Wale Street in Bo-Kaap, South Africa. Photo by Chris and Janet Page

By Janet and Chris Page

In the brilliance of a hot summer day, we struggle to keep pace with Elyas, our guide, as he bounds up the steep, narrow cobblestone streets of Bo-Kaap.  For more than 450 years, this neighborhood has clung tenaciously to the rocky sides of Signal Hill above Cape Town.  Elyas walks uphill with an easy stride reserved for the very young or those who make this climb several times a day their whole lives.  We are neither!

Bo-Kaap long has been the center of Maylay culture and Islam in Cape Town and is steeped in the tangled social history of South Africa.  Originally settled by Dutch artisans, the area became known as the Maylay Quarter when freed Indian and Indonesian slaves were permitted to settle there in the late 1700s.  With their initial arrival 150 years before, these tailors, carpenters, shoe makers, artists, craftsmen and builders introduced Islam to South Africa, and Bo-Kaap today is home to ten active mosques serving an estimated 5,000 residents.

Escaping the afternoon heat, our guide leads us through narrow alleys to the cool interior of the quarter’s oldest house, built in 1760.  We find ourselves in the Bo-Kaap museum, a three-room furnished recreation of Muslim family life in the 19^th century.  Imagine, then, our surprise at finding a tattered U.S. Confederate flag proudly displayed in the museum’s main room.

Smiling broadly at our reaction, Elyas explains that the Civil War ship CSS Alabama visited Cape Town in 1863 for badly needed repairs and supplies.  As the refitted ship sailed off to disrupt commercial trade routes used by the North, its grateful Southern sailors bestowed a flag on the Muslim dock workers.  How ironic that these warriors for slavery would hold Cape Town’s former slaves in such high regard.

Back outside, we marvel at the explosion of bold colors adorning the colonial Dutch designed homes of Bo-Kaap.  Chartreuse, aqua, lavender, orange, indigo and pink surrounds us.  Each year for Eid, the Muslim festival celebrating the end of fasting during Ramadan, large numbers of Bo-Kaap residents repaint their homes – in a sort of “fresh start.”  Bo-Kaap’s colors are widely photographed and painted, and the district is featured in the current Denzel Washington film Safe House as well as in Coca Cola advertisements.

Perhaps the vibrant colors ease the still-present memory of Bo-Kaap’s long struggle.  During the Apartheid era (1948-1995), this district was classified as a “township,” one of only a few areas where non-Caucasians were permitted to live within the Cape Town city limits.   It was the highly prized skills of local Muslim craftsmen that protected them to this minor extent.  Certainly they, too, suffered under forced segregation for a half-century, but their culture remains largely intact as a result of remaining united in a single community.  In calling for greater religious tolerance, former Archbishop Desmond Tutu has cited the Bo-Kaap Muslims extensive contributions in helping to defeat apartheid.

But new challenges arrived with the end of segregation.  Bo-Kaap has become a highly sought-after residential and commercial neighborhood in thriving Cape Town.  Well-to-do South Africans and Europeans are charmed by its picturesque streets and unusual architecture.  Concerned about maintaining its distinctive character, local residents have formed a community trust to help keep housing affordable for aging residents, their families and the poor.  Pragmatic but hopeful, Elyas says the trust hopes to sustain a 60% Muslim population in Bo-Kaap.

As we part, the sun is low in the sky and the houses take on deeper hues.  Walking effortlessly down the cobblestones, we hear the evening call to prayer – “In the name of Allah, most Gracious…” and we can’t help hoping that he continues to look with favor on this special place and its indomitable people.

Chris and Janet Page are part-time Ocean Grove residents recently travelling in South Africa.