Somalis in Johannesburg: Muslim Transformations of the City

SOMALIS IN JOHANNESBURG: MUSLIM TRANSFORMATIONS OF THE CITY Samadia Sadouni Introduction Theories of secularism in the West and in the twentieth century have tended to neglect the visible presence of religion in modern urban spaces. With the increasing movement of international migrants, the city’s religious landscape has been transformed over the last thirty years, not least in Western Europe. Migration is also at the centre of major changes in Johannesburg, southern Africa’s economic hub. In this metropolis, the Muslim religious landscape has undergone major changes with the incorporation of many new immigrants since 1994, that is, in the post-apartheid era. These include South Asians from Pakistan and Bangladesh, sub- Saharan Africans, who come mainly from Somalia, Senegal, the Democratic Republic of Congo, Nigeria and Mali, and to a lesser extent North Africans (Moroccans, Algerians, Egyptians), Bosnians and Turks. This pronounced pluralism in Johannesburg has led to the increased visibility of religion (new religious institutions, religious events and religious festivals in public spaces) and to the creation of diverse territories marked by the settlement of different migrant communities.1 These three intersecting transforma- tional modes of the post-apartheid urban era are also closely linked to transnationalism. This chapter will focus on a particular group, Somali refugees, who add to the diversity of Islam and to the ways of being Muslim in South Africa, thus contributing to the analysis of a group which is still understud ied. Here I examine how Somalis’ “religious spatiality” (Hervieu-Léger, 2002) has cre- ated new Muslim communities and spaces in inner-city Johannesburg. The main argument of this chapter is that religious solidarity, a religious urban environment and aspiration (van der Veer, this volume) represent the main resources for Somalis’ incorporation into their new host city. Somalis have 1 This is nothing new in South Africa: during colonialism South Africans experienced the perpetual negotiation of frontiers and demarcation of territories in order to differentiate ‘us’ from ‘them’. 46 samadia sadouni chosen to settle where they can hear the five daily calls to prayer (adhan). In Johannesburg religion has been and still is a source of identity and mean- ing, as well as of group affiliation and group membership. In this chapter, I will discuss the local and religious urban context, as well as the impact of Somalis on that context. The Post-Apartheid Muslim Religious Landscape: The Case of Mayfair Most Somalis in South Africa are refugees or asylum-seekers who have fled the wars, political conflict, ongoing turmoil and humanitarian crises in Somalia. Forced migrations of Somalis have helped to reshape the neigh- bourhood of Mayfair, an area close to the Central Business District (CBD) of Johannesburg, where the majority of the population is Muslim. During apartheid, with the introduction of the Group Areas Act, inner- city Johannesburg became a White area. Forced removals began in the 1950s in a part of Vrededorp, more popularly known as ‘Fietas’ (Carrim, 1990). Fietas, which began as the Malay Location in 1893, was renamed Pageview2 in 1943; it included different population groups, such as Coloureds, Indians, Chinese, Africans and Cape Malays.3 The inhabitants of the area were relocated to separate racial ghettos in Lenasia, Soweto, Eldorado Park and the western townships. However, some Indians suc- ceeded in remaining in Fietas and Fordsburg,4 adjoining Mayfair. They refused to abide by the apartheid laws and used different political strategies to avoid their relocation to the newly designated Indian areas, such as Lenasia (south of Soweto), Azaadville, Laudium (near Pretoria) and Roshnee (in Vereeniging).5 Scholarly literature has not yet provided a full record and analysis of the political and legal strategies which undermined the apartheid govern- ment’s attempts to implement its policy of racial and ethnic segregation and impose its racial human geography. By appropriating their own 2 Pageview was named after the then mayor, Mr J.J. Page. 3 The terms Cape Malay, Indian, Black and White are used in the 2001 Census, even though they are contested. In the specific case of South African Muslims, ‘Cape Malay’ refers to people descended from Muslim immigrants brought to the Cape, initially as slaves, by the Dutch East India Company in the seventeenth century; ‘Indian’ refers to people whose ancestors arrived from India in the late nineteenth century; ‘Black Muslim’ is used to refer to the descendants of the Zanzibari population in the province of Kwazulu-Natal and to local Black converts to Islam. A small number of Whites have also converted to Islam. 4 Fordsburg was originally established in 1887 for White miners. 5 The part of the Transvaal that is centered on Johannesburg was made a separate province called Gauteng after 1994..

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