The Most 'Colourful' Suburbs of South Africa! (8 December 2023)2023)

The Most 'Colourful' Suburbs of South Africa! Introduction 1. Abrahamic Religions' Interaction 2. Various Moves and Removals 3. Special Church Planters at the Cape 4. Christian Compassion as Gospel Seed 5. A Special Slum Area 6. Diverse Responses Towards Injustice and Oppression 7. Mid – 20th Century Moves in the City 8. The Beginning of Apartheid's Swan Song 9. Turn of the Tide? Introduction The suburb Bo-Kaap1 is known in tourism circles by its houses in bright colours. This has become a model and example for the Cape Town City Council. Whereas the first houses of District Six, the bubling former slum-like suburb built in the 21st century were just plain white in colour, the new ones in phases two and three got pastel colours. New houses recently built in Cape Flats townships like Manenburg are likewise quite colourful. (The drab poor quality housing of those related to the Groups Areas removals is well known.) Also in another sense Bo-Kaap and District Six are arguably the most colourful residential areas of South Africa. Few suburbs can match the chameleon-like changes that these localities went through in a political and religious sense. The bulk of these changes was caused by political upheaval, scheming and machinations. Together with Onderkaap, the later District Six, these localities got a special stamp of what would become in due course the Mother City of the nation. The link to the very early history of the city is found of the first name of the main street of District Six, Keizergracht. The later names, Kanaalstraat and Hanover Street, reflect the cosmopolitan nature of the bubbling slum area of the late 18th century, Hanover being the name of a big German city. Before the apartheid-related removals of the 1970s and 1980s Bo-Kaap and District Six formed a socio-economic unit, together with other nearby localities where the 'middle races' lived predominantly. Before 1948 and in the few years there were also a sprinkling of Jews and 'Blacks' residing in Bo-Kaap and District Six, the adherents of the three Abrahamic living peacefully and harmoniously side by side throughout. Like in my other titles, I speak about 'Coloured' people. In a country like ours where racial classifications has caused such damage, I am aware that the designation 'Coloured' has given offence to the group into which I have been classified. For this reason, I wrote ‘Coloured’ between inverted commas and with a capital C when I refer to the racial group. To the other races I refer as 'Black' and 'White' respectively, with a capital B and W, to denote that it is not normal colours that are being described. For bibliographical detail and the origins of quotations the reader is referred to unpublished manuscripts such as Spiritual Dynamics at the Cape, Mysterious Ways of God and The Mother of the Nation. Along with other titles, this material is accessible at www.isaacandishmael.blogspot.com. 1. Abrahamic Religions' Interaction From the first decade of the settlement there was tension between Islam and Christianity. The history of the faith of Islam at the Cape of Good Hope and its relationship with the institution of slavery under VOC and British rule, had from the start been intertwined respectively with the commercial and political world order of the colonial era. In Chapter 2 of Revival Seeds Germinate (Part 1) I referred to this era as a confrontation between religions. Materialism as the Vogue In New Testament times Paul, the prolific epistle writer, had already discerned the idolatrous nature of materialism by stating that greed is a form of idolatry (Colossians 3:5). The Dutch started the refreshment post at the Cape out of economic considerations. Profit was the big word and materialism was the vogue. Already from the very early pioneering days the colonists and their clergy who came here, had only material gain in mind. Thus, one finds a school for slaves five years before there were any for the colonist’s children, although there was no lack of children of school-going age. The explanation has to be sought in the capitalist or materialist politics of the rulers. The slave children at the school, which was started in 1658 by the ziekentrooster, were taught in such a way as to get a maximum of service out of them. Already in 1709, the Danish missionary Johann Georg Böving, who spent three weeks at the Cape on his way from the East, discerned how materialism operated like the thorns of Jesus’ parable, choking the gospel seed. ‘The greatest hindrance … he believes to be the … colonists, who oppose the evangelisation of their slaves on the ground that those who have received Christian baptism, cannot thereafter be bought and sold’ (Cited in du Plessis, 1911:48). Although the vast majority of slaves within the Cape area were initially open to the gospel, sinful attitudes – including materialism and racial prejudice on the part of the Dutch colonists, along with an authoritarian denominationalism of the Church – drove them to Islam. Fraud was very much a part of the colonialists’ practice. In fact, it was regarded as no sin and it entailed no disgrace to rob the East India Company. The leader of the settlement at the Cape, Jan van Riebeeck, was found guilty in this regard even before he came to the Cape. The founder received general clemency. Du Plessis, the very respected Stellenbosch church historian, seemed to find it no problem that Van Riebeeck used brandy and tobacco to lure slaves to attend the first school, which he started a few years after their arrival. The teaching of the slave children was also expedient, because they had to be taught at least some Dutch, in order to be of better service to their masters. Van Riebeeck probably knew that children pick up a language more readily. Subdued Conflict between Islam and Christianity The Muslim leading men were called Orang Cayen, that is, ‘men of power and influence.' These Orang Cayen immediately befriended the slave population at Constantia, and many slaves became Muslims as a result and held secret meetings in the Constantia forest and on the mountain slopes. Orang Cayen were viewed by the VOC as particularly dangerous to the interests of the Company but their rational Dutch Reformed brand of Christianity was apparently no match in the spiritual battle for the hearts of the many slaves who were still open to the gospel. The VOC’s somewhat sterile church had no credible message for them. In fact, also in Europe a lingering belief in magical potions and witchcraft still existed at the beginning of the eighteenth century. While the local churches of the early colonial period were not even aware of the presence of the unseen occult forces operating against the spread of Christianity, the religion of Islam gained ground at the southern tip of Africa as from 1694 with the arrival of Shaykh Yusuf (real name Abidin Tadia Tjoessoep) from Indonesia. Shaykh Yusuf, an Islamic Sufi resistance leader, whose noble resistance against the Dutch, earned him the title among Muslims of kramat – a saint, came to the Cape on the Voetboog in 1694. The Shaykh was interned with 49 followers on the farm Zandvliet of the Dutch Reformed dominee (minister) of the Groote Kerk, Ds. Petrus Kalden. It has been reported that an early imam (Islamic priest) at the Cape foresaw prophetically, soon after Shaykh Yusuf’s death in 1699, that a ‘holy circle’ of shrines would come about. The Islamic prophecy suggested that all Muslims who live within the Holy Circle of special tombs would be spared fire, famine, plagues, earthquakes or tidal waves. The graves of prominent Muslim leaders who died in exile – saints of the Islamic faith – evolved in due course into shrines, called Kramats. A plaque at the Constantia Kramat was placed there to remind visitors of the religion of Islam. From Materialism to Grave Moral Degeneracy It is especially unfortunate that Ds. Petrus Kalden, who started off with a vision to reach the indigenous Khoe with the gospel of the New Testament, would later be accused of running a plantation rather than a parish. When he engaged in farming to augment his salary, the pervasive influence of worldly materialism seems to have reduced his love for the spiritually lost. Politically and denominationally, it would have been very difficult for the DRC dominee of the Netherlands to show compassion towards a Muslim leader that had been banished to his Zandvliet farm estate. Kalden became the victim of a sad smear campaign by his strydlustige kollega (his belligerent colleague) Ds. Engelbertus Franciscus Le Boucq. The latter cleric was not positive towards evangelistic and missionary work anyway. Although the accusation against Kalden was not sufficiently substantiated, he was one of very few clergymen at the Cape who had to be recalled for neglecting his duties as a pastor. He was subsequently dismissed by the DEIC, although he received two ‘baie eervolle getuigskrifte’ – very laudatory testimonials – from the Cape church council. The new pastor, Johannes d'Ailly, found matters in the church completely different from what they had been purported to be. Ds. Kalden had been falsely accused. He had actually been faithful in his ministry. The Dutch colonizers, along with uneducated and economically poor Germans, were speedily sinking into grave moral degeneracy. A Challenging Islamic Response In 1744, the same year that Georg Schmidt left the Cape through pressure exerted by the Groote Kerk dominees, a Muslim imam (priest) by the name of Tuan (meaning ‘teacher’) Said Aloewie of Mocca in Yemen was forcibly brought to the Cape . Along with other local imams Tuan Said apparently countered the potential effects of Schmidt’s mission work in the Cape District of the colony: Tuan Said was described as a ‘Mohammedaanse priester’ who was sentenced to life in chains. He served a sentence of eleven years on Robben Island before being brought to the port city where he became a policeman, which ironically enabled him to masquerade as a kaffir (infidel). Tuan Said reportedly had access to the slave quarters, where he propagated the faith of Islam. When the sentences of the religious and other convicts expired – for having opposed the colonial rulers – a few of them returned to Indonesia. The majority stayed on at the Cape. After they were freed, these convicts formed part of the community of ‘Vrijezwarten’ (free 'Blacks'). They were the people, next to the religious convicts, who were greatly responsible for the consolidation of Islam at the Cape of Good Hope. Progression of Idolatry to Ancestor Worship The Biblical motivation behind the request for missionary work among these ancestor-worshipping peoples relates to the Old Testament of Israel whose God warned against idol worship. This deification was performed, as a rule, on the ‘high places’. The idol worship was performed on ‘high places’. Often idolatry was linked to ancestor worship. Nevertheless, the Jews (and later also Christians of the Middle East) ignored these warnings and got into all sorts of bondage because of their disobedience to their Lord’s divine instructions. Often, they combined idolatry with ancestor worship. The Israelites were to refrain from idol worship, including that of ‘sacred’ stones and trees, which characterised their frequent disobedience to God. In due course, buried saints also began to be regarded as mediators between man and God. This belief grew to immense proportions, especially in Roman Catholicism, where the birthdays of saints are still commemorated worldwide. As a rule, the Bible calls only living people saints. In Egypt, the shrines of revered Coptic Christians very soon became places of prayer. Muslims copied the practice of building shrines when the Musselmen conquered North Africa. Ancestor worship at the shrines became part and parcel of Folk Islam, and the deceased in the shrines are still being called upon for help in times of distress and need. In Cape Town, these shrines (called Kramats), which are the graves of revered Muslim leaders, are specially frequented before pilgrims leave for Mecca. Islam rejects the notion that Jesus, the 'Prophet', was the Son of God incarnate in human form and the only mediator between the Holy God and human beings. Ancestral worship in the Cape, as probably noted by Van Lier and leading to his earnest appeal, was already firmly entrenched and persisted right through several centuries of Christianity in Africa till the present day. Two Jewish Brothers Enrich the Cape Jan and Frans Lion Cachet, two Messianic Jewish brothers, enriched evangelical Christianity at the Cape profoundly. After the sudden death of Rev. Vogelgezang at the Ebenhaezer Church in Bo-Kaap's Rose Street, Ds. Frans Cachet took over there after Ds. Stegmann’s short tenure. This fellowship was at this time linked to the Congregational Church. Ds. Frans Lion Cachet initiated the remarkable innovation of teaching Arabic to the learners. Teaching folk to write was possibly one of the beginnings of Afrikaans, written in Bo-Kaap, but using Arabic letters. This was a display of keen insight since the Arabic script was common at the time among the Muslim slaves. Ds. Frans Cachet also had evening classes with the intention of enabling the children and adult learners to read and understand the Qur’an and to judge for themselves. Ds. Jan Lion Cachet, his brother, was originally a teacher who later became a professor of Theology. Jan Lion Cachet became one of the stalwarts in the battle for the recognition of Afrikaans. It is significant that this warrior, who was born and bred in Holland, had to remind Afrikaners that the language of Holland was not feasible in this part of the world. He did this at a time when the Afrikaners were about to give up the fight for their language. The subsequent adoption of the language was celebrated to the extent of building a monument to it in Paarl. In terms of spiritual effect, it is easy to see how a worthy cause can become a form of idolatry. A Special Clan The Solomon clan was one the most distinguished families at the Cape for decades, many of them involved with the philanthropic movement in which Christians and Jews worked cordially side by side. The bulk of the Solomon clan turned to Christianity – without however severing their Jewish roots. Henry possessed a good knowledge of Hebrew and Arabic, devoting himself to various religious and philanthropic causes, including social work among the Cape Muslims – notably together with the Rev. Joel Rabinowitz, another gigantic Jewish personality at the Cape. (Abrahams, 1955:40). Henry and Saul Solomon became apprentices in the printing trade. Saul joined George Grieg and Co., booksellers and printers. (George Grieg joined John Fairbairn and Thomas Pringle in the fight for freedom of the press. The first South African newspaper appeared in Cape Town in 1824, the South African Commercial Advertiser. Fairbairn and Pringle successfully fought the dictatorial moods of Lord Charles Somerset, even though the first newspaper was not granted a long lifespan. Their endeavours achieved freedom of the press for the Cape Colony and South Africa when it was still a luxury in other parts of the world.) The two Solomon brothers then worked together in a printing firm in which Saul became a partner. The two brothers took over the firm which became known as Saul Solomon and Company, and they succeeding in getting the contract for printing the Government Gazette in 1841. In 1857 they became the printers of the first Cape daily newspaper, The Cape Argus, which they took over in 1863. Saul influenced public opinion for many years as editor. Theologians in Fierce Rivalry In 1873 Ds. Frans Lion Cachet pleaded in the Cape DRC Synod for a mission to his people, the Jews, to be started. He moved to the Cape village of Villiersdorp in 1876. He found a ‘deep sea of love’ for the Jews among ministers, elders and deacons, even among the most distant congregations (Cited by Hermann, 1935:201). The passionate plea of Frans Lion Cachet was however also a provocation to the Jews. Notably, the opposition came from their Rabbi at the Cape, Joel Rabinowitz. Hermann (1935:201) cited ‘violent opposition on the part of the Rabbi.’ Rabinowitz’ letter of 30 October 1876 to the Cape Argus was definitely not cordial, accusing Cachet of condescension and ‘casting doubts on … his motives.’ But Ds. Cachet’s reaction was not in the spirit of Christ either. The ‘lively correspondence’ between Christians and Jews – perhaps one should rather say polemics - continued in the Cape Argus for over a month. The result of the controversy was that by 1876 favourable conditions for Messianic Jews to win their cultural compatriots over to faith in Yeshua had passed somewhat and it was left to Gentiles to lead such people to faith in Jesus as their Lord and Messiah. Only in 1894 the resolution was passed: ‘… the time has come for the DRC to pay its debt to Israel by commencing its own mission to the Jews’. Anglican Missionary Work Impacting Cape Islam The first Anglican Bishop in South Africa, Robert Gray, came to the Cape in 1848. Within a matter of weeks he rented Protea Estate, which once had been Bosheuvel, when Jan van Riebeeck lived there. Almost immediately Bishop Gray implemented his vision to reach out to the indigenous people and to the Muslims with the Gospel. A major evangelistic coup on Bishop Gray’s part with regard to the Muslims was to bring in Rev. Michael Angelo Camilleri, who arrived on 9 December 1848. He was the first missionary sent out by the Society for the Propagation of the Gospel (SPG) who was scheduled to operate specifically among the Cape Muslims. Unfortunately he was working at the Cape only for a short period. Furthermore, other responsibilities made it difficult for him to concentrate on the actual loving outreach to the descendents of the slaves. Quite a few years elapsed before a successor to Camilleri on behalf of the denomination became responsible for such outreach among the Cape Muslims. Through ministry of Christian compassion during the smallpox epidemics, many a Muslim heart was opened up for the Gospel. The charitable concern of Dean Thomas Fothergill Lightfoot of the St Paul’s Church during the smallpox epidemic of 1858 was e.g. making a deep impact, preparing many a Bo-Kaap Muslim for the Gospel. Lightfoot referred to an increase of ‘catechumens’ (candidates for confirmation) after the epidemic. New Life of Cape Islam In spite of being so controversial, Imam ?? Effendi injected new life in Cape Islam. Under his influence there was an increase in religious services and ‘a stronger feeling of brotherhood was engendered amongst Muslim boys… and conversion to Christianity practically stopped’ (Worden et al, 1998: 189). European Christians unintentionally brought with them the baggage of racial and religious superiority, which did not stop at the church door. This happened literally after the arrival of Archdeacon Nathaniel James Merriman in 1849, scheduled to start his ministry as leader of a new diocese Grahamstown. He described how at St George's Cathedral two or three Muslims ‘with their red handkerchiefs on their heads’ came out of curiosity to see the new Archdeacon, but ‘the attendant official turned them out and shut the door in their faces!!!’. The churches were too occupied with their own internal issues to see the need of bringing the Gospel to the ‘Malays’ who were perceived to be inferior. At this time, the work of the South African Missionary Society (SAMS) suffered due to a a lack of funds. The need for a special mission to the Muslims was nevertheless definitely felt and a sub-commission was specially formed for this purpose. Speaking on behalf of this sub-commission, Rev. G.W. Stegmann insisted on a final decision in 1873. Yet, Muslims were still coming to faith in Christ. In the annual report of the SAMS of 1875 it is mentioned that 7 of the 18 new members to be confirmed were Muslims. It is ironic that Christians have saved Islam from extinction at the Cape again and again, directly and indirectly. Fluctuation of Attitudes Towards Cape Muslims The general attitude of Christian missionaries towards the Cape Muslims as a people group was fairly positive. The positive view of Christian missionaries was for example reflected in the report of a mission Committee in 1847. This report described the Muslims as ‘an industrious, thriving people, many of them wealthy, and generally speaking, they manifest an intelligence of mind and a respectability of character decidedly superior to most of the other classes of the coloured population’ (Report of the Cape Town Auxiliary Committee (to the London) Mission Society for 1847, 1848: 7). This was in keeping with the philanthropic spirit of the period after the emancipation of the slaves. All this appears, however, to have only marginally influenced the rank and file colonist. Colonist Prejudice Towards Cape Muslims Colonists had massive prejudice towards Cape Muslims, who were generally referred to as Malays because of the Malayu language which was the lingua franca of the slaves. Thus Samuel Hudson, a slave owner, confidently believed that ‘Malay… can administer poison in such a way as to destroy the health, without occasioning death for many months or eleven years’, A certain Colonel Blake’s referred at an admiral’s party in 1837 to ‘Malay poisoning pins, hair, nail pairings vomited in a ball’ (Both quotes from Worden et al, 1998:128). That Islam survived in Cape Town is nevertheless quite surprising. The condescendent prejudice of 'Whites' might have played some role to knit them together as victims in this regard. The friendly atmosphere was bound to change when the attitude in society towards Muslims turned around significantly in the last quarter of the 19th century. The other objection to hospitalisation was the food that was not ‘hallal’ (ritually clean). Hospital regulations rejected the food that was brought from home. During the 1807, 1812, 1840 and 1858 smallpox epidemics, the Cape Muslims endured these indignities in silent protest. In 1882 they openly showed their defiance by refusing hospitalisation, quarantine, vaccination and fumigation. The view that their religion is ‘superior to the law’ (Cape Times, 1 August 1882) made middle-class Cape Town furious against them and newspapers started to scorn them. The suggestion was made that the ‘Malays’ should be accommodated in separate residential areas (Lantern, 9 September 1882). As soon as their demands were met, provision was made for the ablution ritual and nurses were drawn from their community, the Cape Muslims complied with the regulations. But dangerous seed had been sown, which would germinate in due course (The seed re-surfaced in the establishment of a ‘location’ for 'Blacks' in Ndabeni at the turn of the century when the Bubonic plague hit the Mother City in 1902 and still later with racist apartheid laws of the 1950s and 1960s, e.g. the Group Areas Act). The communal life had the imam in the centre. The Muslims consulted him on all occasions. Visiting the sick was part and parcel of his religious obligation. Therefore they rallied together in anger when the ‘infidel’ authorities ordered that the imam should not visit his congregants during the time of an epidemic. 2. Various Moves and Removals Originally established as a community of freed slaves, merchants, artisans, labourers and immigrants. District Six was a centre with close links to the City and the Port. However, by the beginning of the 20th Century, the history of removals and marginalization had begun! It was named the sixth District of Cape Town in 1867. The ‘Anglo-Boer’ (1899-1902) War indirectly influenced the situation at the Cape. Because of the war and the run-up to it, many refugees streamed to the Cape from the interior. The population of the Mother City more than doubled from 79 000 in 1891 to 174 000 in 1900). An influx of 'Whites' to the Mother City significantly diminished the proportion of Muslims. Additionally, the Mother City had already become completely cosmopolitan. Already in the 18th century this was immediately apparent to visitors. ‘In the coins of their change they could receive Dutch guilders, German schellings, Spanish reals, ... Colombo fanum, East Indian rupees, Javanese bronze, or Arabian piastres’. In 1838 a German visitor commented: ‘there are probably few cities in the world which, within so narrow a space, could show a greater variety of nations than Cape Town does’. A Harbinger of Forced Removals The first group of people to be “resettled” were the 'Blacks', who were forcibly displaced in 1901 in the wake of the Bubonic Plague for which they were given the blame. The more prosperous inhabitants began to move to the suburbs; District Six became the neglected ward of Cape Town. In the 1940s plans were formed by the Cape Town Municipality to demolish houses under slum clearance, but it was only after the declaration of District Six, as a 'White' residential area under the Group Areas Act in 1966, that extensive demolition began. Resistance by inhabitants, also supported by 'Whites', was intense and the last residents only left in the late 1970s. Bo-Kaap and District Six Closely Linked Bo-Kaap and District Six were closely linked throughout its history until the apartheid bulldozers raised the former residential suburb to the ground from the late 1960s. If Prime Minister P.W. Botha and his government had their way, the same thing would have happened to Bo-Kaap. Before Group Areas legislation, Bo-Kaap started in Keerom Street and District Six in Harrington Street. Starting off as a farm where Jan de Waal gave his name to the street that runs through the middle of the suburb that has become erroneously known as Wale Street, the area was soon inhabited by quite a few slaves. The bulk of those who were brought there, hailed from Indonesia and Bengal. The mix of cultures there is aptly seen in the names of early inhabitants. The surnames indicated where they had been born. Thus the fairly affluent Saartje van de Kaap, who married Achmat van Bengale, became a beneficiary of one of the first mosques when colonial Britain took over the occupancy of the Cape. Her father owned the property and he was freed as a slave. Early Bo-Kaap Spiritual Dynamics Cape Spiritual dynamics had an interesting interplay, notably in Bo-Kaap. The very year in which the dynamic Moravian missionary Georg Schmidt was more or less forced to leave the Cape because he had baptised five Khoi in a river, Tuan Said, a religious convict from the East, was released from Robben Island. The grave of Tuan Said was one of the first kramats (shrines) on the Tana Baru cemetery of Bo-Kaap. After his incarceration on Robben Island from 1780 to 1793, another banished Islamic leader from the East, Tuan Guru, started a madressa, a Qur'anic teaching institution, in Bo-Kaap's Dorp Street. (That is the same street where Jan de Waal's big farm-house still stands today.) Tuan Guru would usher in an Islamic revival at the Cape among the slaves, that was only temporarily halted by an earthquake on 1 December 1809. The madressa became a mosque, the first of South Africa in 1794. The Islamic renewal was given a major push by the materialist Dutch colonists who encouraged their slaves to become Muslims because a 1770 placaat (decree) of India that baptised slave could not be sold was also applied to the Cape. Furthermore, slaves felt very unwelcome in the two big churches of the day, the Groote Kerk and the Lutheran Church in Strand Street. By 1800, those benches in the back corner of the Groote Kerk which had been reserved traditionally for the use of slaves, were empty every Sunday. The saying went around that ‘De zwarte kerk is de slamse kerk.’, the mosque is the church for the slaves. Bo-Kaap had become the cradle of Islam in South Africa. The First Missionary Society Outside of Europe Yet, the legacy of the late Dr van Lier made great strides. A special result of Van Lier’s ministry was surely when South Africans started going to the mission fields themselves. Tragically, Van Lier was not around to see the actual founding of the South African Missionary Society (SAMS), the first missionary society outside of Europe in April 1799, at the Zuid-Afrikaanse Gesticht on the corner of Long and Hout Streets. He had died of tuberculosis in March 1793 at the age of only twenty-eight. Ds. M.C. Vos, another big giant of our misssion history, was called by God as a juvenile whose ‘heart was grieved at the neglect of the immortal souls’ of the Cape slaves. As an orphan with a sizeable inheritance, he had a yearning to study theology. In 1794 Dominee Vos returned from the Netherlands. where he had been touched anew by the Holy Spirit to return to his home country to minister to the slaves and the Khoi. Ds. M.C. Vos took up the legacy of Dr Helperus van Lier. 2 Cape Churches Work Together To counter the influence of the Dutch Reformed Church, Lord Charles Somerset, one of the new British governors, brought in Presbyterian ministers from Scotland. The British governor's plans initially faltered in Bo-Kaap, where the Scottish ministers resided. In fact, they gave the name to the area, Schotse Kloof (Scottish Glen). A lone exception to the racial arrogance of the time was the Zuid-Afrikaanse Gesticht on the corner of Long and Hout Streets, situated on the fringes of the town centre next to Schotse Kloof. Lutherans, Reformed believers and other Christians worshipped together there with the common goal to reach the spiritually lost with the Gospel. The cordial harmonious relationship between churches seems to have operated for quite a few years. A special feature of the mission effort of the early 19th century was the apparent lack of denominational rivalry. Thus Anglican Church services were first held in the Groote Kerk. The endeavour of the missionaries spawned the working together of the Cape churches in the run-up of and around the slave emancipation in 1838. These missionary efforts effectively slowed down the expansion and growth of Islam. The Presbyterian Dr James Adamson and the Lutheran Rev. Georg Wilhelm Stegmann engaged in combined outreach. Soon after his ordination as a Lutheran minister, Stegmann not only felt the need to do something for the slaves, but he also started with a ministry in Plein Street. He was asked by Adamson to join him in this outreach to the ‘Coloureds’. At St Andrew’s, Adamson would preach in English in the morning and Stegmann in Dutch during the late afternoon service. A Cape colonist who was deeply affected by the 1909 earthquake was Martinus C. P. Vogelgezang. He was a teacher, who also received missionary training. Later he became a powerful preacher and church planter at the Cape where he started the first denominationally independent church. Undeterred by the rebuff from the big church at the Cape, Vogelgezang preached the Gospel among the slaves with unprecedented zeal. He initially operated from his shoemaker’s shop in Rose Street, a part of present-day