DOCSLIB.ORG

Indian Ocean Slaves in Cape Town, 1695–1807

Total Page：16

File Type：pdf, Size：1020Kb

Download full-text PDF Read full-text
Indian Ocean Slaves in Cape Town, 1695–1807 Indian Ocean Slaves in Cape Town, 1695–1807 Nigel Worden The most immediate and visible connection of early colonial Cape Town to the Indian Ocean world lay in its sizeable slave population. This article will examine new data from household inventories to enumer- ate in more precise ways than has previously been possible the Indian Ocean origins of slaves imported into the town in the 18th and early 19th centuries. In particular, it identifies the importance of south Asian sources in the earlier parts of the 18th century and the shift to the African coast in the later 18th and 19th centuries. Both of these regions are neglected in current academic and popular perceptions of the origins of slaves in the city. Comparisons will be made throughout with slavery in other colonial Indian Ocean port cities of the period. It is only since about 2007 that South Africa’s place in the historical networks of the Indian Ocean world has begun to be recognised by South African and Indian Ocean scholars influenced by transnational approaches.1 The process Source: Worden, Nigel, “Indian Ocean Slaves in Cape Town, 1695-1807,” Journal of Southern African Studies, 42(3) (2016): 389–408. © The Editorial Board of the Journal of Southern African Studies, reprinted by permission of Taylor & Francis Ltd, http://www.tandfonline.com on behalf of The Editorial Board of the Journal of Southern African Studies. 1 For South Africa’s Indian Ocean connections, see, most notably, I. Hofmeyr, ‘South Africa’s Indian Ocean’, History Compass, 11, 7 (2013), pp. 508–12, and P. Gupta, I. Hofmeyr and M. Pearson (eds), Eyes Across the Water: Navigating the Indian Ocean (Pretoria, UNISA Press, 2010). Cape Town’s early colonial links to the Indian Ocean are highlighted especially in K. Ward, ‘“Tavern of the Seas”?: The Cape of Good Hope as an Oceanic Crossroads during the Seventeenth and Eighteenth Centuries’, in J. Bentley, R. Bridenthal and K. Wigen (eds), Seascapes: Maritime Histories, Littoral Cultures, and Transoceanic Exchanges (Honolulu, Hawaii University Press, 2007), pp. 137–52; K. Ward, Networks of Empire: Forced Migration in the Dutch East India Company (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009); N. Worden, ‘VOC Cape Town as an Indian Ocean Port’, in H. P. Ray and E. A. Alpers (eds), Cross Currents and Community Networks: The History of the Indian Ocean World (Delhi, Oxford University Press, 2007), pp. 142–62. Recent examples of the growing awareness of Cape Town by Indian Ocean specialists include P. Larson, Ocean of Letters: Language and Creolization in an Indian Ocean Diaspora (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2009); C. Anderson, Subaltern Lives: Biographies of Colonialism in the Indian Ocean World, 1790–1920 (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 2012). Meg Samuelson also made important initiatives with a series of workshops—‘Indian Ocean Africa’ and ‘Thinking Africa from the Cape’—held at Stellenbosch University, South Africa, in 2011. © koninklijke brill nv, leiden, ���8 | doi ��.��63/97890043466��_044 Indian Ocean Slaves In Cape Town, 1695–1807 1369 is far from complete, but has been especially influential among historians of early colonial Cape Town. For in the 17th and 18th centuries Cape Town’s ad- ministrative, trading, demographic and cultural connections were at least as strongly linked to the Indian Ocean as to the Atlantic and European worlds, or indeed to its continental African hinterland.2 Nowhere is this more evident than in the origins of Cape Town’s slave popula- tion. This has of course long been recognised not only in academic scholarship but also in the memory of slave descendants and in wider popular awareness, through the identification of Cape Islam and ‘Cape Malays’, with a heritage from south-east Asia.3 Yet this is only part of the story, since Cape Town’s slave population came from a much wider geographical range than south-east Asia. Existing accounts of slavery in the town during the period of Vereenigde Oost-Indische Compagnie (Dutch East India Company—VOC) rule in the 17th and 18th centuries have not matched the detail and focus of Andrew Bank’s magisterial analysis of urban slavery in the period of British rule between 1806 and 1834.4 There is a good reason for this. Bank was able to draw on detailed slave registers that were kept in the decades of amelioration leading up to slave emancipation, initiated by the British authorities to check on the illegal impor- tation of slaves into the colony after the abolition of the slave trade in 1807. No such registers exist for the preceding centuries. The only relatively complete set of data for slaves in the VOC period are the opgaaf tax rolls, but these do not distinguish urban residents in Cape Town from farmers in the surrounding grain lands of the Cape district, nor do they list slaves by name and toponym 2 For the most recent scholarship on these themes, see N. Worden (ed.), Cape Town between East and West: Social Identities in a Dutch Colonial Town (Johannesburg and Hilversum, Jacana and Verloren, 2012). 