The Malay Quarter in Cape Town

I have been to London and Sydney where large settlements of Chinese residents in these cities have developed ethnic-specific zones dubbed as Chinatown, and in Shanghai, China, I was delighted to explore a charming French Quarter.

My sister, Ruby, with her son, Andrew, and
grand-daughter, Vivienne, at Bo-Kaap, Cape Town

Then in Cape Town, South Africa, I was thrilled to discover a Malay Quarter!

Situated on the slopes of Signal Hill, is the historical center of Cape Malay culture in Cape Town now known as the Bo-Kaap, a name in Afrikaans which means, “above the Cape.”

This area was traditionally a multicultural neighbourhood with a Muslim majority population. The Nurul Islam Mosque, established in 1844, is located here.

When Andrew, my nephew, and his daughter, picked my sister (his mother) and I from the airport, he took us to the Bo-Kaap, our first destination in Cape Town.

Andrew and his wife and daughter had arrived from Perth, Australia, about a week ahead for his wife to attend a convention where she would present a professional paper.

A view of Table Mountain from Bo-Kaap

South Africa was a long way from Perth, so they decided that it was worthwhile to extend the trip with a holiday.

So, they arranged for my sister and I to join them at the end of that week to head out on a road trip to explore Cape Town, various coastal towns and of course, the Cape of Good Hope.

Upon our arrival, Andrew drove us directly to Bo-Kaap and I observed that he was eager to show his mother and I, his discovery of a Malay Quarter here.

With the Table Mountain as a towering backdrop, we stopped to admire this residential area, distinguished by its brightly coloured homes and cobble-stoned streets in the oldest surviving residential area in Cape Town.

Check out the name of this shop!

What was more exciting was the discovery from research into the history of Bo-Kaap that revealed that the origin of this Malay Quarter in Cape Town was linked to the Malays from Malaya and Indonesia…

In 1715, Dutchman, Jan de Waal, who was born in Amsterdam, arrived at Cape Town as an employee of the Dutch East India Company.

In 1752 he was granted a property by Governor Ryk Tulbagh at No. 93 Bree Street, which is now a National Monument known as the Jan de Waal House.

In 1760 Jan de Waal bought a farm – known as Bo-Kaap now – and developed a single-storey house on the farm into a long, double-storey house with 14 bedrooms to accommodate his 17 children. [This is not a typo-error.]

Check out the name of this restaurant!

This house and adjoining warehouse were constructed in typical 18^th century Cape architecture but the original Dutch-style windows and doors were replaced by teak Georgian windows and doors in the first quarter of the 19^th century.

This farm was where the De Waal family planted vineyards and produced wine.

In the years before 1768, De Waal built many small houses on the farm to rent out to slaves and named this area Waalendorp, which means Waal Town.

Slaves were imported from Malaya, Indonesia, and other parts of Africa because the aboriginal tribes in the Cape Town area resisted the Dutch and refused to work with them.

Signage for Waal Street in Bo-Kaap, Cape Town

As most of the new residents were Muslim, several mosques were built here, with the first being the Auwal Mosque in 1794.

The Malay Museum in Bo-Kaap is now housed in one of these rental houses.

With an expanding population of tradesmen, craftsmen and artisans settling here, more housing was built in the Cape Dutch and Cape Georgian styles between 1790 and 1825.

Around 1820, more Muslims moved into this area including a wave of political exiles from Java and Ceylon (now Sri Lanka).

After the emancipation in 1834 and the arrival of liberated slaves, numerous rows of narrow and deep houses, known as huurhuisjes, were constructed here for these new residents.

Entrance into the passageway off Waal Street

When the houses were being rented out, all of them were painted White.

In 1943, preservation of this area started with 15 houses restored by a group of prominent citizens with the help of the Historical Monuments Commission.

In 1966, part of this area was designated as a National Monument and from 1971, the City Council started the restoration of houses and streetscapes, with 48 units completed by 1975.

New homeowners painted their houses in bright colours to create an attractive façade in an expression and celebration of freedom.

Painting the building façade with bright colours then became a tradition where they would repaint them each year for the annual Eid festival, a celebration we call Hari Raya Aidil Fitri.

A boy appears to be admiring the wall murals on one wall

Now the buildings are protected and no other alteration outside is permitted other than a change of colour with a fresh coat of paint.

With the buildings repainted annually, no wonder they looked so bright, clean, and fresh!

One of the must-see heritage sights here must be the Bo-Kaap Heritage Mural on Waal Street, designed on the walls of a passageway leading to the street.

When I walked into this passageway, it was like stepping into a time capsule.

At the entrance to the passageway, I saw life-size figures of present-day children painted on the walls in colour, who appeared to be admiring the wall murals.

This mural project in 2006 was by Iran-born artist, Nasser Palangi and his wife, Farideh Zariv, who aimed to capture the essence of the Bo-Kaap heritage and had dedicated it to the youth in the community.

A little girl seems to be admiring the murals on the other wall

The murals were replicas of old sepia-toned photographs from a bygone era, preserved on these walls for the modern generation to appreciate their heritage and origin.

I was totally charmed because I could recognise familiar scenes of students studying in a madrassah, a man wearing a traditional songkok and women with fabric head-coverings akin to the tudung.

Murals of people dressed in modest, traditional costumes and artisans performing their trades, clearly reminded me of the wealth of heritage of the Bo-Kaap area.

Thanks to Andrew, I could soak in the heritage and beauty of Bo-Kaap, the Malay Quarter in Cape Town, in a brief stop that kicked off our eventful Cape holiday.

[More in the next exciting episode of your armchair travel to South Africa.]