A Silent Companion is an exploration and a challenge to contemporary and historical ideas of Muslim identity at the cape. 

The Signal Hill kramat is a site that connects a number of important factors concerning Muslim identity. Firstly, the people buried at the kramats are considered the pioneers of Islam at the Cape. It is often recounted how some of the early muslims retreated into the mountains to pray and teach, and how some who were healers, learned about the medicinal plants from the local khoe. The most famous story about the kramats is perhaps the 200 year old prophecy that a circle of protection would protect the Cape, and that the kramats are the points that form the circle. 

These are cherished and oft-told stories that establish a sense of belonging for the Muslim community. A community that is in reality from everywhere and nowhere, a displaced community with no definitive point of origin. The birthplaces of the early Muslim leaders also become a place the community long for, and the coloniser sets those of ‘malay’ descendency above ‘other’ brown people. These stories create a divine purpose, a reason for the pain and suffering of so many over the years. 

In stories told about the early Islamic leaders of the Cape, their rebellion against the coloniser is highly celebrated and emphasised - an assertion of Islam as just. 

I found this assertion and desire of Islam, or being muslim, as meaning ‘inherent justice’ to be an idealised narrative. And the lived reality, or Islam in practice at the Cape, something quite complex and different. This also relates to the complex identity issues with regard to ‘coloured’ people. That within one family there were members who could pass for white, and there were members who were closer to black, and how members within that same family can harbor intense racism, a reflection of a self-loathing perhaps - reflects the psychological trauma inflicted by apartheid ideology. 

The story of Imam Abdullah Haron encapsulates the conflicting attitudes and beliefs I seek to challenge as they still permeate the Muslim community/psyche today. At the time the Malayism ideology made them believe that “...they were the elite of the coloured people. This exclusivity

and false superiority made it difficult for them to fuse with other sections of the oppressed and to develop a common united strategy against oppression” - Achmat Davids. 

The Muslim leaders at the time felt that the larger Muslim community had no business getting involved in political matters, as the right to practice Islam was not being hindered in any way. Imam Haron felt, and taught his students differently, that being a Muslim meant fighting against oppression, and fighting for justice. Not to mention that the clergy at the time showed no concern or sense of responsibility for the black Muslims, and in my limited research made no mention of their existence. 

Imam Haron recieved more support from those outside the Muslim community. Reverend Bernard Wrankmore being one of them, fasted 67 days at the Signal Hill kramat, drinking only water and orange juice. At this time the Muslim community divided into three groups: those who wanted him off the site for ‘destroying’ its sanctity, those who supported him, and those who said nothing. 

I found the story of Imam Haron deeply disturbing as a Muslim. I reflected on how the community could be so apathetic and uninterested in the gross injustice of the day (while also understanding the very real threat to life upon becoming involved in political matters - Imam Haron was murdered after all), and I realised not only were they benefitting from the system, hence having kramats built in largely ‘white’ areas, but there was a deep internalised anti-blackness that is very much alive and well today. 

As much as I want to call out present day anti-blackness in the Muslim community, I also want reflect on the way we remember Islamic history here at the Cape, and the way we form our identities based on that history. 

The figure in my series is a symbol of the Muslim community through the centuries. I hid the face, to suggest the Muslim identity is unknowable. 

The figure wears items from the many cultures that have fed into the cape Muslim community: The silk asian robe for the Chinese, the fez and abaya for the South-East asian and Arab, the yellow cloth for the Afrikans such as the Xhosa but also the other Afrikan countries from which slaves were brought, the plants are for the Khoe people. 

The mphepho and the incense represent knowledge and practices that are common between cultures, burning these plants to chase bad spirits or negative energy away. The figure kneels on the ground as acknowledgement of khoe land as its foundation from which Islam was able to grow. 

The red yarn represents the blindness and hypocrisy of the cape Muslims, and the plants suggest a desire and a movement toward healing. 

The orange juice references Bernard Wrankmore, but also all non-Muslims who gave support, kindness, love, generosity, righteousness, when the Muslim community turned their backs on their own. 

The ablution represents a pathway to cleansing and healing and re-imagining of the muslim identity. 

The image of the figure holding the calabash and the tea-cup suggests embracing the conflicting bloodlines of coloniser and colonised within, and finding balance and harmony. 

BIBLIOGRAPHY 

2019, ‘Circle of Kramats’, South African History Online, Accessed: 15 September 2019 https://www.sahistory.org.za/place/circle-kramats 

Barron, C. 2011, ‘Bernie Wrankmore: Hunger-striking Priest’, Sunday Times, https://www.timeslive.co.za/sunday-times/lifestyle/2011-06-19-bernie-wrankmore-hunger-strikin g-priest/ 

Collison, L. 2018, ‘How To Celebrate Eid al-Fitr in Cape Town, South Africa’, Culture Trip, accessed on 15 September 2019,

https://theculturetrip.com/africa/south-africa/articles/how-to-celebrate-eid-al-fitr-in-cape-town-so uth-africa/ 

Davids, A. 1996, Guide To The Kramats, Cape Mazaar Society, accessed 15 September 2019, http://www.capemazaarsociety.com/book.pdf 

De Greef, K. 2015, ‘A Mountain Of Crime’, Times Live, accessed 15 September 2019, https://www.timeslive.co.za/news/south-africa/2015-12-15-a-mountain-of-crime/ 

Duval, M. 2019, ‘’Miracle’ sees Historic Signal Hill Kramat Survive Blaze Without a Scratch’, Cape Times, Accessed on 15 September 2019, 

https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/miracle-sees-historic-signal-hill-kramat-survive-blaze-wit hout-a-scratch-19047749 

Galant, J. 2019, ‘Imam Haron’s Detention and The Muslim Response’, The Voice of The Cape, accessed 17 September 2019, 

https://www.vocfm.co.za/imam-harons-detention-and-the-muslim-response/ 

Green, L & Murray,N. 2012, ‘Private property and the problem of the miraculous: the kramats and the city of Cape Town’, Social Dynamics, 38:2, 201-220, DOI: 

10.1080/02533952.2012.724609 

Gunther, U. 2004, ‘The Memory of Imam Haron in Consolidating Muslim Resistance in the Apartheid Struggle’, Journal for the Study of Religion, Vol. 17, No. 1 pp. 117-150, Association for the Study of Religion in Southern Africa

Holmes, R. 2019, ‘Constantia’s Revered Circle of Shrines’, Financial Mail, accessed: 15 September 2019, 

https://www.businesslive.co.za/fm/life/2019-08-08-constantias-revered-circle-of-shrines/ 

Omar, R. 1987, “The Impact of the Death in Detention of Imam Abdullah Haron on Cape Muslim Political Attitudes.” s.n 

Villette, F. 2019, ‘31 Kramats Considered For Heritage Status’, Cape Times, accessed 15 September 2019, 

https://www.iol.co.za/capetimes/news/31-kramats-considered-for-heritage-status-22404699 

Wright, R. 1977, ‘Prisoners Death in S.Africa Stirs Protests. Arrests, The Washington Post, accessed 15 September 2019, 

https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/politics/1977/09/16/prisoners-death-in-s-africa-stirs-pr otests-arrests/e390fcff-ee9e-42ef-be61-5c95ef9ebb4d/?noredirect=on