3 The literature on this is now extensive. Notable examples are R. Ross, Cape of Torments: Slavery and Resistance in South Africa (London, Routledge 1983); N. Worden, Slavery in Dutch South Africa (Cambridge, Cambridge University Press, 1985); R. Shell, Children of Bondage: A Social History of Slave Society at the Cape of Good Hope, 1652–1838 (Hanover and Johannesburg, Wesleyan University Press and Wits University Press, 1994). For the more recent growth of public and popular awareness of this heritage, see N. Worden, ‘The Changing Politics of Slave Heritage in the Western Cape, South Africa’, Journal of African History, 50, 1 (2009), pp. 23–40. 4 A. Bank, The Decline of Urban Slavery at the Cape, 1806–1843, Communications, No. 22 (Cape Town, Centre for African Studies, UCT, 1991). For work on urban slavery in the VOC period, which includes slave total numbers extracted from the few available sources, see R. Ross, ‘The Occupations of Slaves in Eighteenth Century Cape Town’, in C. Saunders and H. Phillips (eds), Studies in the History of Cape Town (Cape Town, Centre for African Studies, UCT, 1984), pp. 1–14; and parts of N. Worden, E. van Heyningen and V. Bickford-Smith, Cape Town: The Making of a City (Cape Town, David Philip, 1998)..
Load more

Recommended publications
  • Two Rivers Urban Park Contextual Framework Review and Preliminary Heritage Study
    1 TWO RIVERS URBAN PARK CONTEXTUAL FRAMEWORK REVIEW AND PRELIMINARY HERITAGE STUDY Phase One Report Submitted by Melanie Attwell and Associates in association with ARCON Heritage and Design, and ACO Associates on behalf of NM & Associates Planners and Designers [email protected] 2 Caxton Close Oakridge 7806 021 7150330 First submitted: November 2015 Resubmitted: May 2016 2 Table of Contents List of Figures....................................................................................................................................... 3 Executive Summary ........................................................................................................................... 4 List of Acronyms ................................................................................................................................. 5 1. Introduction .................................................................................................................................... 6 1.1 Report Structure ....................................................................................................................... 6 1.2 Brief and Scope of Work ......................................................................................................... 7 2. Limitations ....................................................................................................................................... 7 3. Location .........................................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • Institutional Pathways for Local Climate Adaptation
    [ March 2014 ] Institutional Pathways for Local Climate Adaptation: A Comparison of Three South African Municipalities Globally, many local authorities have begun developing programmes of climate change adaptation to curb existing and expected local climate impacts. Rather than being a one-off, sector-specific 18 technical fix, effective adaptation is increasingly recognised as a process of socio-institutional learning and change. While notions of governance are coming to the fore in climate change adaptation literature, the influence of local political and bureaucratic forces is not well documented or understood, particularly in developing country contexts. This research focuses on the political, institutional and social factors shaping the initiation of climate adaptation in three South African municipalities – Cape Town, Durban and Theewaterskloof – considered local leaders in addressing climate concerns. The findings show that, with little political or fiscal support, climate change adaptation currently remains in the realm of technical planning and management, where progress is contingent on the energy, efforts and agency of individuals. There is, however, some evidence that the efforts of local champions, in concert with rising global awareness of climate change and increasing impacts on the poor and the rich alike, are beginning to create a March 2014 political opportunity to make climate change a central development issue, linked to public services, markets and employment. Institutional Pathways for Local Climate AUTHORS Anna
