 |
|
| history of the bo-kaap |
The Bo-Kaap Museum is situated in one of
the oldest urban residential areas in Cape Town. The earliest development
of the Bo-Kaap area, which became known as Waalendorp, was undertaken
by Jan de Waal in the 1760s. The house that today incorporates the
museum building is the only one built by him that retains its original
form. It dates to 1768.
Although the Bo-Kaap has over centuries been home to people of various
origins and religions, the area is closely associated with the Muslim
community of the Cape. The ancestors of the majority of the Muslims
in the Cape arrived from 1658 onwards as slaves, political exiles
and convicts from East Africa and South East Asia (India, Indonesia
and Sri Lanka). The first mosque at the Cape, the Auwal Mosque, was
built in the neighbourhood in 1804 and is still in use, although much
altered over years. By the beginning of the twentieth century roughly
half the population in the area was Muslim.
The history of the Bo-Kaap reflects the political processes in South
Africa under the Apartheid years. The area was declared an exclusive
residential areas for Cape Muslims under the Group Areas Act of 1950
and people of other religions and ethnicity were forced to leave.
At the same time, the neighbourhood is atypical. It is one of the
few neighbourhoods with a predominantly working class population that
continued to exist near a city centre. In the mid-twentieth century,
most working class people in South Africa were moved to the periphery
of the cities under the Slum Clearance Act and neighbourhood improvement
programmes.
Over the years the Bo-Kaap has been known as the Malay Quarter, the
Slamse Buurt or Schotcheskloof. |
| |
|
|
|
