Malay in South Africa

Map of  South Africa, The Malay Community in  Cape Town

The Cape of Malay

The very first Malays in South Africa are thought to have arrived in the Cape with Jan van Riebeeck in 1652. A short while later, even more arrived in the form of slaves, political prisoners and criminals, who were brought to the country to perform involuntary labour. By 1799 the Cape Malay community had grown sufficiently for the government to send an entire regiment – known as the Malay Regiment – of soldiers to the Eastern Cape to help the colonial army fight against the Xhosas. In 1846, the Malay Corps arrived in the Port Elizabeth area to fight in what eventually became known as the ‘Battle of the Axe’. Once the fighting subsided, many of these soldiers chose to stay on in the area that became known as Uitenhage and Port Elizabeth (now Nelson Mandela Bay) and build lives for themselves.

A photo taken in a Javanese madrassah in the Dutch Colonial period. Left hand corner of the picture shows two pairs of wooden Javanese clogs. In Cape Town, these were called kaparangs and could be found in many old masjids in cape town. Also notice the manner of teaching and learning the holy Quran, using a 'kalam' (wooden stick) to point. this method still used in many old-school madrassahs in cape town. Also the usage of melayu terms for arabic vowels - fat'ha = dettis (di atas), Kasrah = bawah, Dommah = dapan, tanween = dua dettis, dua dapan, dua bawah, Shaddah = saptu.

The Sword and sheild above belonged to Tuan Guru Imam Abdullah ibn Qadi Abdussalaam, the first Imam of the Awal Masjid in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town.

As is to be expected, religion was a very important part of life for the Cape Malays. The first mosque to have been built in the Cape Colony was erected in 1846 in Uitenhage and is known as the Masjid-Al-Qudama mosque. It was followed by the Majied-Ul-Abkbar mosque in Grace Street, which was the first mosque to be built in Port Elizabeth. Built in 1855, the Grace Street mosque is more than 150 years old. It is interesting to note that the original members of the congregation ran out of funds halfway through construction and it was only through the grace of the Sultan of Turkey that the building was finished. The building of this mosque was seen as being of great importance since, prior to this, Cape Malays had been forced to leave on Thursday for Uitenhage in order to attend services on Friday. 

The Cape-Malay Quarter in Cape Town, with Lion's Head in the background.

 Mosque with Table Mountain in Cape Town

Later, more mosques were built in Rudolph Street and Pier Street, making them an easily accessible centre of the Muslim community. Unfortunately, most of the mosques were no longer in walking distance for many Muslims after their forced relocation under the Group Areas Act. Furthermore, the Malay people had to fight efforts to have their sacred places of worship bulldozed on more than one occasion. In the first instance, the United Nations spoke up against the regime’s efforts to destroy one of these historical landmarks. Just 5 years later, the same mosque was almost bulldozed to make way for a new freeway. Its dome and minaret were removed as part of the demolition before proceedings came to a grinding halt. Today, a truncated piece of freeway stops just short of the mosque as a reminder of past events. Thus, the mosques in Port Elizabeth are a fitting symbol of the tenacity, courage and resolution that the members of the Muslim faith in South End share.

The colored houses

The kids  from school

Originally,      the entire area     that is now known as South End was once part of a farm called Papenbietjiesfontein. In time, it was given to the municipality and, shortly thereafter, the bulk of it was divided into plots and sold to the Malays. Before long, the flourishing      community     of South  End  started to develop. The earliest Cape Malays     who had helped   to establish the

community   here were not noteworthy in themselves. However,    as a people,       their role as pioneers  and their devotion to the Islamic faith were of the utmost importance.      These early pioneers maintained the religious practices of the Cape and these    have passed down over the generations regardless of where their descendants chose to settle.

Credit: The cape Malay Community, South End Museum

http://www.southendmuseum.co.za/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=10&Itemid=9

              :   Rurousha 流浪者, http://rurousha.blogspot.com/2013/03/the-cape-malay-community-of-cape-town.html