Our Cape Malay Heritage

Today marks the 330th anniversary of the arrival of Sheikh Yusuf of Macassar to South Africa.

If you see some people in the Cape Malay community today packing their picnic baskets with samoosas, koeksusters, boeber, rose water and dates it is most probably because they’re going to be having Iftar (breaking of the fast) today in Macassar.

Macassar is a small suburb between Strand and Somerset West in the western Cape. The small fishing village is hardly paradise but it has a legendary tale which will be told by its inhabitants that Moses parted the waters, Jesus walked on the waters but that it was Sheikh Yusuf of Macassar who put his foot in the salty sea waters and it turned into fresh waters that the sailors on board the Voetboog could drink when they were sailing to the Cape of a Good Hope. Sheikh Yusuf of Indonesia was exiled in the Cape by the Dutch East India Company in 1693

The story about Sheikh Yusuf of Macassar is one that will be celebrated today by lots of Cape Town aunties and their families who will be visiting his shrine in the Western Cape. In a booklet, “Guide to the Kramats of the Western Cape.”, edited by Mansoor Jaffer and published by the Cape Mazaar the voyage of the Voetboog sailing to the Cape was not without its challenges. Jaffer writes, “The voyage to the Cape was not without mysterious events. En route the fresh water supply became depleted and being far away from land, this caused deep concern. When Sheikh Yusuf came to hear of this, he merely put his foot in the sea, and told the men to let down the casks in that spot. When they pulled up the casks, they discovered, to their amazement, that the water was fresh and perfectly good to drink. It could have been that the Sheikh knew that they were near one of the fresh water currents of the coast of Natal. If so, it clearly displays the extent of his exceptional knowledge. Nevertheless, the legend lives on in the oral history of the community and is related with great pride by those who believe in his mystical powers.”

Today marks 330 years when the Voetboog sailed into the Cape of Good Hope in 1694 with Sheikh Yusuf; and his “mystical powers” continued to rein for the five years during which he was exiled here and during which time he contributed to a phenomenal spread of the Sufi school of Islam that was rooted in stoicism of personal & political ideals, tolerance for others and a marriage between science, art, politics and spirituality.

Sheikh Yusuf was a spiritual and political teacher to many of the slaves in the Cape. In 2005 the South African government honored Sheikh Yusuf posthumously with the National Order of the Companions of O. R. Tambo in Gold for his contribution to the struggle against colonialism.

Sheikh Yusuf died in 1699, just five years after his arrival at the Cape, and more than three centuries later his memory continues to live on with significant numbers of people who pay homage at his shrine in Zandvliet (now known as Macassar to honour the place where he was born).

Written by Ismail Raeesa and share by Mogamat Kammie Kamedien