The Cape Town Muslim Community and East African Sufi Networks Beyond the Monsoon

chapter 5 The Cape Town Muslim Community and East African Sufi Networks Beyond the Monsoon

This chapter traces the late nineteenth and early twentieth century daʿwa- based, ocean-borne Islamic reform beyond the orbit of dhow shipping to its southernmost point, that is to the Muslim community of Cape Town. In other words, focus here is on the links between Cape Town and the Indian Ocean networks of Islamic scholarship.

Islam in South Africa and Cape Town1

The first influx of Sufi teachings in the Cape region came from the Dutch possessions in south-east Asia, notably in the form of exiles who had been involved in resistance against colonial rule. Yūsuf al-Tāj al-Khalwatī was the first such shaykh, deported from Batavia to the Cape in 1694, often referred to as the year of Islam’s arrival to South Africa.2 Shaykh Yūsuf was a Sufi of

1 On what follows on the background of Sufism in the Cape region and in South Africa, see J.A. Naude, “A Historical Survey of Opposition to Sufism in South Africa”, in: F. de Jong and B. Radtke, Islamic Mysticism Contested. Thirteen Centuries of Controversies and Polemics, Leiden (Brill), 1999; M. Haron, “Islamic Dynamism in South Africa’s Western Cape”, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 9:2, 1998, 366–372; M. Haron, “Daʾwah⁠ movements and Sufi tarīqahs: Competing for spiritual spaces in contemporary south(ern) Africa”, Journal of Muslim Minority Affairs, 25:2, 261–285; Y. da Costa, Islam in Greater Cape Town. A Study in the Geography of Religion, PhD Thesis, University of South Africa, 1989: Y. da Costa and A. Davids, Pages from Cape Muslim History, Shooter and Shuter, Pietermaritzburg, 1994, A.K. Tayob, Islamic Resurgence in South Africa, Cape Town: University of Cape Town Press, 1995; A.K. Tayob, Islam in South Africa. Mosques, Imams and Sermons, University Press of Florida, 1999; S. Hendricks, Taṣawwuf (Ṣūfism): Its role and impact on the Culture of Cape Islam, MA Thesis, University of South Africa, 2005; N. Green, Bombay Islam. The Religious Economy of the Western Indian Ocean, 1840–1915, Cambridge (Cambridge University Press), 2011. 2 A celebration was held in South Africa in 1994 to mark the “300 years anniversary” of Islam in the country. The career of Yusuf al-Maqassarī/Tuan Salamanka/Sjech Joesop/Yusuf of Macassar is analysed from an Indian Ocean perspective by M. Feener, “Hybridity and the “Hadrami Diaspora” in the Indian Ocean Muslim Networks,” Asian Journal of Social Science, 32:3, 2004, 353–372.

© koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ��4 | doi ��.��63/9789004276543_��6 the cape town muslim community 91 the Khalwatiyya ṭarīqa, and before arriving in Cape Town he had studied in Mecca. In Cape Town, Shaykh Yūsuf gave Islamic instruction to his followers and a handful of others, all the while operating under strict laws that banned Islamic practices completely. What he founded was in effect “a rudimen- tary Muslim community”.3 Shaykh Yūsuf died in Cape Town in 1699, and his grave soon became – and continues to be – a pilgrimage site for Muslims in the Cape region. Another influential early teacher was ʿAbd Allāh Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Salām, also known as Tuan Guru (“Mister Teacher”), who died in 1806. He spent time imprisoned on Robben Island before going on to found the first mosque in Cape Town. That was the Awwal Mosque (“The First Mosque”), founded in 1798 in what was to become BoKaap, the Muslim quarter of central Cape Town. The mosque also had a madrasa, where the still tiny Muslim community could study Quran and religious texts. The years following the death of Tuan Guru saw a dramatic expansion of the Muslim community of Cape Town. By 1842 it had reached 6,400 people; by 1854 about 8,000. By 1867, the estimate was between 12,000 and 14,000.4 The number of mosques grew accordingly, and the Imāms connected to these mosques became public figures. However, as has been pointed out by S. Jeppie, no formal organization of Imāms took place in the nineteenth century.5 Furthermore, the community was predominantly of south-east Asian origin, giving rise to the notion of the “Cape Malay” as a distinct and bounded community.6 It was also

3 Fahmi Gamieldien, The History of the Claremont Main Road Mosque. Its People and their Contribution to Islam in South Africa, Published by the Claremont Main Road Mosque, 2004. 4 S. Jeppie, “Leadership and Loyalties: The Imāms of Nineteenth Century Colonial Cape Town, South Africa”, J. of Religion in Africa, XXVI, 2, 1996, 139–162. 5 S. Jeppie, “Leadership and Loyalties.” The Muslim Judiciary Council was only founded in 1945. 6 The notion of the Cape Muslim community as being in nature “diasporic” has undergone a number of revisions. During the apartheid era, the “foreignness” of the Cape Muslims was invoked to differentiate the Muslims from other communities, such as the local Khoisan. The concept of “Malay” came under criticism by the 1980s and 90s, as the notion of “foreignness” came to be seen as obsolete and counterproductive to the anti-apartheid struggle and in turn to the building of the new, non-racial South-Africa. See for example S. Jeppie, “Re-classifications: Coloured, Malay, Muslim”, in: Z. Erasmus (ed.), Coloured by History, Shaped by Place. New Perspectives on Coloured Identities in Cape Town, Cape Town (Kwela), 2001. However, diasporic consciousness resurfaced as a strategic resource in the later 1990s as ties with Malaysia and Indonesia were re-activated. S. Bangstad, “Diasporic Consciousness as a Strategic Resource: A Case Study from a Cape Muslim Community,” in: L. Manger and M. Azzal, Diasporas within and without Africa – Dynamism, hetereogeneity, variation, forth- coming, Uppsala, 2006.