Chapter 7 CONCLUSION
2.1. INTRODUCTION
CHAPTER 2
PRE- AND POST-HAJJ RITES AND CEREMONIES AT THE CAPE IN THE 1 9T H AND 2 0T H CENTURIES
"Not all of them came as slaves. A small number came as political exiles. These political exiles were not permanent immigrants, although there is no doubt that when they left the Cape after their period of exile they left behind them descendants who joined the Muslim group. On the whole these exiles were treated far better than the slaves. A prince of Maccasar, Dain Mangale, for instance,
rode with Simon van der Stel as his guest when the governor explored the copper mountains".
According to Davids, over 50% of the total slaves came from India during the period 1658 to 1700 (see Appendix B): Since the coastal regions of India had a majority Muslim population, it can be safely assumed that a substantial number of these slaves were Muslim by faith.
On 2 April 1694, a group of Muslim exiles (amongst them religious scholars), under the leadership of Shaykh (religious scholar/head) Yusuf arrived at the Cape from Ceylon.
According to Dangor, this group who settled at Zandvliet:
"He formed one of the first very elementary structures of a Muslim community, and they came to present the first area of resistance to colonisation at the Cape".3
Shaykh Yusuf s influence at the Cape was vast, despite the fact that he died only five years after his arrival in 1699. Shaykh Yusuf remained the spiritual guide for the Muslims. His tomb, which is situated at Zandvliet, was the first place of Muslim visitation in South Africa. Shaykh Yusuf s tomb is the most significant amongst the five shrines of the holy circle of Islam, which surrounds the Cape Peninsula.4
The tradition of Cape Muslims visiting the tombs of these men whom they considered to be saints frequently, specifically before going on hajj, is relevant to this chapter and will be discussed later in detail.
The political exiles were treated far better than the slaves. For example, Imam Abdullah Ibn Kadi Abdus Salaam fAbd Allah Ibn Qadi vAbd al-Salam), better known as Tuan Guru, was one of those exiles who were treated with courtesy and respect. He was instrumental in consolidating Islam at the Cape. There were also a large number of convicts, who were banished from the islands of the East Indies for various crimes, such as Tuan Said. He was also instrumental in keeping Islam alive at the Cape.5
According to Davids, there is sufficient evidence to suggest that it was due to Tuan Guru's persistence that the first mosque, known as the Awwal Masjid, was built in South Africa in 1798 during the time of the first British occupation of the Cape of Good Hope.
He also emphasizes that:
" Many of the individualistic cultural traits of the Cape Muslim community emerged from this cultural ecological base". 6
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The Awwal Masjid
It is evident from the above information that this mosque served as the most important centre of the Muslims' social as well as religious life. In all probability it appears that the Cape Muslim traditions such as the "rampies sny", the cutting of orange leaves on the
Prophet's Birthday (mawlid) and other religious ceremonial feasts have also emerged and developed from this complex. Davids as well as other writers agree that the period of most rapid growth and development of Islam at the Cape was from 1800 to 1840.
The early Muslims of the Cape dedicated and devoted their lives to the preservation of Islam, and this undoubtedly laid the foundation for its consolidation and growth. Prayer gatherings and the propagation of Islam were conducted under difficult and restrictive conditions. The Dutch forbade the practice of any religious systems other than their church.
Despite the fact that religious freedom was only granted in 1804, the Muslims in Cape Town, as I have mentioned earlier, had already built their first mosque (The Awwal Masjid) in 1798. During the 19th century nine additional mosques were built for congregational worship. What is also significant in the context of this era is the establishment of Islamic schools, for the purpose of protecting Islamic teachings and cultural practices. Mayson asserted that in 1861 two large schools had already existed at the Cape and several other schools were located in the houses of Muslim clerics.9 The educational system was further strengthened when as early as 1820 distinguished Arabs from the island of Joanna in the Mozambique Channel visited the colony. In addition to this, during the 1880s, missionaries from Mecca arrived at the Cape to preach traditional Islam.10
Initially imams were trained locally. Later they travelled to Mecca with their families to perform hajj and extended their visits to augment the education they received in Cape Town. It became easier for Muslims to travel for hajj after a steamship started operating
between Cape Town and Aden and after the construction of the Suez Canal in 1869, when Cairo and Mecca became more accessible to Muslims at the Cape.
There is substantial historical evidence of Islamic communal ceremonies as well as festivities that took place at the Cape during the 18th and 19th centuries. These practices included: mawlid, celebrations of the two annual Ids (festivals), marriage and naming ceremonies and specific social gatherings connected with hajj to Mecca. The pre- and post-hajj ceremonies of the Cape Muslims differed significantly from those Muslims who settled in other cities of South Africa such as in Durban, where the Muslims were predominantly of Indian ethnicity.
Some Cape Muslims came from the Cape by train to Kimberley, from there they travelled by ox-wagon to Transvaal. The emergence of Muslims in Port Elizabeth stems from the 1806 Battle of Blaauberg. Those who were recruited for this battle were not happy to participate therein. They then absconded, travelled overland and eventually ended up in Uitenhage. Those who accepted recruitment, subsequently became known as the Malay Corps. Some of these soldiers, among whom were several imams, departed from Cape Town on 4 May 1846 and arrived in Port Elizabeth on 18 May 1846 to fight in the Battle of the Axe. When they were informed that the Governor in the Cape did not supply their families with food, some of them returned to the Cape whereas others remained and settled in the Eastern Cape.13
Muslims from Port Elizabeth known as "Baainaars"14 also moved to the Transvaal.
Names of the people who came to the Transvaal from Cape Town included: Ibrahim, KhalTl, Tofees, Hajji Ishaq and Hajji Rushdin, and from Port Elizabeth: Imam Muhammad Tayob Salih, Hajji KhairuUah, Rafie and Hendricks families. The relatives of
these pioneers still reside mostly in the Johannesburg metropolitan areas of Bosmont, Eldorado Park, Newclare and Riverlea.15 Imam Andan Abrahams, Hajjis Baba Domingo, Ibraham Latief, Salih Rasdien, Husayn Salih and NasTm Muller were active in establishing Islamic institutions in Johannesburg from 1920s.16 These families from the Cape who settled in Johannesburg took with them traditions which they had inherited from their ancestors; these will be discussed in this chapter.