    [Show full text]
  • Goema's Refrain
    Goema’s Refrain: Sonic Anticipation and the Musicking Cape by Valmont Layne Submitted for the Degree of Doctor of Philosophy in History, Faculty of Arts, University of the Western Cape Supervisor: Professor Premesh Lalu http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ 3 Declaration I, Valmont Layne, declare that Goema’s Refrain: Sonic Anticipation and the Musicking Cape is my own work, that it has not been submitted for any degree or examination in any other university, and that all the sources I have used or quoted have been indicated and acknowledged by complete references. Valmont Layne August 2019 http://etd.uwc.ac.za/ 4 Acknowledgements I hereby acknowledge the support of the National Research Foundation (NRF) with an Early Career Fellowship and the Oppenheimer Memorial Trust. I also acknowledge the support of the following individuals (all remaining faults are my own): My supervisor, Premesh Lalu for his support, guidance and wisdom. Tanya Layne, for her love, support and companionship, and Ella Layne, because fatherhood inspires an examined life. Musicians Mike Perry for the lessons and conversations. Luis Giminez, Reza Khota, Dathini Mzayiya, Colin Miller, Rafiq Asmal, Alan Wilcox, Gerald Mac Mckenzie, Hilton Schilder, Alex van Heerden, Robbie Jansen and my fellow travellers with the Raakwys experience namely Andre Sampie, Bruce Kadalie, Ralton Praah, Wayne Dirk, Aki Khan, Wayne Dixon, Wayne Barthies. Also, carnival insiders Melvin Mathews, and Katje Davids, and musical activists Mansoor Jaffer, Adam Haupt, Thulani Nxumalo. Scholars and colleagues The History Department at the University of the Western Cape. The staff and fellows at the CHR – including Lamees Lalken, Micaela Felix, Leslie Witz, Ciraj Rassool, Suren Pillay, Paolo Israel, Nicky Rosseau, Jane Taylor, Aidan Erasmus, Lauren van der Rede, Kim Gurney, Thozama April, Kate Highman, Michelle Smith, Sam Longford, Luis Gimenez, Janne Juhana, Lee Walters, Ross Truscott, Emma Minckley, Reza Kota, and Kristy Stone.
    [Show full text]
  • Church Square Slavery Memorial
    See discussions, stats, and author profiles for this publication at: https://www.researchgate.net/publication/329866268 The mirror and the square —old ideological conflicts in motion: Church square slavery memorial Chapter · January 2017 CITATIONS READS 0 35 1 author: Gavin Younge University of Cape Town 4 PUBLICATIONS 0 CITATIONS SEE PROFILE Some of the authors of this publication are also working on these related projects: Short article for De Arte Journal View project Book on public art in South Africa View project All content following this page was uploaded by Gavin Younge on 06 January 2020. The user has requested enhancement of the downloaded file. The Mirror and the Square Old ideological conflicts in motion: Church Square Slavery Memorial Gavin Younge Citation: The Mirror and the Square--Old Ideological Conflicts in Motion: Church Square Slavery Memorial. In, K. Miller & B. Schmahmann. Public Art in South Africa: Bronze Warriors and Plastic Presidents (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2017), pp. 53--70. ISBN 978-0-253-02992-8. isitors to Cape Town often remark on the concern that the general public would have difficulty Vvineyards stretching up to beautiful Cape in accepting an abstract approach. Contestants for Dutch manor houses from the seventeenth century. the commission were drawn from all parts of South Low white-painted walls surround these buildings Africa, and judging by some of the unsuccessful and each ensemble seems to follow the same pattern proposals,3 a highly figurative approach had been – an H-shaped manor house featuring gables, a favoured by most. Such works were in the tradition jonkmanshuis (Afrikaans and Dutch for ‘young of Karl Broodhagen’s Bussa Emancipation Statue man’s house’), a former slave lodge, and a slave (1985) in Barbados which features a large man on a bell.