Bo-Kaap. That he gained the respect of his ecumenical contemporaries is demonstrated by the fact that various ministers of other denominations were present at his ordination in February 1839 in the Union Chapel on Church Square. These included Dr John Philip and Rev. Robert Moffat of the London Missionary Society. In the course of time the zealous clergyman planted a few churches, bringing the Gospel to the Muslims with much authority and conviction. Whatever gains were achieved as the different churches and nations – notably at the Zuid-Afrikaanse Gesticht (ZA Gesticht), on the corner of Long and Hout Streets were working together in the first decades of the 19th century at the Cape where the SAMS was founded - were impeded by the imperial efforts towards British colonial domination. Dr Philip and Lord Charles Somerset would be seriously at loggerheads with each other for many years. An Early Church Split When Dr Adamson visited Scotland, Ds. Stegmann officiated at both the Lutheran and Presbyterian churches. Rev. Morgan was appointed as the successor to Dr Adamson in 1841, when the latter decided to focus on his work at the fore-runner of the University of Cape Town that he had helped to establish. Stegmann was proficient in the Dutch language and consequently took a more active role in the teaching and preaching activities at St Andrew’s Mission. As the new incumbent minister, Rev. Morgan wanted to preach on every alternate Sunday at the better-attended evening services, but Ds. Stegmann was unwilling to share the pulpit with him in this way. The German appears to have been unreasonable, insisting on officiating at all the evening services of St Andrew’s. Morgan promptly refused Stegmann permission to continue preaching there. After Dr Adamson’s return from overseas, he sided with Stegmann in the dispute. Hereafter the German left the church. By this time meetings and school classes for slave children were held at the old poorly patronised theatre, the Komediehuis in Bree Street, that was put up for sale. (Adamson brought along funds from Britain for the purchase of the building.) The split that occurred at St Andrew’s in 1842 was clearly the result of personal rivalry between the pastors Stegmann/Adamson on the one hand and Rev. Morgan on the other side of the divide. At a time when the missionary work started to flourish, a rift reared its head in the St Andrew’s Church. On 20 April 1842 a ‘vergadering van ontevredenheid’ (a meeting of dissatisfaction) took place at the former theatre. Stegmann implored the big slave audience to return to the Scottish Church, but only one person responded positively. The rest refused. He had however caused much of the discontent himself. The former theatre hereafter functioned as a separate church for freed slaves. This angered the colonists tremendously. Hearing that slave children were being taught in the building complex enraged the colonists. So many of them were still illiterate themselved. The angry 'Whites' pelted the building at Riebeeck Square with stones. Hence the church got the name St Stephen’s, named after the first Christian martyr who was stoned to death. Local Church Planting In February 1865 Dr Andrew Murray started with services in Roggebaai every Thursday evening with a ‘full house.’ On the other side of the Groote Kerk, Murray started with services in a house in Van de Leur Street in District Six. Soon a parish of the mother church was started in Hanover Street, at that time called Kanaalstraat, where race and class discrimination started to play a role. The ‘Dreyerkerk’ as the church became known later, was obviously intended for poor 'Whites' and ‘Coloureds’. Nevertheless, especially for the parishes of Roggebaai and Hanover Street, ‘the services could not be long enough in duration.’ In the subsidiary of the Groote Kerk with Dr Andries Dreyer in a ‘gemengde gemeente’ (a racially mixed church), problems had started after an influx of poor 'Whites'. Dreyer weathered the storm of ‘onrust en kwaad gevoel’ 3 during a movement for church unity in 1911 (Hopkins, 1965:233). The congregation had a separate Sunday School for about forty neglected street boys, amongst whom there were also Indians and ‘Malays’. 4. Special Church Planters at the Cape The vision of Dr Helperus van Lier (and after him Dr van der Kemp of the South African Missionary Society), to see indigenous missionaries going out to spread the Gospel and getting them involved in church planting, was blocked and stifled by the tendency of missionaries and clergymen from Europe and North America, to dominate proceedings. It would take more than another hundred years after Van der Kemp’s death before genuine church planting by indigenous believers would took place at the Cape. It occurred very much in protest against 'White' domination. (The bulk of the churches among people of colour were started at the Cape by missionaries from overseas or as offshoots from already existing mission stations.) Indigenous Leadership Blocked and Stifled The vision of Dr van Lier, Dr van der Kemp and the Moravian Bishop Hallbeck at Genadendal to empower Khoi and slaves for leadership diminished significantly during the 19th century. The gifting of people of colour was simultaneously not appreciated sufficiently. A sad development of the last decades of the 19th century was that this combined with ambition and rebellion by a few ministers of colour who evidently did not understand the nature of the Gospel properly. 'Black' dislike of 'Whites' was a common characteristic of those ministers who broke away to start their own denominations. It is natural to deduce that they had bad examples of 'Whites' who lorded over them, not allowing their understudies to develop their full potential. A case in point is Reverend Joseph John Forbes. Starting off as a teacher, he was ordained as a Methodist minister in 1918 at their Buitenkant Street fellowship on the outskirts of District Six. He withdrew from the church owing to differences on the colour question, accepting a call to the Congregational Church soon hereafter. There he did not last long before leaving to start his own church and denomination, the ‘Volkskerk van Afrika’, in Gray Street (District Six) on 14 May, 1922. This visionary had the courage of his conviction to start a denomination for the uplifting of the poor from the Cape to Cairo. That is the reason he gave his church a continental name. His leadership qualities had clearly been overlooked and spurned because thereafter he became one of the greatest church planters at the Cape. A strong element of ‘Coloured’ Nationalism was present when Joseph Forbes started his ‘Volkskerk van Afrika’. In only 14 years there were already 13 branches, 6 normal schools (as opposed to night schools) and an orphanage at Jonkersdam, which was later transferred to the Lawrencia Institution, Kraaifontein. What is very significant of this denomination was that they have a special anthem, which is still sung at their annual commemoration, hailing the protea, ‘blom van ons vaderland.’ (Flower of our fatherland). The denomination made inroads in geographical areas where the traditional churches had become slack. They even started a church in Genadendal, the first mission station of the Moravians. The new denomination was later governed from Stellenbosch, and expanded to places like Oudtshoorn and far-away Kimberley. In the case of Alec Kadalie, he went to the African Methodist Episcopal (AME) Church, whose leader since the 1930s – the Cape–born Dr Frances Herman Gow from a ‘Coloured’ mother and an Afro-American father – was all too eager to use people of colour. That denomination - with its origins among the Negroes of the USA - was a great propagator of the indigenisation of the church at the Cape. Under Dr Gow’s leadership – he became their bishop in 1956 - the church expanded rapidly, at least numerically, with churches in different parts of the Peninsula. The Kadalie clan would nevertheless to play a substantial role in the second half of the 20th century in the Cape Town City Mission. Another Cape-bred church plant grew out of evangelism in the 1930s. The depression of the early 1930s appears to have caused a new fire for evangelism. When John Crowe listened to a Salvation Army open-air service in Adderley Street in 1932, he was touched. How happy his prayerful mother was when he shared that he had decided to follow Jesus! The ‘slightly Coloured’ family - as those with a fair complexion from that racial group were called - attended the Baptist Church in Wale Street. Almost immediately the 18-year old Crowe wanted to share the Gospel with other people in the neighbourhood of Roggebaai, near to the ship dockyard. He struck a partnership with his namesake John Johnson, getting involved in open-air services at different places. Later they were especially active on the Grand Parade, Cape Town’s Hyde Park corner, where various political groups and others had their meetings. Harold, John Johnson’s brother, joined them at a later stage. When people started committing their lives to Jesus through their ministry, they received permission to conduct meetings in one of the Railway cottages, which soon became too small. They then rented a wood and iron construction called the ‘Tin Shanty.’ An evangelistic outreach was gradually picking up via Bo-Kaap and District Six in the first half of the twentieth century. Soon also the ‘Tin Shanty’ had become too small. In the 1950s the fellowship was allowed to use the hall adjacent to the Holy Trinity Church in Harrington Street that belonged to the Church of England in South Africa. Starting their outreach in the Dockyard, the church group which had started operating from the ‘Tin Shanty’, called themselves the Docks Mission. From its earliest years prayer and fasting belonged to the practises of the denomination. Many a Friday night was used for an all night prayer meeting. No wonder that God gave the new denomination phenomenal growth. Not only were new churches started on Brown’s Farm (Ottery) and Factreton, a new housing scheme, but also in rural areas at Wellington and Grabouw. Life-Changing Ministries An evangelistic outreach was gradually picking up via Bo-Kaap and District Six, two residential areas predominantly inhabited by people of colour in the first half of the twentieth century. Open-air services were prominent in this drive - with the Salvation Army, the Docks Mission, the Cape Town City Mission and the Baptists of Wale Street and Sheppard Street (District Six) in the forefront. From their early beginnings the Docks Mission also started outreaches at the prison in Tokai, at the nearby Porter Reformatory, at the Brooklyn Chest Hospital, and later at another institution for delinquents in Wynberg called Bonnytown. Many lives were changed through these ministries. After the services at the Docks on Sundays, some members went to Somerset Hospital to pray with nurses there. A branch of the Hospital Christian Fellowship (now called Health Care Fellowship). which operated at Somerset Hospital for many years, benefited greatly from this assistance. Docks Mission members made a national impact through ministry to prisoners on Robben Island. Docks Mission's Pastor Walter Ackerman thus witnessed to and challenged Nelson Mandela. After his release in 1990, Mandela often referred to the Christian teaching that he received over the years as an important contribution to his emphasis on forgiveness and refraining from revenge. A Young Cape Couple Moulded Among Hindus Denise and Dennis Atkins were both from Kensington and as young people were converted at the Dock’s Mission Church. They enjoyed exciting times of ministry at the Bloemhof Flats in District Six, open airs on the Grand Parade and the rich teachings of the Keswick meetings at the Dutch Reformed Synod Hall in Orange Street. Denise’s mom, Doreen Dennis was from Bo-Kaap. Denise remembers many happy holidays with the grandparents until the family was forcibly removed to Hanover Park during the apartheid era. Denise served with Youth For Christ in 1976 before proceeding to Bethel Bible School. Dennis, also hearing God’s call to full time missions, followed two years later. The couple was sent as 'Pilgrims' to Natal to serve as pioneer Africa Evangelical Band missionaries among Hindus. Working alongside Pastor Solomon, a great Indian preacher from Tinley Manor Baptist Church, the Lord blessed their work, with many a Hindu coming to faith. 4. Christian Compassion as Gospel Seed The wives and daughters of evangelical reformers were the harbingers of charity in 19th century Cape society. They were allowed to play a more prominent role in public life than other women, with prejudice against ‘the weaker sex’ abounding. It is quite surprising to find that even within the family of the liberal fighter for the rights of Khoi and slaves, the missionary Dr John Philip, the same prejudice prevailed. His daughter Eliza (who later married the well-known pioneer of press freedom John Fairbairn) was forced by her father to give up her ambition to become a teacher ‘since she would fail to gain the social virtues desirable in a young woman’ (Worden et al, 1998:130). Nevertheless, many missionary wives and daughters worked as teachers or ran business of the mission, albeit generally unacknowledged and usually unpaid. Harbingers of Charity In yet another way, Jane Philip, the wife of Dr John Philip, broke ground for the liberation of women. She was paid for the bookkeeping that she did for the London Missionary Society. This work was customarily done by men. Worldwide the Cape came up with a novum: nationalistic compassion. In 1820 the St Andrew’s Friendly Society was set up to provide relief and medical aid for the Scottish community and in 1829 the St Patrick’s Society was founded to accomplish the same thing for the Irish. In 1843 St Stephen’s members started a system by which members contributed sixpence to one shilling (sterling) a month to cover the cost of medicines in the event of sickness or the need of burial. To the missionaries and evangelicals must be contributed ‘the strongest philanthropic impetus’ (Worden et al, 1998:121). In their view, care of the soul was closely linked to the relief of the suffering. The Good Samaritan was the paradigm of border-crossing benevolence. Built on the margins of the town on the road to Green Point, the Somerset Hospital was founded on this premise by Dr Samuel Bailey. It was intended for the outcasts of society, for merchant seamen and slaves, paupers and ‘lunatics’ (Worden et al, 1998:121). Jane Philip also founded the Bible and Tract Society, distributing religious literature to the poor, as well as being prominent in establishing mission schools in Cape Town. Christians to the Rescue of Islam Cape Islam was rescued from outside, in the form of reprieve from Christians in a surprising combination. Genuine compassion was displayed by Mr Petrus Emanuel de Roubaix - who was a director of the SAMS and a Cape parliamentarian. (A shift possibly occurred within the SAMS, away from an outright evangelical position to a more humanist approach. De Roubaix had very little desire to spread of the Gospel). Kollisch praised, however, the philantropist De Roubaix’s ‘indefatigable zeal in the cause of civilisation and progress’ (Kollisch, 1867:44). Due to De Roubaix's intervention, Abu Bakr Effendi, an imam from Turkey, was brought in to try and stop the doctrinal fighting in the mosques.4 Effendi was however nowhere the final answer when he caused doctrinal