Why Africa is special..(part one)

This post is dedicated to Mochness:

There is something in the air of Africa, an interconnectedness that you dont feel elsewhere. Its like I feel Im close to the pulse of the Earth. There's a smell that hits you when you get off the plane, a feeling of homecoming, even though you are only visiting the first time. The air embraces you, and the sun even feels different.Yes, Africa is special.

I have settled in Cape Town, South Africa, a beautiful gem of a city. I love this city because of many reasons. Lets start with the history.. Like Ive explained before, Cape Town was a little watering and refilling station for the Dutch East India Company, on their way to and from various spice and slave destinations in the East. It was 'discovered' in 1652, by Jan Van Riebeeck, who completely discounted the fact that there were already natural inhabitants to this stretch of beach, called the Khoi-San.

The Khoi-San were inquisitive and warm people, who had a penchant for shiny objects.. And had wonderful bodies which enabled them to live in this climate. They could store some food in their cheeks and when they feated, they built up a supply of fat in their buttocks to keep them goin when they didnt find anything to hunt or gather. They were awesome hunters and trackers, and could mimic bird and animal calls with uncanny accuracy. Well, the Khoi-San people were initially tolerated by Jan Van Riebeeck, but were eventually hunted down almost to extinction, enslaved, and the remaining part of the population driven far into the interior.

Also, the interesting part comes when the Dutch East India Company decided to establish a watering station at the Cape of Good Hope, as Cape Town was known back then. they started vegetable gardens, and built a few homes for their farmers.

A few years later, the Cape of Good Hope became an area where people started to settle down.. A castle was built, and a town established. Around the same time, slaves from Java and India were brought to the new settlement for their craftwork, and handcarved beautiful wooden bedposts and weaved baskets and obviously cooked and were healers, too. Many of these Javanese and Indian people were Muslim, so the Muslim heritage of Cape Town holds strong for more than 400 years.

Muslims at the time were persecuted for having their own religious beliefs, and so learnt to recite the Quran and various athkaar quite melodiously.. Which also sounded like singing.. obviously the 'master' did not realise these people werent singing and actually worshipping their Creator.

Anyways, there are various people through Muslim Cape Town history who risked their lives to teach Islam to others, to encourage hafath al quran, and to make sure the legacy of Islam lived on. Well, their legacy lives on even today..

Part of living in Cape Town, is that you are not persecuted or questioned (even since 9/11) for practising your religion. Also importantly, you practice because YOU WANT TO, not because the government tells you to. There is an abundance of halaal food restuarants, major supermarkets all run lines of halaal meat in seperate fridges, men get off from work early on a friday to attend Jumuah prayers. A few major malls have prayer rooms for salaah. One mall even has a full taraweeh programme. Families openly go and break their fast at the beach (its called 'booka'). At the end of Ramadaan, thousands of Muslims descend on Three Anchor Bay to hear the verdict of sighting the moon, and pray Maghrib together, in the thousands. Friends hang around and have shisha.. Its not odd to see a family praying somewhere at a beach or picnic.. So we really have alot of religious freedoms here in Cape Town. You are protected by the Consitution of this country, and can wear your hijab to work, and wherever else you may choose to go.

That was just a picture of a little of the history of this city, and some religious insights which make it easy to live here. On the next installment, I'll tell you about the fun things we can do here..