    [Show full text]
  • VASSA Workshop Proceedings 2004
    VERNACULAR ACHITECTURE SOCIETY OF SA: WORKSHOP II STUDIES AND DEBATES IN VERNACULAR ARCHITECTURE IN THE WESTERN CAPE Durbanville, 20 November 2004 Convenor & Editor: Antonia Malan Transcriber: Pat Kramer Editorial Assistance: Sally Titlestad Contents Page Preface 1 Session 1: Views of Vernacular Architecture & Landscapes 1. The Cape house rules! Palladian principles in Cape architecture: Andrew Berman 2 2. Authenticity, imitation and the popularization of heritage: its impact on vernacular architecture: Melanie Attwell 9 3. Cape Town / Bo-Kaap: the architecture of identity: Tariq Toffa (with Quahnita Samie) 16 4. The harmonius vernacular: Hans Fransen 36 5. Vernacular settlement formation, predominantly in the Western and Southern Cape, 1813-1912: Fabio Todeschini 41 Session 2: Approaches & Applications - Resources & Recording 6. Forgotten histories revealed by spatial study of subdivision of two estates in Claremont: Felhausen and Sans Souci: Sally Titlestad 57 7. The Hugenote-Gedenkskool, Kleinbosch, Dal Josaphat: Marthinus van Bart 67 8. Recording and comparing buildings: the material evidence: Len Raymond 73 9. The material world of Hendrik Cloete’s Groot Constantia: Yvonne Brink 80 10. Slave accommodation at the Cape: questions of time, place and attitude: Antonia Malan 88 Session 3: Approaches & Applications - Heritage Conservation 11. Towards a sustainable rural vernacular: André van Graan 99 12. Restoration of mills: Joanna Marx 102 13. Project ‘Restoration Genadendal’: a Best Practice Model and Work in Progress: Wendy Arendse 104 14. On the horns of a dilemma: Housing versus heritage: Sarah Winter, Nicolas Baumann & Henry Aikman 117 15. Protecting special buildings, sites and environs: the role of NGOs: Stephen Townsend 131 Presenters 141 PREFACE The Vernacular Architecture Society of SA is 40 years old.
    [Show full text]
  • Apartheid Space and Identity in Post-Apartheid Cape Town: the Case of the Bo-Kaap
    Apartheid Space and Identity in Post-Apartheid Cape Town: The Case of the Bo-Kaap DIANE GHIRARDO University of Southern California The Bo-Kaap district spreads out along the northeastern flanks of cheaper housing, they also standardized windows and doors and Signal Hill in the shadow of CapeTown's most significant topograplucal eliminated the decorative gables and parapets typical of hgher income feature, Table Mountain, and overlooks the city's business &strict. areas.7 While the some of the eighteenth century terraces exhibited Accordmg to contemporary hstorical constructions, the district includes typical Cape Dutch detads such as undulating parapets, two panel portals, four areas - Schotschekloof, Schoonekloof, Stadzicht and the Old and fixed upper sash and movable lower sash windows, the arrival of Malay Quarter, but none of these names appear on official maps (except the British at the end of the eighteenth century altered the style once Schotschekloof, which is the official name for the entire area).' The again. Typical elements of Georgian architecture such as slim windows, first three were named after the original farmsteads which were paneled double doors and fanlights, found their way into housing of all transformed into residential quarters, Schoonekloof having been social classes, includng the rental housing in the BO-K~~~.~At the end developed in the late nineteenth century and Schotschekloof and of the nineteenth century, new housing in the Bo-Kaap began to include Stadzicht during and immediately following World War 11.' pitched roofs, bay windows, and cast iron work on balconies and Schotschekloof tenements - monotonous modernist slabs - were verandahs, at a time when a larger number of houses also became the erected for Cape Muslims during the 1940s as housing to replace slums property of the occupant^.^ A dense network of alleys and narrow, leveled as a result of the 1934 Slum Act.
    [Show full text]
  • The Development of Educational Policy for Black Africans in South Africa : 1652-1948
    University of Massachusetts Amherst ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 1-1-1984 The development of educational policy for black Africans in South Africa : 1652-1948. Ingrid P. Babb University of Massachusetts Amherst Follow this and additional works at: https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1 Recommended Citation Babb, Ingrid P., "The development of educational policy for black Africans in South Africa : 1652-1948." (1984). Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014. 3931. https://scholarworks.umass.edu/dissertations_1/3931 This Open Access Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. It has been accepted for inclusion in Doctoral Dissertations 1896 - February 2014 by an authorized administrator of ScholarWorks@UMass Amherst. For more information, please contact [email protected]. THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATIONAL POLICY FOR BLACK AFRICANS IN SOUTH AFRICA 1652-1948 A Dissertation Presented By INGRID PATRICIA ANNE BABB-BRACEY Submitted to the Graduate School of the University of Massachusetts in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF EDUCATION September 1984 SCHOOL OF EDUCATION © INGRID PATRICIA ANNE BABB-BRACEY 1984 All Rights Reserved THE DEVELOPMENT OF EDUCATIONAL POLICY FOR BLACK AFRICANS IN SOUTH AFRICA 1652-1948 A Dissertation Presented By INGRID PATRICIA ANNE BABB-BRACEY Approved as to style and content by: i i i ACKNOWLEDGMENT I wish to acknowledge my indebtedness to my chairman, Meyer Weinberg, and the members of my dissertation committee, E. Jefferson Murphy and Josephus Olagemi Richards for their patience, support and, much appreciated valuable comments and searching criticism. I also wish to acknowledge with thanks, the librarians at the UMass library who were always helpful in tracing references and unearthing sources.