disunity himself. The name of the Shafee Mosque in Chiapinni Street that was built in 1876, now reminds one of the Shafee versus Hanafee Islamic struggle, which was caused by Effendi. His greatest contribution was probably the writing in Afrikaans of the Bayan al-Din, a religious text, written phonetically in Arabic script. Cape Islam on the Backfoot The Muslims would not have their own way in the field of religion. Through ministry of Christian compassion during the smallpox epidemics, many a Muslim heart was opened up. The charitable concern of Dean Thomas Fothergill Lightfoot of the St Paul’s parish of the Anglican Church during the smallpox epidemic of 1858 was e.g. making a deep impact, preparing many a Bo-Kaap Muslim for the Gospel. Dean Lightfoot referred to an increase of ‘catechumens’ (candidates for confirmation) after the epidemic. In Schotse Kloof proper, the area above Buitengracht Street towards Signal Hill, various mosques were built in the course of the 19th century, mainly because of internal quarrels. The Cradle of a Language A sad legacy of the Cape is that language groups were suppressed almost from its beginnings in combination of religious prejudice. It honours Afrikaners that from their ranks, Theo du Plessis dared to point out, through his research into the history of Afrikaans, that the monument for the start of the language should have been built in Bo-Kaap and not in Paarl. Dr Achmat Davids, a resident of Bo-Kaap, hereafter showed in his doctoral dissertation how Afrikaans was first written in Arabic script in Bo-Kaap. Opposition to the policy of Anglicization has been recorded as early as the 1830s. Ds. Herold, who came to Stellenbosch from George, wrote a letter to the Colonial Secretary, stating that the Dutch parents were not prepared to send their children to a teacher incapable of conversing in the Dutch language. Yet, the language issue did not weigh that heavily yet. At the private school which was started by the Rhenish Mission society in Stellenbosch, German and English were used. Arnoldus Pannevis, a Dutch school teacher who came to the Mother City in 1866, noticed that the people at the Cape were speaking a language which was quite distinct from Dutch. He was driven by a passion to see the Bible translated into the language spoken by the people. However, he was met with derision for his idea to have the Bible translated into a patois, a kombuistaal.5 Pannevis’ plea with the British and Foreign Bible Society was flatly refused: ‘We are by no means inclined to perpetuate jargons by printing them.’ Ds. S. J. du Toit, one of his pupils, was joined by Casparus P. Hoogenhout in the founding of the Genootskap van Regte Afrikaners. The Jewish-background Ds. Jan Cachet later became one of the stalwarts in the fight for the recognition of Afrikaans. It is significant that this warrior - who was born and raised in Holland - encouraged Afrikaners to fight for the preservation of the language. He did this at a time when the Afrikaners were about to give up the fight for their language (Dekker, Afrikaanse Literatuurgeskiedenis, 1980:32). When they discovered that an Afrikaans Bible would be useful for 'Whites' as well, Pannevis’ idea suddenly was good enough to pursue. The Genootskap’s official organ, Die Patriot, written in Afrikaans, gave the fledgling language its decisive push. In 1889 Ds. S.J. du Toit made it his life’s work to translate the Bible. An important contribution to the movement for recognition was that of the Capetonian Melt Brink, who was born on the corner of Long and Strand Streets of the Mother City. That was part of the Bo-Kaap before the apartheid-related group areas re-zoning. Significant was that Melt Brink had actually only had three years of formal schooling. A work of prose by Gustav Preller in 1906 about Piet Retief, the famous Voortrekker, seemed to give some new breath to the movement. With the death of Ds. S.J. du Toit in 1911, however, it seemed as if the momentum was lost, as if it as had run out of steam. The first Afrikaans translation of the Qur’an occurred at the Cape. Imam Mohammed Baker, who qualified as a teacher from Zonnebloem College in District Six, was responsible. After becoming principal of the Muslim Mission School in Simonstown, he started with the translation in 1956, completing it in 1961(Mahida, 1993:80). The Idolising of the Language The ideological slant which Ds. S.J. du Toit gave to the language movement had a sad by-effect. Afrikaners made an idol out of Afrikaans, even building a monument for it in Paarl. In terms of spiritual warfare, we discern how easily Satan can turn a worthy cause into idolatry,6 which is often linked to lies and deception. This was also the case with the monument in Paarl. The deletion of Nederduits from the name of the Dopperkerk, the Gereformeerde Kerk, signals the effort of an indigenization process, which was surely a healthy development. However, the way in which Ds. Jan Lion Cachet and his Cape colleague, Ds S.J. Du Toit, went about matters was not lovingly enough to prevent tensions with other Afrikaners. Du Toit and his compatriots could not prevent an ugly racism and xenophobia being fostered. The germ of resentment - against verengelsing, i.e. opposition to British imperialism – provided the breeding ground for the Uitlander problem, fifty years after Somerset’s enforcement of English as the only official language. When Indians and East European Jews entered the country in numbers of consequence, the foreigners were seen as a problem, instead of regarding them as a blessing and a challenge for mutual enrichment. The idolising of the language and the mythologizing of the Dutch-Voortrekker heritage on the one hand, along with the British imperialist spirit, which had one of its most ardent proponents in Cecil John Rhodes, would ultimately combine to lead to war between the two main European language groups of the subcontinent at the end of the 19th century, the South African or Anglo-Boer War. Pan Africanism at the Cape A move at the Cape supplied the seed for the birth of Pan Africanism on South African soil. F.Z.S. Peregrino was a Ghanaian who had an office in Tyne Street, just off Hanover Street in District Six. As a recruiting officer for Jamaicans, he not only looked after their interests, but he also sought to promote broader Africanism. In the draft constitution of the ‘Coloured Men’s Protectorate and Political Association…of the Cape of Good Hope,’ which he founded in 1890, an article states that the organization endeavoured to ‘become part of the Pan African Association of England.’ The slogan ‘Africa for the Africans’ has often been labled as 'Black' racism. It is hardly known that a 'White' missionary from New Zealand was actually one of the first protagonists of the principle. Joseph Booth, who was born in Derby, England, wrote a booklet with the title Africa for the Africans in 1897. He worked as a farmer in New Zealand until he experienced a missionary call in 1892. His unorthodox approach to mission work and his schemes for African self-help and advancement eventually created friction with colonial authorities. He was barred from Central Africa around 1903 as an alleged supporter of African religious separatism (Karis and Carter, Volume 4, 1977:10). Joseph Booth was in Cape Town in 1912-13, living off rent from boarders in his home. One of these boarders was the great Dr Don D.T. Jabavu. Booth drew up an ambitious scheme which would train 'Blacks' in modern skills and give them a base for greater self-assertion. He enlisted support from Sol Plaatje and Rev. John L. Dube, who would become two prime movers towards the formation of the African National Congress (ANC). But nothing came of the schemes. In 1914 Booth went to Basutoland (today’s Lesotho), where he worked as an independent missionary. Paternalism Breeds Secession In the attitude towards people of colour there was a lot of goodwill among 'Whites' at the turn of the century. A problem was that even radical thinkers among them hardly ever consulted people of colour. Proper consultation could possibly have averted many a crisis. From the earliest days at the Cape the ‘natives’ were regarded as inferior, their culture despised. Paternalism was rife. This gave rise to the secessionist ‘Ethiopian movement’. The ‘Ethiopians’ have been typified by the sentence: “We have come to pray for the deliverance of Blacks’ (Cited in Elphick et al, 1997:212). The ideological link went back to the Ethiopian eunuch of Acts 8 and the church, which developed in that country without mediation of Western Churches. The term ‘Ethiopian’ was derived from the concept that the first indigenous church on African soil started in Ethiopia. The ‘Ethiopian’ movement started in different parts of South Africa as breakaway congregations from the Methodist churches. Disillusioned by the imperfections of colonial society, they withdrew from 'White'-dominated structures to exclusively African organisations. For the ‘rebel’ 'Black' churchmen, Ethiopia was the model land where 'Blacks' were ruling their own country. Their policy was to throw off the shackles of 'White' domination and reassert their former independence, while retaining at the same time what they considered to be the best elements of European civilisation. The secessionist ‘Ethiopian movement’ took off when the separatist ideas spread to the Witwatersrand after the discovery of gold. The first ‘Ethiopian church was established in Pretoria in 1892 after 'Black' Wesleyan (Methodist) ministers had been excluded from a meeting of 'White' colleagues. In a sense the good teaching of the Methodists backfired when they tried to make the indigenous folk independent, because the missionaries kept on patronizing their congregants of colour. By 1902, Ethiopianism was used for the entire indigenous church movement. In America a separate church had been started among Negroes as the American Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC). It was only natural that the ‘Ethiopian’ Methodists of South Africa linked up with them. Bishop Levi Coppin was sent here as the first 'Black' bishop. The AMEC headquarters were to be in District Six. Struggle for Justice and Racial Equality Bishop Coppin and Henry Attaway, another American, who headed the Bethel Institute in Blythe Street, District Six, returned to the USA. The hopes of peaceful racial co-existence that had existed at the end of the Anglo-Boer War, were disappearing quickly. Racism, segregation and repression increased. Henry Sylvester Williams, a 'Black' lawyer who hailed from Trinidad in the West Indies, found himself boycotted and ostracised by his 'White' colleagues and blocked in his work (Saunders, 2001:152). Afro Americans had a special contribution in the early liberation struggle of South African 'Blacks' when scholarships were offered to John Dube, Solomon Plaatje and D.D.T. Jabavu to study at their universities. In the same vein the conferences were valuable which W.E.B. du Bois, yet another Afro American and an intellectual - calling for equal opportunities - organized between 1919 and 1945. The militant 'Black' consciousness views of Marcus Garvey - who hailed from Jamaica - did not tie in with the the South African Native National Congress (SANNC) ideal of a multi-racial country. Also atheistic socialism or communism could not excite the SANNC with its strong Christian background. Compassionate Initiatives With a Ripple Effect Mr Frederick George Lowe came to Cape Town in 1896 as a concerned Anglican and a businessman who sold cheap clothing. Inspired by the ministry of David Nasmith, the founder of the Glasgow City Mission, he soon got involved with loving outreach to the poor and needy, especially at the time of the Bubonic plague in 1901. Lowe started what he called the City Slum Mission in 1902, assimilating into his own ministry what was left of that of Robert Campbell, combining compassionate outreach with evangelism. He started his evangelical meetings in Coffee Lane and Commercial Street. When he moved to Well’s Square, one of the most notorious spots of Cape Town that was known as a venue for drunkenness and prostitution, he had meetings that drew hundreds (Martindale, 2002:20). Lowe’s outreach nevertheless remained fairly obscure, until the Bubonic plague hit the Mother City once again in 1915 - especially the areas of Salt River and Woodstock. The compassionate work of the City Slum Mission now became more widely known. Lowe lived sacrificially in a downstairs room in Aspeling Street, District Six. Frederick George Lowe’s death on June 2, 1924 hit the headlines. For Lowe’s funeral two special trains were chartered to take mourners to the Maitland cemetery (Martindale, 2002:18). After Lowe’s death the mission got its present name, the Cape Town City Mission. In later years churches and all sorts of homes were started all over the Peninsula. The combination of evangelism and compassionate outreach – which they took from their models, the Glasgow City Mission and the Salvation Army, became an integral part of their ministry. (This remained the case until the 1990s when the evangelistic sector became a part of Kingdom Ministries, led by Pastor Alfie Fabe, which started sending out missionaries to different counties of the world.) There was also an outreach established in Hanover Street, a heritage of the pioneering work of Dr Andrew Murray. It was a subsidiary of the Groote Kerk with Dr Andries Dreyer in a ‘gemengde gemeente’ (a racially mixed church). Problems had started after an influx of poor 'Whites'. Dreyer weathered the storm of ‘onrust en kwaad gevoel’ 7 during a movement for church unity in 1911 (Hopkins, 1965:233). The congregation had a separate Sunday School for about forty neglected street boys, amongst whom there were also Indians and ‘Malays’. Significant was at this time the outreach of the Dutch Reformed Church in District Six by Ds G.B.A. Gerdener who worked there from 1911 to 1917. Gerdener was instrumental in eight Muslims coming to the Lord and he also had the fore-sight to stimulate the buying of a building for the discipling of converts from Islam. The building called ‘Uitkoms’ in Virginia Street, District Six, never really served the purpose for which Gerdener had intended it. It became a children’s home which was of course also necessary, but the impact that a house for converts could have made on Cape Islam can now only be guessed. ‘Coloureds’ moved from the Cape to the mines on the Reef, taking along with them some of the liberties they had enjoyed. Just before the Resurrection weekend recess of the House of Assembly in 1914, a petition was signed by some 1600 ‘Coloureds’ from the Transvaal, calling for a change in the Mines and Works Act of 1911. They suggested that wherever the word ‘White’ occurred, it should be replaced by the word ‘competent.’ They were however unsuccessful to bring about a change in the legislation. Christian Compassion in District Six and Bo-Kaap The Rev. Sydney Warren Lavis had succeeded Archdeacon Lightfoot as Priest-in-charge of St Paul’s Mission in 1905 and became its first Rector in 1913. In 1928 he became Dean of Cape Town and subsequently Bishop in 1931. He was a great figure in the history of Cape Town and was extremely popular, particularly amongst the 'Coloureds' of the City. He battled all his life to remove poverty and to improve housing. Bishop Lavis Township, one of the City Council schemes. was named in his honour. The Nanniehuis in Bo-Kaap’s Jordaan Street showed the way of compassion in another move which started in Bo-Kaap and District Six. Care was taken of unwedded mothers and prostitutes. Anna Tempo in Bo-Kaap, the initiator of the project, was the daughter of slaves from Mozambique. The Nanniehuis became the model for similar projects in other parts of the country after Ms Tempo had been awarded the King George Coronation Medal for her work in 1937. She later became the matron of the Stakesby-Lewis Hostel in Harrington Street, District Six. By the early 1960s there were 288 welfare agencies in the city, of which less than half were run by religious organizations. The City Mission was by far the best known. The combination of evangelism and compassionate outreach – which they took from their model, the Salvation Army, became an integral part of their ministry. A special ministry of compassion to the city nightclubs from the early 1970s was based in the old Tafelberg Hotel of District Six. It was started amongst the youth of the 'White' Dutch Reformed Church congregation of Wynberg. This ministry was birthed in prayer. Pietie Victor, who started his theological training in Stellenbosch in 1964, founded the compassionate ministry with his wife Annette, who was a social worker by profession. Only four young people of the fairly big youth group were initially prepared to join the couple for outreach on the streets and in the nightclubs on Friday nights. However, many of the young people came for Bible Study and prayer before the group left for the outreach that would take them into the early hours of Saturday morning. Ministry to AIDS/HIV Patients At a time when AIDS was still being mentioned covertly, there was almost no ministry to people who suffered from HIV and AIDS. A ministry with close links to the Cape Town City Mission started when Val Kadalie, a trained nurse, had a deep concern for young people who contracted sexually transmitted diseases (STD’s). She was invited to speak in many churches and schools - to warn young people about the dangers of promiscuity and encourage them to abstain from pre-marital sex. After Ms. Kadalie became the matron of the G.H. Starke Centre in Hanover Park, the institution also started functioning as a hospice for terminal patients. She warned her staff in the late 1980s that they might soon have to treat AIDS patients. Her colleagues were thus ready for that, trained to care for people with HIV and AIDS long before they received their first request. The test came when she and her husband, Charles Kadalie, were approached to take care of a four-year old boy, Jason, who was HIV positive. One day, when Charles put the phone down at the electric power plant in Athlone where he was working,8 he sensed that God was challenging them as a couple to practise what they preached. Jason was the first of four children they cared for in succession, until all but one died from AIDS. Val Kadalie became a pioneer fighter for AIDS awareness In the process Val Kadalie became a pioneer fighter for AIDS awareness throughout the country, responding to calls from churches and groups of the most diverse backgrounds. Nazareth House, a Roman Catholic institution in the City Bowl, performed the same work during this period, as the occurrence of HIV-positive babies started to increase. At the building in Vredehoek where the Roman Catholic Church had already started caring for orphaned children and destitute elderly since 1888, they pioneered with the care of HIV-positive/AIDS babies in 1992, possibly the first outreach of this nature in South Africa. Toby and Aukje Brouwer, a Dutch YWAM missionary couple, soon took on the care of AIDS babies after their successful pioneering ministry amongst street children called Beautiful Gate. In 1999 they started to care for HIV-positive and AIDS-infected little ones with government aid in Crossroads, a 'Black' township. Since then, their ministry has expanded to neighbouring countries. On 8 December 2004 a new centre was opened in Lower Crossroads. Broken lives were restored and in the case of at least one young man, a desire was born to enter missionary work. In the southern suburbs of the metropolis, Pastor John Thomas and his wife Avril were moved in 1999 to start with HIV and AIDS-related ministry. They soon built a hospice to care for people with HIV and AIDS, beginning a ministry of prevention and support which today reaches thousands of people. 5. A Special Slum Area At the time of the emancipation the slaves were still rejected at the first churches, but in Onderkaap (the later District Six), racially mixed congregations developed. The Methodists had a congregation in Sydney Street as early as 1837, with 200 'Whites' and 150 ‘Coloureds’ on its roll in 1854 and even the Dreyerkerk of the Dutch Reformed Church in Hanover Street appears to have had poor 'Whites' as regulars. At the St. Mark’s Church, even prominent 'Whites' continued to attend in the apartheid era. The vibrant slum area on the one side of the Central Business district of the Mother City formed a socio-economic unit with Bo-Kaap, Walmer Estate and Woodstock until the implementation of Group Areas legislation in the 1970s. It is interesting to note that the part of the city, from where Islam and many church denominations launched out to the rest of the Cape Peninsula, was also the residential area where Judaism became firmly established after the influx of East European Jews at the turn of the 20th century. Mission churches from all over Europe and North America had congregations in the area. The few hectares of District Six were more cosmopolitan in the first decades of the 20th century than any other part of the African continent. Cross-Cultural Mixing This geographical area was the launching pad for a whole spectrum of diverse socio-cultural practices and dynamics, from indigenous church planting to vice like prostitution and gangsterism, from Panafrican notions, Garveyism (Africa for the Africans) and anti-segregation politics to that of adaptation and compliant ja-baas opportunism. Two figures were instrumental in the spreading of the 1920s version of Garveyism at the Cape.9 One was S.M. Bennett Ncwana, who started the paper The Black Man in 1920. The second was ‘Professor’ James Thaele, who was described by the South African police as ‘intensely anti-'White' in sentiment’, stating openly that he did not trust or wish to associate with any 'White' man (Sparks, 1990,:254). As president of the Cape branch of the South African Native National Congress (SANNC), the forerunner of the ANC, Thaele infused symbols and rituals of Garveyism into the organization. Already in 1918 a mass meeting had rejected the principle of segregation. Bitterness was expressed more vigorously in 1923 when the Urban Areas Bill came before Parliament. Selope Thema of the SANNC told Jan Smuts, the Prime Minister, in Cape Town: ‘We have a share and a claim to this country. Not only is it the land of our ancestors, but we have contributed to the progress and advancement of this country … we have built this city’ (Cited in Bickford-Smith et al, 1999:90). A local version of Black Consciousness was developed by Johnny Gomas in District Six. Long before homosexuality came into prominence, ‘moffies’ were already parading in the coon troops. Occult Islamic-related ‘fafie’, tokolosh and doekoems belonged as much to the area as ‘Christian’ shebeens. Jewish synagogues, many churches and a few mosques operated harmoniously in close proximity to each other. District Six was the home of the Eoan Group, that was started in the 1930s. ‘On my programme, as I sat planning, I wrote “Eos”, the beautiful Greek word meaning “dawn” – Eos … Eoan … pertaining to the dawn. And so I named the new group Eoan, in the consciousness that through its illumination the Coloured people could realise the dawning of a new cultural expansion in themselves, and a new understanding of well-being, physical and mental, for their race.’ With these words, Helen Southern-Holt, a British immigrant, described the beginnings of a small cultural and welfare organisation for the 'Coloured' community in District Six in Cape Town. Situated near to the city business district, District Six was a multi-cultural neighbourhood until 1968, when 'Coloured' and 'Black' people were forcibly moved to other settlements outside the city centre as the Apartheid laws regarding the Group Areas Act stipulated. The Eoan Group, founded in 1933 by Southern-Holt, was to become South Africa’s first grassroots opera, dance and theater company. Under the guidance of Joseph Manca, their Jewish music director, the group performed opera’s of international standard in the City Hall in due course. Very few South Africans got to know that Johaar Mosaval, the solo dancer in Gloriana, an opera specially composed by Benjamin Britten in 1952 for the coronation of Queen Elizabeth, was born at 1 Little Lesar Street, District Six.10 Christian Ziervogel, a little known self-educated evangelical Coloured man who had to leave school in the fourth grade, wrote a booklet in 1938 which he titled Brown South Africa. Ziervogel stated prophetically: ‘The eyes of the world are on South Africa, and her place among the nations will be determined largely by the measure of wisdom which is brought to bear upon the adjustment and solution of her problems.’ This voice of profound wisdom was however overheard or ignored. Was it because he was only the caretaker cum librarian of the Hyman Liberman Institute or was it because he belonged to the group called non-'White'? Or was the booklet too unknown? Perhaps all three reasons applied. Yet, he was called professor by fellow District Six Capetonians, who recognized his vast knowledge, which he picked up from second-hand books that he had bought on the Grand Parade. There he was preaching regularly, part of a rich tradition of evangelists who knew the Bible well, but who had little formal schooling. As one of the fifteen group of Jimmy La Guma and the core group of the New Era Fellowship, the studious Ziervogel probably influenced Isaac Tabata, Cissy Gool and others. That his booklet has hardly been quoted or included in bibliographies indicates that very few scholars knew about it. University of Witwatersrand professor W.M. Macmillan had much more success with his book called The Cape Colour Question in 1927. In that book, which was based on documents from Dr John Philip, the visionary clergyman was vindicated to a great extent. It depicted how the LMS missionary was ‘conspicuously free from the persistent thought that makes an abstraction of colour, and treats South African African history as the story of the fortunes only of its European pioneers.’ The balanced work prophetically saw not only the advent of continental political independence on the horizon, but Macmillan also warned against the growing trend of Africans and men of colour to make ‘separatism their own weapon, and to turn it against those from whom they learned it.’ Macmillan furthermore suggested in the foreword quite radically – so valid even for our day and age – that in ‘new Africa… freedom without compromise should be the touchstone of policy.’ De Kiewiet, one of Macmillan’s students, wrote in the foreword to the 1968 reprint of the classic study: ‘The Cape Colour Question has risen out of its obscurity to become the world colour Question.’ 6. DIVERSE RESPONSES TOWARDS INJUSTICE AND OPPRESSION Dr Abdullah Abdurahman Enters the Political Arena The influx of 'Whites' to the Mother City due to the War (1899-1902) - following on the earlier increases, because of the discovery of diamonds and gold in other parts of the country after 1869 - significantly diminished the proportion of Muslims. A spirit of antagonism against 'Whites' amongst ‘Coloured’ people hereafter spread like wild fire. Furthermore, the number of Cape Muslims had been significantly reduced because of various epidemics. Suddenly the Cape Muslims had become a minority in the city by a big margin. Not so long before this, Dr Abdullah Abdurahman returned from Scotland, where he had qualified as a medical doctor. The plight of people of colour influenced him to get politically involved at the beginning of the 20th century. The stature of Dr Abdurahman, the dynamic medical doctor, grew meteorically as a politician after he had witnessed the merit of 'Blacks' during the Bubonic plague in 1901. He became one of the ‘plague doctors’, treating many of them. Abdurahman saw how this issue was abused,when the 'Blacks' were dumped in the ‘location’ of Ndabeni. After a protest in which a few imams were involved (the names of Mogamat Taliep, Maji Mahomed and Imam Adukeep are mentioned), concessions were issued to them with a stern warning: ‘if disturbances continued, Muslims would also be placed in a location’ (Van Heyningen, 1984 [1981]: 101). In politics things sometimes turn around very quickly. Dr Abdurahman gained a seat in the Cape Town City Council through the backing of the Afrikaner Bond (Davids, 1980:181). Calling the party he started in 1904 the African Peoples’ Organization (APO), the roots in the 'Black' continent was emphasised. Non-racialism was to be the hall-mark of the District Six-based party. Dr Abdurahman would dominate the politics for the disenfranchised at the Cape for more than 30 years. Co-Operation of Disadvantaged Races Sometimes the impression is still spread superficially that apartheid only started in 1948. However, 'Blacks' were excluded from participation in the politics of the country already in the run-up to the formation of the Union in 1910. After a draft constitution was made public in February 1909 at the deliberations of the National Convention, 'Black' leaders formally came together in March 1909 for the South African National Convention. Their objections were echoed by the APO in Cape Town, who decided to send a protest delegation to England. They agreed for the first time that ‘The time has arrived for the cooperation of coloured races’ and to unite to protect the rights of all ‘Coloured’ races and ‘secure an extension of civil and political liberty to all qualified men irrespective of race, colour or creed throughout the contemplated Union’ (Cited in Welsh, 2000:370). Dr Abdurahman wrote a letter on 31 May 1910, the day in which the Union formally came into being. Referring to the ‘insertion of a colour line into the Constitution Act,’11 Abdurahman noted that the 'Whites' could commemorate the event ‘by making the day one of thanksgiving.’ However, ‘… no Coloured person could do otherwise than regard the day as one of humiliation and prayer.’ After his second marriage with Maggie Stansfield, a local Christian, Abdurahman appeared to have become fairly accommodating with regard to racial segregation and less principled. He co-operated in the government ‘Commission of Enquiries Regarding the Cape Coloured Population’ without even a single note of dissent, albeit that through this co-operation he achieved the building of the Schotsche’s Kloof flats for Muslim occupation. This was the beginning of Bo-Kaap becoming a Muslim stronghold. The recommendations of this commission laid the foundation for apartheid legislation like Group Areas for different races. Bad compromise – if not collaboration itself - is unfortunately known of Dr Abdurahman in the twilight of his illustrious career. Empowering the Underdogs In America, a separate denomination had been started in the early 19th century among Afro-Americans because of racial discrimination. Desiring religious autonomy, they formed a new Wesleyan denomination, the American Methodist Episcopal Church (AMEC). The AMEC played a significant role in the Cape liberation struggle, by enabling South Africans of colour to study in the USA. Among the very prominent believers who went to study in the USA was the social worker and teacher Charlotte Maxeke who studied at Wilberforce University in Ohio. She graduated there in 1905, the first ‘Black’ woman from South Africa to earn a bachelor’s degree. Overseas she married Dr Marshall Maxeke, a fellow South African. After their return to the country, the couple impacted many 'Black' South Africans. One of the persons influenced at the Cape by them was Rev. Zaccheus Mahabane. He would become an influential personality in the African National Congress (ANC) from its early beginnings and for many decades. Charlotte Maxeke went to found the women’s league of the ANC. Cape-born Frances Gow returned from the USA with a doctorate. In 1956 he became a bishop in the AMEC denomination, one of the first western-trained bishops on the continent. The AMEC, with its origins among the Africo-Americans of the USA, was a great propagator of the indigenization of the church at the Cape. Under Dr Gow's leadership the denomination expanded rapidly. AME churches were started in different parts of the Peninsula. 'Black' Leaders in Costly Reconciliation Generations of political leaders in South Africa, particularly among the first ones of the ANC, drew on Christian values for the building of a broader political unity. Coming from the African background of an understanding of our broad humanity, ubuntu, there was, they believed, an ethical imperative to move beyond narrow identities of family, clan and race. In contrast, the thinking of 'White' and 'Coloured' churches was bedevilled by the neat separation of politics and religion. Long before their denominations embraced any concept of ubuntu 'Black' South Africans had already discerned the importance of the unity in Christ. A Catalyst for Peace and Reconciliation Over the years, the Church in South Africa has been a major catalyst for peace and reconciliation. Strong personalities, like Reverend John Langalibalele and Professor D.D.T. Jabavu, played a moderating and conciliatory role in the early days of the ANC. Successive 'White' governments failed to appreciate this gold-mine of human resources, by not listening properly to 'Black' Church leaders. One of the ANC pioneers at the Cape was Rev. Zaccheus Richard Mahabane, a Methodist minister, was posted to Cape Town in 1916. He joined the Cape African Congress in 1917 after hearing political speeches of Charlotte Maxeke and her husband. In 1919 Mahabane became president of the Cape African Congress. In 1924 he was elected president-general of the national ANC and again from 1937 to 1940. He voiced his opinion in 1925 that 'the universal acknowledgement of Christ as common Lord and King breaks down the social, spiritual and intellectual barriers between the races.' Richard Mahabane propagated moderate conciliatory views of compromise. For example, he accepted that a separate voters’ roll for 'Blacks' was acceptable if 'Whites' found the prospect of a common roll too menacing. From Abbotsdale to District Six It is interesting that the Malmesbury geographical area from which hailed the great statesman Jan Smuts and the arch protagonist of apartheid, Daniel Malan, also gave the country one of its greatest unsung heroes. (These two hailed from Riebeeck Kasteel) The Anglican mission station Abbotsdale, once started by Bishop Gray, produced a boy with the name of Johnny Gomas, who would influence matters at the Cape and countrywide in no small way. John Stephen Gomas was born in 1901 in the rural Abottsdale, in the Malmesbury district in the Western Cape. He was educated at a mission school until his mother moved to Kimberley in 1911 in search of work. It was there where he received his formal schooling. In Kimberley he was attracted to the militancy of the African National Congress (ANC). Gomas joined the African National Congress (ANC) at the age of 17 in 1918 and the International Socialist League in 1919. Gomas was a tailor by profession and a member of the Garment Workers’ Union. Together with Ray Alexander, a Jewish Activist of he helped to establish trade unions in a number of industries where 'Black' workers were working, organising them from the shop floor. He was active among the clothing and textile workers in Cape Town and the crayfish workers on the west coast and in Port Nolloth. In 1923, he became a full-time organiser for the Cape-based Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) and joined the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA). He was elected its provincial secretary in 1925 and began organising for a closer alliance between the ICU, the ANC and the CPSA. Rise of the Capetonian Worker Class The trade union work initiated at the Cape by Nyasaland-born Clements Kadalie and his colleagues in 1919 with their Industrial and Commercial Workers Union (ICU) was short-lived, but it succeeded in giving 'White' South Africa a fright. Gomas also joined the ICU of Clements Kadalie, of which he became a full-time organizer in 1923. The militant language of the ICU eclipsed the ‘prayers and deputations’ of the ANC (Musson, 1989:30), making it a mass movement after 1923. At this time Gomas was back in the Cape, operating from his home in Sussex Street in Wynberg. He worked closely with James la Guma in 2 Rodger Street in District Six. As one of the first generation of revolutionary fighters, Gomas left deep imprints on the national liberation struggle in South Africa. With hardly any formal schooling, Gomas learned his lessons in the struggle and in the liberation movement. The Industrial and Commercial Workers Union of Africa (ICU) left a legacy: ‘the flame of revolt which it had fanned’, especially in rural Western Cape areas. But also in the new townships of the Mother City the flame was ignited under the direction of the Communist Party of South Africa (CPSA) and for a while by a revived ANC. Until 1925 the ICU was a Cape-based trade union. Through the dynamic leadership of Clements Kadalie, membership of the ICU spread throughout the length and breadth of the country and beyond. However, when the ICU leadership became increasingly under the influence of liberals, the communists were seen as a threat. Gomas, together with the other Communist Party members, was something of a headache to Kadalie because Gomas wanted to transform the ICU into a mass movement. When Gomas and La Guma refused to resign from the CPSA, they were expelled from the ICU. That back-fired on the ICU, which hereafter declined sharply. Tabata (1974:10) had no doubt that the bureaucratic methods of the leadership crippled the organization. The CPSA gained from it all the more. Gomas, who had really put the ICU on the map in the Western Cape, also rose in rank in the ANC. During Gumede’s absence in Russia in early 1927, Gomas was the national acting president. The communist influence in the ANC was considerably extended at this time. Johnny Gomas was very much of an optimist, thinking that 'White' and 'Black' workers could unite in opposition to the ilk of Jan Smuts, who epitomized to them the mine magnates who exploited the workers. Gomas’ hope was smashed in the aftermath of the 1924 elections. One of the first laws of the 1924 Pact Government was the Native Administration Act. This law equipped the Native Affairs Department with enormous powers, e.g. to control the free movement of Africans. A Special District Six Trio Goolam and Jane Gool, along with Isaac Tabata, became involved in the establishment of a new body – the Spartacist Club out of which arose the Workers Party of South Africa (WPSA). The 'White' members of the WPSA were barred by their very skin colour from playing an active organisational role amongst the 'Black' population. This task fell mainly on the backs of the above trio but they would not be alone for long. The organisational thrust of the WPSA took place on two fronts. The first opportunity was presented by the introduction of the notorious Hertzog Bills in 1935, which brought new restrictions on access of the 'Black' population to the land, their total disenfranchisement and the creation of the dummy Native Representation Council (NRC). When people rallied to oppose these drastic new measures in an historic conference in 1935, Jane, IB Tabata and Goolam were present to campaign vigorously for the total rejection these new bills, a boycott of the NRC and the building of a national unity of the oppressed. Tabata has related that the very presence of Jane and Goolam brought about an intense debate on how this body was to be named. Thus, instead of being called the the All Native Convention it became the All African Convention (AAC). The New Era Fellowship William Peter van Schoor, a teacher who was born in Salt River in 1913 and who graduated through private studies, was the principal speaker at the inauguration of the New Era Fellowship. Johnny Gomas, James La Guma and a few other Marxists had much in common with the NEF rebels, but they detested their intellectual debates. Yet, in the NLL they found common ground in their abhorrence of Dr Abdurahman’s APO, who ‘steeped so low’ as to co-operate in the government ‘Commission of Enquiry Regarding the Cape Coloured Population’ - without even a single note of dissent. The recommendations of this commission laid the foundation of apartheid legislation like Group Areas for different races. Bennie Kies, a UCT alumnus, was part of this group of young, radical Cape Town intellectuals who questioned and challenged colonial authorities and made important contributions to social and political theory. He stood alongside a group of radical men and women who were also not household names in South Africa: Archie Mafeje, Kenny Jordaan, IB Tabata, Dora Taylor and Neville Alexander, to name a few. “But even in the midst of these people, Kies stood out,” said emeritus Professor Crain Soudien in a UCT summer school lecture. Cape Women Leading the Way The Cape indirectly played a role in the fight for voting rights for women globally. Georgiana Solomon, the wife of Saul Solomon, the great 19th century parliamentarian, got involved in this movement after their emigration to Great Britain. From 1895 Julia Frances Solly, who came from England in 1890, became active in the move to secure the vote for women. From the beginning of the 20th century she concentrated on this issue after settling at Knorhoek, Sir Lowry's Pass, in 1901. As a close friend of Olive Schreiner, she was one of the chief personalities in the National Council of Women in South Africa. The worldwide feminist movement received a major push through a book of Olive Schreiner with the title Woman and Labour (1911). Olive Schreiner was so much of a pioneer of positive feminism that Vera Brittain referred to her book as the ‘Bible of the Woman’s Movement.’ Brittain saw this book as ‘insistent and inspiring as a trumpet-call summoning the faithful to a vital crusade’ (Cited by Hobman, 1954:2). At the Cape itself, the Non-European Women’s Suffrage League only got underway in 1938 in District Six. Yet, Ms Halima Ahmed was the leading light there at a time when women were hardly found in politics anywhere in the world. She became better known as Halima Gool after she married Goolam Gool. In August 1938 she delivered the inaugural address of the Women’s Suffrage League in the Cosmopolitan Hall in Pontac Street, District Six. She became the first secretary of the national Anti-CAD (Coloured Affairs Department) movement in 1943. Even more famous became her sister-in-law, Zainunissa (Cissie) Gool, the daughter of Dr Abdurahman, who became a respected (and sometimes hated) outspoken and controversial City Councillor for 24 years on behalf of the National Liberation League. She was someone with stature, one of the country’s first female Master of Arts, but also someone who was critical of the APO policies of her father Dr Abdurahman. Cape Women were also pioneering in the field of publication when a people’s history booklet on Claremont was produced by the United Women’s Organization as part of its campaign against the Group Areas removals. An Incubator of a New Culture The New Era Fellowship (NEF) was, in the words of Professor Crain Soudien, an incubator for “an incredible new culture” in Cape Town. It began as an initiative of the Workers Party of South Africa – of which Kies was a member – and evolved, with the help from the young Cape radical, into an “intense intellectual space of study”. Towards the end of the 1930s, NEF intellectuals assessed South Africa, concluding that they needed a political vehicle for formal organisation. The opportunity arose in the early 1940s when the United Party proposed a Coloured Advisory Council (CAC), like the Native (later “African”) Advisory Council that was established in the mid-1930s. The Native Advisory Council, of which the African National Congress was a part, and the CAC evoked a great deal of resistance in this NEF political community and like-minded people. They argued that these were essentially sites for legitimating the disenfranchisement of people of colour. Out of this resistance came Anti-CAD, which stimulated a great deal of political activity in Cape Town. The AAC Weakened By ANC Disaffiliation The AAC was hereafter considerably weakened when the ANC disaffiliated. It was tragic that even after the elections of 1948 that led to the apartheid government - which was so catastrophic for the oppressed - the two groups could still not unite again. This only happened in 1983 with the formation of the United Democratic Front. Johnny Gomas continued to make things happen. He and James la Guma had been at the cradle of yet another move of opposition to the 'White' rulers in 1935. In the preamble to the draft programme of the National Liberation League (NLL), which called ‘for Equality, Land and Freedom’, one finds the gist of the pamphlet ‘The Emancipation of slaves’, written by Johnny Gomas. The founding members of the Cape-based NLL included Gomas and the new rising stars of District Six, Alex La Guma and Cissie Gool. The latter two were children of two seasoned politicians. While waiting for the next conference of the AAC due in December 1937, Gomas concentrated on the activities of the NLL. He moved to 27 Stirling Street in District Six, from where he gave a lot of support to Cissie Gool. In the municipal elections of September 1938, Cissie Gool unseated Mr Mc Callum, a sitting member of the Council. In due course she became a respected (and sometimes hated), outspoken and controversial City Councillor for 24 years as a member of the National Liberation League. Trade Unionists Committed to Justice and Non-Racialism Johnny Gomas and his mentor James la Guma, another prominent Cape ‘Coloured’ activist, were trade unionists who were committed to justice and non-racialism from an early stage of their lives. La Guma called his Fifteen Group for a special meeting in 1935 when the threat of 'Blacks' being deprived of their franchise became stronger. He concluded: ‘We need an organization of all the oppressed.’ And a new organization was promptly formed - the National Liberation League (NLL). In Cissy Gool , the daughter of Dr Abdullah Abduarahman, they had a ready-made president. The NLL became one of the main forces in the All African Convention (AAC), which met from 15 to 18 December, 1935, with more than 400 delegates, including the District Six-based NNL as a major faction. The AAC can be regarded as the precursor of the UDF of the 1980s. That congress in 1935 was characterised by great enthusiasm and determination. As one of the radicals at the convention, Johnny Gomas proposed that mass protest meetings should be organised throughout the country. His proposal was unanimously accepted. In the face of the unprecedented unanimity, the rulers had to act. Instead of implementing the convention’s proposal, Seme and Jabavu walked into Prime Minister Hertzog’s trap at a meeting in 1936 as part of a delegation. Hertzog claimed that the two leaders had accepted concessions, although some of the delegation vehemently denied it. Perceived by many to be African acceptance of Hertzog’s Native Representative Council (NRC), many 'Blacks' regarded the ANC leadership as stooges. This Council later had indeed many resolutions passed, of which the government took no notice. The Council contact to the government had become what many scathingly called a ‘toy telephone.’ The ANC proper went ‘into hibernation until after the war’ (Musson, 1989:77), when the party was resuscitated by young radicals like Anton Lembede and Nelson Mandela. After the expulsion of James la Guma from the ANC, Johnny Gomas became the new advocate of the Black Republic slogan. The idea was that South Africa was to be governed by 'Blacks' in leadership positions. When James La Guma discerned that 'Whites' were usurping leadership in the NLL, he asked them to step down. This led to some infighting, resulting in the NLL becoming a spent force by the early 1940s, although Cissy Gool-Abdurahman was still a City Councillor on that ticket. She founded the National Liberation League and helped to create the I(NEUF). She was known and loved as the "Jewel of District Six" and "Joan of Arc" by South Africans as a champion of the poor The illustrious Cape female politician served in that capacity until her death in 1963. A Hub of Resistance of the Oppressed Notwithstanding the moderate voices of reason, the decade after 1935 has been described ‘a renaissance in the history of struggle by the oppressed in South Africa after the 'dark years' of the early 1930s’. A thrust started with opposition to the three ‘Native Bills’ which spontaneously united non-'White' people. The Bills intended to remove 'Black' South Africans from the common voters’ roll in the Cape, entrenching segregation. District Six became the national hub of resistance in the struggle against racist oppression. It was the cradle of 'a national solution for all of South Africa and the structures and ideas upon which a truly national liberation movement came to be based.' The National Liberation League (NLL) was started there in 1935 with Cissy Gool, the daughter of Dr Abdurahman, President of the African People’s Organisation (APO), a ready-made leader. The NLL became one of the main forces in the All African Convention, which met from 15-18 December 1935. The All African Convention prepared the ground for the Non-European Unity Front (NEUF) and the Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM). The Non-European Unity Front (NEUF) was officially launched in January 1939, with Cissy Gool as President. The NEUF can be regarded as the forerunner of the UDF of the 1980s. On 27 March 1939, twenty thousand people gathered on the Grand Parade for a rally of the NEUF, the biggest demonstration of opposition to the government that the Mother City had seen up to that moment. In a moving ceremony Cissy Gool lit a torch which was passed on to the masses, who likewise had torches. The NLL anthem, which was written by James La Guma and Johnny Gomas, was sung as the crowd marched to parliament, led by the Moravian Hill Brass band, an adaptation of an old English working class song: Dark folks arise, the long, long night is over … and the DAY is here. The Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM), which was founded in 1943 was also a major vehicle of protest. It had the Teachers’ League of South Africa (TLSA) as one of the most influential affiliates. Teachers had taken the lead countrywide in the resistance to the oppressive government, due to the influence of Genadendal, along with the mission and church schools which fanned out from District Six. A good example of the influence of the resistance movement in District Six was how the Freedom Charter of the ANC of Kliptown in 1955 was 'nothing but an imitation in many respects of the Ten Point Plan of the Unity Movement', on which (later professor) Z.K. Matthews and Lionel Bernstein could build in 1955. There is indeed great similarity between the Freedom Charter and the People’s Charter of June 1948. The Malay Quarter Falls Apart - Literally Bo-Kaap was threatened from yet another angle after Dr Abdurahman’s departure from the political scene. At this time the slamse buurt, the ‘Malay Quarter’, proper was also falling apart physically. 'White' speculators pocketed exorbitant rents, not concerned with the condition of the houses on their properties. The invasion of non-Muslims as subtenants resulted in the over-crowding of the ‘Malay Quarter’. It deteriorated gradually into slum conditions. Even the pride of the Cape Muslims, their artisans, was affected so that Lewis (1949:649) wrote about the disappearance and even ‘death of the Malay crafts’. However, he over-stated his case somewhat by speaking of the ‘disintegration of community living’ (p.598). The old houses of the original ‘slamse buurt’ (Malay Quarter) with the borders, Dorp, Strand, Rose and Chiappini Streets, were deteriorating fast towards the end of the 1940s, but the Islamic community was still clinging to each other, with Bo-Kaap and District Six as an axis around which much of the subculture revolved. Bo-Kaap Saved By Far-Sighted People Far-sighted people like Dr Izak David Du Plessis, a lecturer from UCT and a famous Afrikaans poet - along with other 'Whites' like Dr E.G. Jansen - had a deep sense of cultural history. Dr Du Plessis especially was loved by many Muslims of the Bo-Kaap and appreciated by them for his efforts to get the Malay Quarter restored to its former glory. It is appropriate to repeat that when the Malay Quarter was definitely threatened with extinction, Du Plessis rallied many friends - almost all 'White' and Christian - to fight for the restoration of the dilapidated houses. In altruistic style Du Plessis passed the honour to the group headed by Dr E.G. Jansen, who later became the Governor General of the Cape Province. Du Plessis described them as ‘...untiring idealists who realize that the Malay Quarter is the pivot of Cape Malay life’ (Du Plessis and Lückhoff, 1953:12/13). They succeeded to get 15 houses restored in the block between Rose, Wale, Chiapinni and Longmarket Streets. The rest of the Bo-Kaap continued to deteriorate. At the request of the government Department of Community Development, the City Council drew up a scheme for the general rehabilitation of the area. In 1966 Mr P.W. Botha had a number of houses built in his capacity of Minister of Community Development. How genuine he was, was never clear. It really was a question whether it was not merely a gesture to placate the opposition after the furore and outcry after the District Six proclamation of 11 February 1966. Soon Botha would show his true colours when he became the Minister of Coloured Affairs. Yet later, he was known as the unbending ‘groot krokodiel’ as Prime Minister. Also on the Christian side, there was a threat at this time. Only a remnant of St Stephen’s Church members had remained when many moved away to other parts of the Peninsula. The maintenance of the building became a big burden to the church. Rev. P.S. Latsky, who served the congregation from 1930, had a heart for the historical value of the building. He fought successfully for its preservation when developers wanted to use the church and the adjacent lot for a parking garage in 1949. The Legalizing of Racial Separation The whole APO, including Dr Abdurahman as well as the Native Representative Council was reckoned by the New Era Fellowship (NEF) to belong to the group of collaborators. George Golding and his Coloured People’s National Union (CPNU), were in the eyes of many the arch collaborator. At a time when Islam was reeling, the legalizing of racial separation in 1948 saved the day for Muslims. When the Nationalist government took over in that year, it soon became clear that people of colour would be discriminated against. Islam at the Cape was embattled once again because its adherents were grouped with the ‘Coloureds’. The dubious honour goes to Dr Izak David Du Plessis for the application of apartheid ideology to the Cape Muslims. He contributed in a big way to the ‘redefinition of ‘Malay’ as an ethnic designation in terms of the larger racialist scheme of apartheid’ (Chidester, Religions in South Africa, 1992:167). He wrote books about the Cape Muslims, their culture and history. Originally the term ‘Malay’ denoted a religious and not a racial group in his writings. Muslims (like all peoples of colour) were divided with regard to the opposition to the oppressive laws. Influx of Jewish Immigrants After the influx of Jewish immigrants in the late 19th century after the discovery of gold and diamonds in our country, tension between adherents of the Abrahamic religions could have become worse in view of economic rivalry and racial prejudice. It is thus actually a miracle that a situation would ultimately evolve into one a few decades later, where the three Abrahamic religions could live amiclably side by side in the Mother City, notably in District Six. Cape Town was still known as the most anti-Semitic major city world-wide until well into the 21st century. This reputation was tarnished on 11 November 2023 when the grandson of our former president Nelson Mandela incited the Muslim participants at an anti-Israel demonstration. The next day, aggressive folk came two hours before the pro-Israel prayer rally ready to disrupt, burning Israel flags and damaging the stage. Harmonious Religious Relations According to Dr Issy Berelowitz, a prominent Jew who grew up in District Six in the early 20th century, there were no less than nine synagogues there. That part of Cape Town was seen as the heart of Jewry in the Mother City in the first half of the 20th century. Poor East European immigrants are known to have lived in the area between Chapel Street and Sir Lowry Road. 'White' children, including many a Jewish learner attended the Chapel Street Primary School till 1948 when apartheid legislation stopped it. In a strange irony the school now has a Muslim principal with more Xhosa learners than from any other race. The religious-wise tolerant and multi-racial character of that part of the growing metropolis is demonstrated by the fact that Buitenkant Street had a synagogue, the Tafelberg DRC, and the (Coloured) Methodist Church in close proximity to each other, along with many other churches and mosques. The first Jew to become a mayor of Cape Town was Hyman Liberman, who was in office from 1904-1907. He had a compassionate heart. When he died in 1923, a big sum was donated from his bequest for a reading room and other facilities in District Six. The Liberman Institute in Muir Street became a beacon of light. From there, a library operated and UCT students in the Social Sciences did their practical work there. The building provided a neutral venue for many a meeting in the struggle against apartheid. One of the aspects of the Cape’s 20th century legacy was that there was a cordial harmonious atmosphere between Cape Muslims and Jews particularly in District Six even until the end of the century. Christianity, Judaism and Islam co-existed side by side amicably until the advent of Group Areas legislation. Even today many Muslims are still working with and for Jews without any feelings of rancour, although isolated radical elements within the Muslim community tried to stir up anti-Jewish sentiments from time to time. Surprising Results of 'Group Areas' Legislation Already in 1940 the report of E. Beaudouin, which was presented to the Cape Town City Council, envisaged ‘Slum Clearance Projects’, viz. (a) District Six (b) The Malay Quarter (c) The Docks Area. With regard to the latter area, also called Roggebaai, the eviction of ‘Coloured’ inhabitants caused no significant upheaval. As a result of this, the Baptist Church in Jarvis Street in due course became the home of the Cape Town Photographic Society. After the passing of legislation by Parliament in 1950 to divide residential areas along racial lines however, many ‘Coloured’ communities living around Cape Town were destroyed. In 1961 large areas of the city were declared ‘White’ residential zones. This resulted in many ‘Coloureds’ moving into District Six, where overcrowding worsened. Many people who did not know anything about Islam, now came to know Muslims, who somehow spread the confusing message that ‘we have the same God’. On May 7, 1961 Muslims gathered in the City Hall of Cape Town to launch the Call of Islam. This umbrella body of different Muslim organisations – founded by Imam Abdullah Haron – had the aim of opposing the Group Areas Act. In 1965 the Minister of Community Development and 'Coloured' Affairs, P.W. Botha – who was later to become Prime Minister – called District Six a ‘blighted area’. Talk of slum clearance started doing the rounds, setting the scene for events to follow. On 11 February 1966 District Six was declared a ‘White’ residential area. In the insecurity that followed, landlords allowed buildings to go unrepaired, causing District Six to become even more of a neglected residential area. Bo-Kaap became an Islamic stronghold hereafter. Those churches below Buitengracht Street that chose to stay put, namely St Paul’s (Anglican) and St Stephen’s (DRC), merely survived. Their members now often had to travel great distances to attend services. The opposition to the District Six declaration reverberated until well into the 1980s, which was one of the reasons that caused the government to slow down on the demolition of Bo-Kaap, which was deceptively called the ‘Malay Quarter’. The Revival of Islam The actual revival of Islam at the Cape started with the dual Group Areas proclamation: District Six as a 'White' residential suburb and Bo-Kaap as a ‘Cape Malay’ pocket. The latter area was hereafter perceived to be reserved for Cape Muslims, with Christians expected to move out. 