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Yaseen Kippie talks to Zara about the history of Islam in South Africa. He tells us about the early community, made up of influential people exiled to the Cape by the Dutch. A story of survival and resistance, Yaseen tells us about ‘the revivers’, individuals who ensured the preservation of Islam in South Africa.
Yaseen Kippie holds a degree from the University of Cape Town in Politics, Media, and Arabic. He is a journalist and youth show host on current affairs on the Voice of the Cape Radio. He is also a student of the sacred sciences.
What We Talk About In This Episode
- The diverse ethnicities that make up South Africa and how Yaseen’s own heritage is representative of that.
- The first Muslims: exiles from the Dutch colonies
- What life was like for the early community: persecution by the Dutch and the ways in which religion was preserved under difficult conditions
- Yemeni influence on Muslims in South Africa
- The Revivers: the various figures that helped preserve and propagate religion in South Africa
- Religious disputes that arose over time and the ways in which they were dealt with
- British, Dutch and Ottoman influence on the early community
- Later Indian migration to South Africa
- Visiting tombs of saints in Cape Town
People/Things Mentioned in this Episode
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- Shaykh Yusuf of Macassar, one of the first Muslim scholars to be exiled to Cape Town in the 17th century.
- Tuan Guru, the father of public Islam in South Africa, established the first Mosque and Madrassa in South Africa at the end of the 18th century.
- Imam al Haddad
- Shaykh Muhammad Salih Hendricks, started the Azzawia Masjid in Cape Town, known for it’s dissemination of the works of Imam al-Ghazali.
- Mawlid at Zawiya Masjid Cape Town
- Dhikr in Cape Town
- Auwal Mosque
- Palm Tree Mosque
- Sacred Footsteps Insta Story on the Kramats/tombs of the saints of Cape Town