    [Show full text]
  • Organised Crime on the Cape Flats 35
    Andre Standing i Organised crime A study from the Cape Flats BY ANDRE STANDING This publication was made possible through the generous funding of the Open Sociey Foundation i ii Contents www.issafrica.org @ 2006, Institute for Security Studies All rights reserved Copyright in the volume as a whole is vested in the Institute for Security Studies, and no part may be reproduced in whole or part without the express permission, in writing, of both the author and the publishers. The opinions expressed in this book do not necessarily reflect those of the Institute, its Trustees, members of the ISS Council, or donors. Authors contribute to ISS publications in their personal capacity. ISBN: 1-920114-09-2 First published by the Institute for Security Studies PO Box 1787, Brooklyn Square 0075 Pretoria, South Africa Cover photo: Benny Gool/Oryx Media Productions/africanpictures.net Cover: Page Arts cc Printers: Tandym Print Andre Standing iii Acknowledgements This book was commissioned by the Institute for Security Studies through a grant provided by the Open Society Foundation. I have been fortunate to work from the Cape Town office of the ISS for the past few years. The director of the ISS in Cape Town, Peter Gastrow, has been exceptionally supportive and, dare I say it, patient in waiting for the final publication. Friends and colleagues at the ISS who have helped provide a warm and stimulating work environment include Nobuntu Mtwa, Pilisa Gaushe, Charles Goredema, Annette Hubschle, Trucia Reddy, Andile Sokomani, Mpho Mashaba, Nozuko Maphazi and Hennie van Vuuren. In writing this book I have been extremely fortunate to have help and guidance from John Lea, who I owe much to over the years.
    [Show full text]
  • Genetics and Race Part Ii
    3 Julie 1965 S. A. TYDSKRIF \. IR G E NEE SKUNDE 543 GENETICS AND RACE PART II HYMIE GOROON, B.Sc., M.D. (CAPE TOWNI, M.R.C.P. (LOND. AND EDIN.), Seniur LeclUrer, Comprehensive Medicine Group, Depanmem of Medicine, University of Cape Town GENETIC MARKERS AND RACE HISTORY have made full use of this unique opportunity for testing the One of the uses to which genetic markers can be put is the effect of more than 2,000 years of dispersion on their genotype. Some of the findings are presented in Table V. elucidation of problems of race history. To illustrate this, two examples have been chosen: the relatively simple TABLE V. THE DlSTRlBUTlON OF CERTAIN GENETIC MARKERS IN 3 JEWISH COMMU ITIES I' ISRAEL AND I' 0 ·JEWS FROM problem of the origin of the Icelanders and the more NORTH·WEST EUROPE (PERCENn complex matter of the racial history of the Jews. G6PD Rhesus PTC Finger-print lleficient positive B gene tasters HpI gene pattern index Icelan.d and the Vikings Oriental 25 95 I~ 84 29 14·0 Sephardi 2 90 16 85 28 13·7 For a long time, historians have debated the origin of the Ashkenazi 0·2 91 12 79 30 13·7 Icelanders. Was Iceland colonized by the Vikings from Nor­ way or by settlers who came from Ireland? The evidence of Non-Jews from the ABO blood group gene frequencies may shed some light .W. Europe 0·2 85 6 70 40 12·2 on this problem (Table IV). It will be seen that in respect of certain traits-particularly TABLE IV.
