On the hills in and around Cape Town you will find dozens of Muslim graves, the oldest of which are 17th century. Some have small domed structures built over them, known locally as kramats, and belong to notable and influential men whose deeds are well-known. But there are many other men, the details of whose lives are only now, slowly, coming to light thanks to the meticulous work of the Cape’s Muslim historians – the descendants of these very men.
In 1694, a man by the name of Yusuf arrived on the southernmost tip of the African continent in chains. He was almost 70 years old and had a mere five years of life left. He would never see his homeland or his loved ones again, but would ensure, in those few remaining years, that his captors would live to regret his presence in this ‘new land’, and would never forget his name.
Shaykh Yusuf of Makassar, as he came to be known, was a learned and well-travelled man. Born in 1626 in Makassar, Indonesia, he was the nephew of King Bisei of Goa. Along with undertaking a pilgrimage to Mecca, Shaykh Yusuf also travelled to Hadramaut, Yemen, where he came into contact with Imam Abdullah bin ‘Alawi al-Haddad, the notable scholar and saint of the Ba’Alawi sufi order.
During this same period, the Dutch colonial empire had expanded its reach to include parts of India, Ceylon (Sri Lanka) and Indonesia under the banner of the Dutch East India Company. But they encountered resistance from locals – scholars, political leaders and royalty among them. To break the resistance, the authorities imprisoned the worst of the offenders, exiling some to other Dutch colonies – including Shaykh Yusuf.
Shaykh Yusuf’s reputation had grown due to his role in the anti-colonial resistance, and according to the late historian Achmat Davids, some even considered him a saint. Fearing his influence, he was exiled first to Ceylon and then even further afield to another Dutch colony at the time, the Cape in modern-day South Africa.
The Dutch East India Company required manpower to create settlements in the Cape, and so political prisoners and slaves were transported from the East Indies, Sri Lanka and Madagascar, and their numbers further supplemented with West African slaves–the vast majority of whom would have been Muslim. They were forced to endure brutal conditions, and any form of dissent or open practice of Islam, was harshly punished.
Despite his shackles, Shaykh Yusuf arrived in the Cape as a man of influence, a threat to the Company. As a political prisoner, he was afforded a relative amount of freedom not available to slaves and other prisoners – and made great use of it despite the risks. He was stationed at Zandvelit, outside Cape Town, and quickly established a small community along with 49 of his followers who were exiled with him. According to oral narratives, it became a refuge and place of learning for runaway slaves and converts to Islam from among the local Khoe people. They were taught to read Quran and participate in other spiritual practices.
Shaykh Yusuf of Makassar died in 1699; while his time in the Cape was short-lived, his efforts were not, and the spiritual practices he established are still practised by Cape Town’s Muslim community today. A kramat was built over his burial place and the area is now known as Makassar in his honour.
Shaykh Yusuf is considered by historians to be the founder of Islam in South Africa, but he was not alone; there were other men of wealth, learning and influence, known as Orang Kaya, who were exiled in the same period. These men risked their lives to propagate Islam, organise slave revolts and lead anti-colonial resistance with whatever little means they had.
Imam Joudan Tappa, also known as Santrij, came from Cirebon on the island of Java. After organising the escape of a group of slaves, he was captured and brutally executed. He is considered the first martyr of Islam in the Cape.
Tuan Noriman arrived in the Cape from Batavia in 1770. He was initially enslaved but found himself incarcerated on Robben Island after assisting slaves in their escape.
Tuan Said Alawi was exiled to the Cape from Mocca, Yemen in 1744, along with another Imam Hadji Matarim. Both were classed as a Mohammedaansche Priesters due to their propagation of Islam. They were imprisoned on Robben Island where Hadji Matarim eventually died and was buried. His kramat can be visited on the Island today.
Tuan Said Alawi was eventually released from incarceration and became a police officer in the Slave Lodge so that he could secretly teach slaves, putting his own life at great risk.
Although Shaykh Yusuf of Makassar has the honour of being Islam’s founder in South Africa, the distinction of being the first imam and founder of the Muslim community, is reserved for another.
Imam Abdullah Kadi Abdus Salam, more commonly known as Tuan Guru was an Indonesian nobleman, related to the royal family of Tidore. He was exiled and imprisoned on the infamous Robben Island in 1780. A man of learning, he wrote the Quran in his own hand from memory to ensure its preservation for future generations. After his release from prison, he engaged in dawah in Cape Town within a context of intense Dutch Christian missionary activity. Due to the efforts of people like him, Islam steadily grew in the Cape during this period.
By the 1770’s, almost a century after Shaykh Yusuf’s death, the Dutch colonial authorities turned a blind eye towards private religious gatherings, and when the new British colonial administration took over from the Dutch 20 years later, permission was granted to turn a warehouse into the Auwal Mosque. The land for the mosque was donated by Saartjie van de Kaap, the daughter of Coridon van Ceylon, a freed slave. Tuan Guru became the mosque’s first imam and his hand-written Quran is still on display there today.
The heroic deeds of the Cape’s first Muslims were preserved through the oral tales told by their descendants from one generation to the next. It is only in recent decades however, that has it become possible to historically verify some of these accounts.
The painful legacy of South Africa’s colonisers filtered deep into the 20th century under Apartheid, and the painstaking work of historians and researchers such as the late Achmat Davids, Ebrahim Rhoda, Shaykh Yusuf da Costa, Professor Ebrahim Salie, Shafiq Morton and many others, could only be undertaken once they had the opportunity and the means to uncover this history through archival research.
But this is an on-going process, with much yet to discover. Younger researchers, such as Abdud-Daiyaan Petersen, now have a greater availability of resources than previous generations and are ensuring that this process will continue.
It is a great irony that in their attempts to curb anti-colonial resistance, the Dutch inadvertently spread Islam to a part of the world that was not yet acquainted with it. The men who arrived on new shores with nothing but faith in their hearts and chains on their wrists, showed immense courage by practicing and preserving their faith, and resisting their oppressors in any way they could.
Today, their graves are visited by both Muslims and non-Muslims alike. They have come to be known as saints, whose graves form a loose ring around Cape Town, in symbolic protection of the city.
The work of the Cape’s Muslim historians has collectively ensured that tales about South Africa’s first Muslims will be remembered as history and not dismissed as legend.
References
- Shafiq Morton, “Shaykh Yusuf of Makassar”.
- Cape Mazaar Society
- Ebrahim Rhoda, Islamic Dawah at the Cape during the Dutch and British Colonial Period 1652-1842, DPB Printers and Booksellers, 2019.
- Achmat Davids, “Sheikh Yusuf of Macassar”, 1994.
- Guide to the Kramats of the Western Cape, Cape Mazaar Society.
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