the ship The Polsbroek left Batavia and arrived
here on 13 May 1668 with three political prisoners in chains.
Malays of the West Coast of Sumatra, who were banished to the
Cape until further orders on the understanding that they would
eventually be released. They were rulers “Orang Cayen,” men
of wealth and influence. Great care had to be taken that they
were not left at large as they were likely to do injury to the
Company. Two were sent to the Company’s forest and one to
Robben Island.
The
forest to which these men, Sheikh Abdurahman Matebe Shah and Sheikh
Sayyid Mahmud, were banished was Constantia—a day’s wagon ride
from Table Bay. Sayyid Mahmud, whose shrine is visited to this day,
was described as a “religious advisor” and is regarded as the
first of the many Hadhrami Sayyids (descendents of the noble
Prophet) to be exiled to the Cape.
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The tomb on the grave of Shaikh Yusuf of Makasar on the dunes of Sandvlei near Faure |
The
Sayyids of Hadhraumat, intrepid traders and da`wah preachers, had
ventured into East Africa and the Malay-Indonesian archipelago in
about the 15th century. Dr. Achmat Davids observes that Islam was
still spreading among animistic island communities when the Dutch
arrived in the 17th century.
The
impact of Sheikh Sayyid Mahmud and his companion on the broader Cape
community is not known, although it is significant that their grave
sites and those of a Muslim community in the forest have been known
to Capetonians for over three hundred years.
The
next significant event was the arrival of the 68-year-old Sheikh
Yusuf of Makasar, Sheikh Yusuf Al-Taj Al-Khalwatiyyah Al-Maqasari [2],
on the Voetboog in 1694. Born of Indonesian nobility in Sulawesi, he
departed for Makkah when he was 18 and returned to become a teacher
and spiritual guide to the Bantamese court of Sultan Ageng.
Bantam
was a fiercely independent sultanate and one of the most resistant
to Dutch control. Court intrigue stirred up by the Dutch saw Sultan
Ageng displaced and forced to take up arms to defend himself. Sheikh
Yusuf sided with Sultan Ageng and was finally captured in 1686.
By
this time, Sheikh Yusuf’s reputation as a scholar, warrior, and
wali had spread far and wide throughout the archipelago. For the
Dutch, he was the proverbial political “hot potato.” His captors
brought him to Batavia but were unable to curb his influence.
Exiled
to Ceylon, the princes of Goa petitioned for his release. His
popularity forced the Dutch to finally exile him to the distant
shores of South Africa. And so, accompanied by 12 scholars, 2 wives,
2 slaves, 12 children, and 14 followers, Sheikh Yusuf was confined
to a farm called “Zandvliet” in False Bay.
In
spite of its isolation and distance from Cape Town, the sandy,
windswept Zandvliet—now called Macassar—is believed to have been
the first known rallying point for Muslims at the Cape. Professor
Dangor writes that Sheikh Yusuf, the undisputed giant of South
African Islam, had a threefold impact.
The first Qur’an in South Africa was written entirely from memory by the Rajah and given as a gift to the Governor. |
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First,
the Indonesian `alim restored dignity to a largely downtrodden
community. Second, as a practicing Sufi, he created durable
socio-religious structures. And third, through his missionary work,
he won over many local Khoi-Khoi and runaway slaves to Islam, thus
injecting the community with new blood.
Sheikh
Yusuf passed away in 1699, and in 1704 most of his family and
followers were allowed to return to Batavia. His one daughter, who
had married the exiled Rajah of Tambora, stayed behind, as did two
of his followers. One of them, Sheikh Mohamed Hassan Ghaibe Shah
Al-Qadiri, is buried on Signal Hill overlooking the central business
district of Cape Town, indicating that he must have played some
recognized role in the early Cape community.
The
Rajah of Tambora—after having been chained in Van Riebeeck’s
castle at Cape Town—was confined to Vergelen, the residence of
Governor Simon van der Stel. It was there that the first Qur’an in
South Africa was written entirely from memory by the Rajah and given
as a gift to the Governor.
Dr.
Achmat Davids argues that the Rajah’s influence on the Muslim
community was negligible. His children converted to Christianity and
assumed the surnames of de Haan and Sultania after his death.
Interestingly enough, Robert Shell writes that Piet Retief, the
famous Afrikaner Voortrekker leader, was a direct descendant of the
Rajah of Tambora.
In
1744, two further prominent `ulama were exiled to the Cape. Tuan
Sayyid `Alawi and Sayyid Abdurahman Matarah arrived from Mocca in
Yemen. Classified as “Mohammedaansche Priesters” by the
archives, they were to be kept in chains for the rest of their
lives. They were incarcerated on Robben Island where Sayyid Matarah
died in 1755.
Tuan
Sayyid `Alawi was released shortly after Sayyid Matarah’s death,
and became a policeman in Cape Town. He was renowned for his da`wah
work and is the first official imam of the South African Muslim
community.
Sources
Abu
Hamid. Sheikh Yusuf Makassar: `Alim, Sufi, Author, Hero.
Indonesia: Hasanuddin University, 1994.
Cape
Times, 1 August 1882.
Davids,
Achmat. The Mosques of the Bo-Kaap. Athlone: The South
African Institute of Arabic and Islamic Research, 1980.
Mahida,
Ebrahim Mahomed. History of Muslims in South Africa: A Chronology.
Durban: Arabic Study Circle, 2003.
Pages
from Cape Muslim History.
Pietermaritzburg: Shuter and Shooter, 1994.
Shell,
Robert. The Establishment and Spread of Islam at the Cape
from the beginning of Company Rule to 1838. BA (Hons) Thesis,
UCT, Cape Town, 1974.
Taraweeg
Survey 2002, Boorhanol Islam Movement, Cape Town.
**
Shafiq Morton is a senior South African journalist and a
presenter at the Voice of the Cape radio station.
[1]
Saartjie van de Kaap, whose manumitted father Coridon of Ceylon
became the first Muslim land-owner in Cape Town, ceded her property
for use as South Africa’s first mosque by Tuan Guru (Imam
`Abdallah Qadi Abdus Salam), a formerly imprisoned exile who married
a “free Black” Muslim woman, Kaija (Khadija?) van de Kaap, upon
his release from Robben Island in 1793.
[2]
Sheikh Yusuf had ijazah in all the major Sufi orders, but was known
as the “Crown” of the Khalwatiyyah.
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