    [Show full text]
  • Dispossession, Displacement, and the Making of the Shared Minibus Taxi in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, 1930-Present
    Sithutha Isizwe (“We Carry the Nation”): Dispossession, Displacement, and the Making of the Shared Minibus Taxi in Cape Town and Johannesburg, South Africa, 1930-Present A Dissertation SUBMITTED TO THE FACULTY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF MINNESOTA BY Elliot Landon James IN PARTIAL FULFILLMENT OF THE REQUIREMENTS FOR THE DEGREE OF DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY Allen F. Isaacman & Helena Pohlandt-McCormick November 2018 Elliot Landon James 2018 copyright Table of Contents List of Figures ................................................................................................................. ii List of Abbreviations ......................................................................................................iii Prologue .......................................................................................................................... 1 Chapter 1 ....................................................................................................................... 17 Introduction: Dispossession and Displacement: Questions Framing Thesis Chapter 2 ....................................................................................................................... 94 Historical Antecedents of the Shared Minibus Taxi: The Cape Colony, 1830-1930 Chapter 3 ..................................................................................................................... 135 Apartheid, Forced Removals, and Public Transportation in Cape Town, 1945-1978 Chapter 4 ....................................................................................................................
    [Show full text]
  • UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations
    UC Berkeley UC Berkeley Electronic Theses and Dissertations Title Apperception and Linguistic Contact between German and Afrikaans Permalink https://escholarship.org/uc/item/8sr6157f Author Bergerson, Jeremy Publication Date 2011 Peer reviewed|Thesis/dissertation eScholarship.org Powered by the California Digital Library University of California Apperception and Linguistic Contact between German and Afrikaans By Jeremy Bergerson A dissertation submitted in partial satisfaction of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy in German in the Graduate Division of the University of California, Berkeley Committee in charge: Professor Irmengard Rauch, Co-Chair Professor Thomas Shannon, Co-Chair Professor John Lindow Assistant Professor Jeroen Dewulf Spring 2011 1 Abstract Apperception and Linguistic Contact between German and Afrikaans by Jeremy Bergerson Doctor of Philosophy in German University of California, Berkeley Proffs. Irmengard Rauch & Thomas Shannon, Co-Chairs Speakers of German and Afrikaans have been interacting with one another in Southern Africa for over three hundred and fifty years. In this study, the linguistic results of this intra- Germanic contact are addressed and divided into two sections: 1) the influence of German (both Low and High German) on Cape Dutch/Afrikaans in the years 1652–1810; and 2) the influence of Afrikaans on Namibian German in the years 1840–present. The focus here has been on the lexicon, since lexemes are the first items to be borrowed in contact situations, though other grammatical borrowings come under scrutiny as well. The guiding principle of this line of inquiry is how the cognitive phenonemon of Herbartian apperception, or, Peircean abduction, has driven the bulk of the borrowings between the languages.
    [Show full text]
  • South Africa 2018 International Religious Freedom Report
    SOUTH AFRICA 2018 INTERNATIONAL RELIGIOUS FREEDOM REPORT Executive Summary The constitution provides for freedom of religion and belief and prohibits discrimination on the basis of religion. The government does not require religious groups to register; however, registered groups receive tax-exempt status. In September Rastafarians welcomed a Constitutional Court ruling that declared unconstitutional a ban on marijuana cultivation and personal consumption by adults in private homes. Throughout the year, religious groups and nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) continued to express concerns that two separate draft laws, one requiring religious groups to register with the government and the other criminalizing, defining, and punishing hate crimes and speech, could potentially infringe on religious freedom and freedom of speech. On May 10, three men attacked the Imam Hussain Mosque, a Shia mosque, located in Durban, in what many stated they believed was a sectarian attack. The assailants stabbed two worshippers, cut the throat of another, and set parts of the mosque on fire, leaving one dead. In July police discovered five explosive devices around Durban. Police affidavits stated the 11 men arrested in connection with the devices and the mosque attack had links to ISIS. The South African Jewish Board of Deputies (SAJBD) recorded 62 anti-Semitic incidents during the year, compared with 44 in 2017. Numerous individuals made anti-Semitic comments throughout the year. The U.S. consulates in Durban and Cape Town coordinated with several U.S. government agencies to offer workshops on social cohesion and peaceful religious coexistence to local audiences including government officials, law enforcement, NGOs, civil society organizations, religious leaders, academics, and representatives of refugee and immigrant communities.
    [Show full text]