786
Bo-Kaap Misrepresented by M.F.Arnold(PTD, B.A, Ph.D [HC])
By Whom: The Colonial Narrative
Why: To reduce the Value of Islam as the Spirit of Strength and
Freedom in Bo-Kaap
How: By degrading Faith as part of Culture
Method: Creating a narrative of a “Colourful Bo-Kaap” by intention
that the people of Bo-kaap are descendants of colourful coons and a community
with no real roots, but the descendants of slaves
Intended Impact: Disrespect for the value of the people of Bo-Kaap
Function of This misrepresented Narrative: To attract European
Tourists to see a living museum of people who were colonised by the Dutch and
British and who today need them to survive
What is the effect on the People and their property: They are
flooded with strangers and their privacy and property disrespected.
What is the reality: Bo-Kaap was The Bastion against Apartheid
Why: because it was the only city centre area that withstood the
government’s attempts the declare it “White”
How: Three attempts of City Council to Build a bridge through
Bo-Kaap cutting it in half [like they
did in District Six] and then declaring the upper part white and the lower part
business.
How was it thwarted: Three attempts to build a bridge connecting De
Waal Drive with Sea Point through Bo-Kaap was dislodged by a different Mosque
of the Bo-Kaap that stood in the way of building the bridge – which they were
fearful to demolish
The Result: The in-complete bridge at the entrance to the
Waterfront – where the engineering failed and the funds were withdrawn
Why: The Spiritual Presence of Bo-Kaap with its 10 Mosques dotted
through it that protects its area and the spiritual luminaries buried there– By
The Grace of God
So Why are Tourists attracted to Bo-Kaap: Whatever the narrative: People’s natural inner-heart- yearning for
the Call to God is personified in Bo-Kaap
So What is the History: The people are not the descendants of the
Slaves, but the emancipators of slaves through the spiritual presence in
Bo-Kaap and because Tuan Guru started the first public school that taught
religion and secular sciences holistically in the Owal Mosque. The free-time
slaves had, were spent with the Muslims in Bo-Kaap, who welcomed them in the
Mosques, schools and homes for spiritual occasions and offered them the
opportunity to marry – under the Eyes of God. This gave them honour as a family
– which the Dutch denied them – for they were not allowed to marry, but allowed
to procreate to have children to be owned by the slave owner as slaves. The
slave quarters in churches slowly emptied, because the African slaves became
Muslim.
Proofs:
1. “By the 1820’s About 370-491 free and
slave blacks were taught Islam by Malay priests in their homes” [Behr, Shell,
Ajam]
2. The Plakaat of the Dutch Government
prevented slaves from:
a.
Keeping
their family names – Muslims in Bo-Kaap still have their original family names
b. Slaves were not allowed to marry, but
to cohabit – Muslims married and Their Faith does not allow cohabiting
c.
The
Slaves had to follow the faith of their owner – Muslims were always free and kept their religion and the Bo-Kaap Muslims,
established the first public school and mosque in South Africa in 1794 - The
Owal Mosque in Dorp Street– Slavery was only abolished by the British in 1836
d. Slaves could not own property – The
Bo-Kaap people own the houses in Bo-Kaap for generations
3. A Muslim does not submit to the
enslavement by a human and hence would fight and die for his faith – knowing he
would go to heaven for fighting oppression – the Dutch and British thus feared
Muslims and would rather employ them as craftsmen and women but not as slaves –
and some black slaves, who became Muslim, killed their abusive, oppressive slave
owners, to free the other slaves–[ See Lady Barnard’s history]
4. The moneys earned by the Muslim
servants and craftsmen allowed them to become the property owners in Bo-Kaap.
5. The emptying of the slave quarters in
churches and the increased Slaves becoming Muslim – prompted the government to
start Christian Missionary Schools – prior to that, there were no public
schools – so the Muslims of Bo-Kaap initiated public school education [ Lord
Charles Somerset promulgated in 1823 compelled Christian slave owners to send
their slave children to Christian Missionary schools – after Lord Caledon’s
complaint since 1807 “ that imported Mozambiquecan slaves were becoming
Muslim”[Ajam 1986]
6. The The first recorded arrival of
free Muslims known as Mardyckers is in 1658. Mardycka or Maredhika implies
freedom. The Mardyckers were people from Amboyna [an Indonesian island] in the
southern Moluccas and were brought to the Cape in order to defend the newly
established settlement against the indigenous people, and also to provide
labour in the same way that they had been employed at home, first by the
Portuguese and later by the Dutch, in Amboyna. Jan Van Riebeeck had
requested that the Mardyckers be sent to the Cape as a labour force. The
Mardyckers were prohibited from openly practising their religion: Islam. This
was in accordance with the Statute of India [drafted by Van
Dieman in 1642] which stated in one of its placaats [statutes]: "No
one shall trouble the Amboinese about their religion or annoy them; so long as
they do not practise in public or venture to propagate it amongst Christians
and heathens. Offenders to be punished with death, but should there be amongst
them those who had been drawn to God to become Christians, they were not to be
prevented from joining Christian churches. " The same Placaat was
re-issued on August 23, 1657 by Governor John Maetsuycker probably
in anticipation of the advent of the Mardyckers to the Cape of Good Hope.
The Placaat governed the Cape as part of the Dutch Colonial
Empire.
7.
The
Muslims of Bo-Kaap are also descendants of influential political exiles who
fought the Dutch and who were too dangerous to be jailed on the islands of
their origin, because of their influence on the people against the Dutch. This
explains the strength still inherent of the Bo-Kaap Muslims.
8.
The Colour technology of Plascon Paints was only
possible in the late 1990’s – early 2000, Therefore the Red Bus Tour claim that
Bo-Kaap people were so happy to be freed as slaves that they painted their
housed different colours – is not only derogatory , but blatant ignorance of
modern life and history – there was only white Chalk paint in those times,
hence the beautiful white old Bo-Kaap, Dutch and British houses
