Muslim Heritage

Pious Muslims believe it was prophesied some two and a half centuries ago, that a ‘circle of Islam’ would eventually surround Cape Town. According to local lore, this circle consisting of two dozen ornamental tombs or Kramats of ‘Auliyah’ (friends of Allah), is now complete. These are the mausoleums of important historical figures from the early Cape Muslims brought here as during the rule of the Dutch East India Company (Vereenigde Oostindische Compagnie or VOC) as slaves, convicts, or exiles.

Reputedly, this sacred circle or crescent, safeguards Cape Town and surrounds from natural and other disasters. Many Muslims therefore view these Kramats as places of blessing, where intimacy with God can be attained.

I have been meaning to visit some of these historic Kramats, after reading The History of the Tana Baru and visiting this old Muslim cemetery on the slopes of Signal Hill.

Fortunately, I discovered the Cape Mazaar (Kramat) Society had published a handy, Guide to the Kramats of the Western Cape.

This little booklet is the ideal travelling companion to these Kramats. It contains guidelines on the etiquette for visiting a Kramat, the local term for the tomb of a saint. There are also brief descriptions and histories of the twenty-four Kramats, complete with map and GPS co-ordinates.

A visit to the Kramat of Sheikh Yusuf at Faure, supposedly the most important Muslim tomb in the Western Cape, soon beckoned. My interest was stimulated by discovering Sheikh Yusuf’s life commenced in distant Makassar, on the island...

Sometimes an interesting question is asked. ‘Which Cemetery is the most venerable in South Africa?’ Not so easy to answer as one may think. There are some strong contenders but the Tana Baru in the Bo-Kaap, the oldest Muslim Cemetery in Cape Town, can certainly stake a very credible claim. This is the only historical cemetery in South Africa of which an informative book has been written, The History of the Tana Baru, by Achmat Davids. This book was partly written to promote the preservation of the Tana Baru, the resting place of some of the pioneers of Islam in Cape Town, but more of this later.

The Tana Baru Cemetery has its origins in the involuntary migration of slaves from India, East Indies, Africa, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka), Malaya and Mauritius to the Cape. It is thought that between 1652 and 1818 close to 70% of immigrant slaves to the Cape came from India and the East Indies, followed by about 27% from Africa with the remainder from Sri Lanka, Malaya, and Mauritius. Some slaves were already adherents of Islam upon their arrival at the Cape and were very effective in proselytising other slaves and the free Blacks because of the shared bondage of racial oppression and social background.

The name Tana Baru is derived from Malay or Melayu, as it is sometimes called. Melayu was the eighteenth century trading language of a vast geographical area stretching from Madagascar to China and commonly spoken by the Cape Muslims during...