'Whites' came to the rescue of Bo-Kaap once again in the wake of the District Six promulgation in 1966. Given the lead by the ‘Friends of District Six’, a very effective boycott was initiated and lodged for the buying of property in that residential area. This was publicised as blatant theft through the statute book. Hardly anybody - except apartheid protagonists of course - wanted to be party to that. Not even the undermining of the sale of property to the ACVV (the women’s guild of the Dutch Reformed Church) for the use of an old age home now called Zonnebloem could thwart the boycott. It had repercussions in Holland when Shell - the multinational petrol company with its links to the Dutch royal house - wanted to build a filling station in District Six. [56] In Holland Shell was boycotted - with church groups in the front line of the battle. Radicals went to quite great extremes like cutting hoses at petrol service stations. Cabinet minister Blaar Coetzee and his colleagues of ‘Community Development’ were already busy with the buying up of property in Walmer Estate when the government of the day got a fright through the effect of the District Six boycott. Bo-Kaap with its excellent views and proximity to the CBD would surely have followed suit if the government had its way in District Six and Walmer Estate - to be declared a 'White' residential area. Muslim entrepreneurs sensed the chance of making big profits in Walmer Estate. This resulted in the previously out and out Christian suburb becoming Islamic although it still has only one mosque. The growth of Islam of the 1950s was easily eclipsed by that of the three decades after 1970. The combined effect of the Group Areas legislation and other repressive laws, passed by the perceived Christian government, boiled down to a major boon to the spread of Islam. In 1966 District Six was declared a 'White' residential area and the Bo-Kaap above Buitengracht Street became reserved for ‘Cape Malays’. The late Dr. Achmat Davids - and with him surely many Christians and Muslims who lived side by side in Bo-Kaap - felt very strongly about the destruction of harmonious relations of mutual tolerance between Muslims and Christians through the implementation of the Group Areas Act, when Christians had to move out of the Bo-Kaap area. The residential area of Bo-Kaap, which was changed in this way, now became completely Islamic inluding sctions that had been almost exclusively Christian. Those churches below Buitengracht Street, which chose to stay put, viz. St.Paul’s (Anglican) and St. Stephen’s (DRC), merely survived. Their members hereafter often had to travel great distances to attend services. The removal of many Muslims from the old District Six was a big blow to Islam, but it served to spread the religion to other suburbs in the course of time. In the 1950s Muslims were still living in a concentrated area, in District Six, in a small part of the old Bo-Kaap, in a scattered over the Western Cape. In parts of Athlone, notably Surrey Estate and Rylands Estate, big Muslim communities developed. Many new mosques were built over the years as the Muslims progressively bought up property. The Group Areas legislation contributed probably more to the geographical spread of Islam in the Cape than any other factor. The Final Rescue of Bo-Kaap The revival of Islam at the Cape in the late 1960s was ushered in with the dual Group Areas proclamations: District Six was declared a 'White' residential suburb in 1966 and Bo-Kaap was to become a ‘Cape Malay’ pocket. The latter area was thus perceived to have been reserved for Cape Muslims.12 By becoming a Muslim, one received the right to remain in or move into Bo-Kaap. Some Christians decided to become Muslims so that they could remain in the area. Christians and their churches were required to leave Bo-Kaap. Deputy Cabinet minister Blaar Coetzee and his assistants at the government department which was ironically called ‘Community Development’, continued with the evictions of people in Walmer Estate, which is situated adjacent to District Six. Who could blame those people in the area who became cynical? The rejected people had seen their community systematically destroyed. 'White' Portuguese-speaking settlers, traders and others who saw the clock ticking against them after the Frelimo take-over in Mozambique, started to move into Walmer Estate. 'Whites' came to the rescue of Bo-Kaap once again in the wake of the District Six promulgation in 1966 in more than one way. Yet, Mr P.W. Botha, Minister of Community Development and later Prime Minister, was far from happy. He went ahead with plans to have Bo-Kaap declared a 'White' residential area. Another Du Plessis came to the rescue of Bo-Kaap. It surfaced that Mr P.W. Botha was quietly planning the re-zoning of Bo- Kaap as a 'White' residential area. Ian Du Plessis, a civil servant working in the Department of Housing, proved to be quite a thorn in Botha’s flesh. Botha was furious, especially when he found out that his plans for Bo-Kaap were leaked to the press. Ian Du Plessis had been responsible for this. He had unsuccessfully tried to counter what he termed ‘Botha’s folly’ for District Six. This time he was more successful when Rykie van Reenen, a journalist with Die Burger, exposed the vicious plans to evict the Bo-Kaap residents.13 Mr P. W. Botha fumed in anger, but Bo-Kaap was saved once again, this time from apartheid demolition. 7. Mid – 20th Century Moves in the City District Six was one of the first places in South Africa where the race factor was effectively countered by practices of non-racialism, notably in the Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM). The proof that non-racialism in District Six was real, is demonstrated by the fact that the first secretary of the Unity Movement was Saul A. Jayiya, a 'Black' who had fled from virtual serfdom on a farm in the Eastern Free State. Jayiya taught himself English, as well as the skills of a motorcar mechanic. Circumventing and Flouting of Apartheid Laws When ‘Coloured’ society in general was still looking down on 'Blacks' in an arrogant and condescending way, Saul Jayiya, practised his trade as a motorcar mechanic in Harvey’s garage in the city – albeit behind locked doors. He was thus flouting the Job Reservations Act, which did not permit 'Blacks' to work in this trade. Legislation also caused estrangement between the 'Blacks' and ‘Coloureds’ living in District Six. Thus a 'Black' has been quoting the custom that three ‘Coloureds’ first had to refuse an employment opportunity before it was offered to a 'Black'. Circumventing and flouting of Apartheid laws was by far not wide-spread until the defiance campaign of 1952. And even thereafter it was more done as a schoolboy prank, for example to try and outwit railway police, who had to check whether bridges and subways at railway stations reserved for ‘Whites only’, were not used by other races. More Battles on the Front of Compassion In 1955 a small group of 'White' middle-class women who were predominantly English-speaking, formed an organization called The Women's Defence of the Constitution League. It came to be called the Black Sash because the women wore black sashes over one shoulder as they stood to demonstrate against discriminatory legislation. It was initially formed to protest against the Separate Representation of Voters Bill, a ploy by the government to remove 'Coloureds' from the common voters' roll.  Compassion became also the hallmark of the Black Sash. The Athlone Advice Office - near to the township of Langa, was the brainchild of Noel Robb, a resident of Bishopscourt. This was another Western Cape model serving as an example for compassionate work elsewhere. The Athlone Office was started in 1958 as a bail fund facility, to enable mothers who had been arrested and imprisoned, to return to their homes and children. In a sense it was an extension of another Black Sash Western Cape initiative, the Cape Association to Abolish Passes for African Women (CATAPAW), which was founded in 1957, in co-operation with a few other groups. CATAPAW collected evidence for submission to the Secretary for Native Affairs to show the hardship and injustices of the pass laws. The June/July issue of Black Sash of that year was devoted entirely to the analysis of the pass system with a projection of its effects on family life (Michelman, The Black Sash of South Africa, 1984:103). The scheme to extend the system of passes to include women, was responsible for widespread unrest, which matured into dramatic conflict when the government used brute force to put down passive resistance demonstrations of 'Blacks' protesting against passes. A special supportive project of the Black Sash followed after Alex La Guma had been imprisoned in Worcester, just over 100 Kilometres from the Mother City. The women organized transport for the families on a regular basis, giving an example to the South African Council of Churches of support to political detainees. Deservingly, the Black Sash has been dubbed ‘the conscience of the nation’, being an essentially women’s organisation committed to protection by law of human rights and liberties. Bennie Kies – an Unheralded Giant Benjamin Magson Kies was born on 12 December 1917 to parents of modest means, in working-class Woodstock, Cape Town. He attended Wesley College in Salt River and Trafalgar High School. In 1935 Kies enrolled at UCT, graduated with his BA in 1937, his MA in 1938 and his Bachelor of Education in 1939. After qualifying as a teacher, Kies accepted a position at Trafalgar High School in 1940 and, in 1946, was awarded a British Council scholarship and spent 18 months studying at the University of London. Prof. Crain Soudien highlighted how a lecture of Benny Kies of 1943 led to what was called the Preliminary Unity Conference in December 1943 and the adoption of the “Ten Point Programme”, setting the stage for the establishment of the NEUM. Benny Kies played a founding role in the New Era Fellowship (NEF) in 1937 and he was instrumental role in the establishment of the Anti-Coloured Affairs Department (Anti-CAD) movement and the Non-European Unity Movement (NEUM) in the 1940s. Equally important to Soudien’s analysis of “the public Ben, the Ben of ideas” were Kies’s three major lectures: “The background of segregation” (1943), “The basis of unity” (1945) and “The contribution of the non-European peoples to civilisation” (1953). In these lectures Kies spelled out his political theory and his positions of non-collaboration and non-racialism. “The story and contribution of Ben Kies are inseparable from that of the Non-European Unity Movement,” said Soudien. “He was at the heart of the political debates and discussions that led to the development of its political agenda.” In 1953 Benny Kies applied for principalship at Trafalgar High School but was denied. In 1956 he was dismissed from the school and the teaching profession because of his “political activities”, which included his role as editor of the TLSA’s Education Journal. Kies was also a leading contributor to The Torch, the official organ of the NEUM, and the educational columnist for The Sun, writing under the pseudonym, IN Fandum. Kies then began working for the bookseller company Juta and studied part-time towards his LLB. He was banned for the first time in 1959 and prohibited from attending any gathering in South Africa or the territory of South West Africa for five years. In 1961 he graduated and was admitted as an advocate of the Supreme Court of Cape Town. He was issued with his second banning order in that same year. This time he was prohibited from participating and being a member of 36 named organisations. He also required permission from authorities to defend clients who appeared in courts outside of permitted jurisdictions. Race, said Kies, was a rationalisation of colonial plunder and that “imperial conquest was offered as claim and proof of the inherent racial superiority of the conquerors”. Responding to an accusation of “race pride”, Kies stated that he was not “sentimentally attached to any particular ethnic group of people”. Instead, the people to whom he belonged were “the workers and the peasants of the world”. Most importantly, Kies argued that “no one has yet proved scientifically that there is such a thing as race”. This was quite special because Kies took this position while others inside the NEUM continued to use racial terms. He also dismissed the idea that Europe had “proprietary rights” to the idea of civilisation; that they were the originators or inheritors of it. Civilisation, said Kies, was not a 'White' thing. The Cape radical went on to talk about the apartheid theorists, saying that “we, the so-called children of Ham”, DF Malan and Eric Lowe were derived from the same stock ─Homo sapiens. Kies argued, before talk of DNA and genes, that they were indeed one biological species. At the same time, Kies was also acutely aware of how even the politically progressive community was caught in the trap of the language of race. His lecture thrashed that argument. Kies died in 1979, in a Hermanus court, while defending four men charged under the Terrorism Act. Ben Kies’s death was a loss to the “Cape radical tradition”, which remains relevant and significant for the global struggle for a new social, economic and political order. Major milestones in Kies’s life included his instrumental role in the establishment of the NEF, Anti-CAD and the NEUM. Evening (Night) Schools The ANC in the Western Cape was virtually defunct when James La Guma was elected secretary. In no time he reorganized things, starting an office in Caledon Street and launching the ‘African Labour College’, a night school where the students were taught socialism and the politics of the labour movement. Towards the end of World War II there was an evening school experiment in a Presbyterian Church Hall in Retreat.14 It proved so successful that it finally expanded into a literacy project and an educational organization that for two decades involved thousands of 'Black' and ‘Coloured’ men and women as pupils. Thousands of 'Whites' served as volunteer teachers. Inspired by Emily Gaika, an elderly 'Black' woman, Oliver Kuys, an engineering graduate, started the evening school. Those who volunteered to teach often became deeply interested and involved in their work. On the other hand, the desire for education among the 'Blacks' expanded rapidly. The infamous Bantu Education came into affect in 1955, which forced churches to hand control of their schools to the government. (A government commission set up in 1948 concluded that the missions had done nothing but destroy 'Black' culture. Another commission set up under the chairman of Dr Werner Eiselen in 1951 had to look into means of controlling 'Black' education and further curtailing the influence of mission and independent schools). The result of the Eiselen report was the Bantu Education Act of 1953. This was followed by regulations that caused night schools to collapse in other parts of the country. The Cape Night Schools Association persevered with a strong determination, finding ways and means to carry on when the government stopped subsidies. In 1957 regulations stated that schools outside the townships had to secure a Group Areas permit, and then apply annually for registration with the Department of Bantu Education. Restrictions on teachers and the substitution of short-term contract labourers for the old, more permanent labourer, made many schools redundant. The movement of night schools had many ramifications. Thus the Cape Town City Mission became a powerful channel for the gospel throughout the 20th century, notably after Pat Kelly, a British missionary, started night Bible schools at the Young Women's Christian Association (YWCA) premises in Darling Street in March 1952. Fenner Kadalie, the dynamic leader of the late 20th century, along with his wife Joan, were part of the first group of students. Many of the night Bible school students became pastors and leaders in various denominations subsequently. Student Involvement When the apartheid legislation prescribed education segregation at tertiary level as well, thus interfering with academic freedom, UCT students were incensed. Zach de Beer was a student leader along with Raymond Ackerman, who was also on the Student Representative Council. Together with other students Raymond Ackerman developed SHAWCO 15 Night Schools, which had grown into a chain of schools. After leaving UCT, Ackerman became the principal of them all – ‘my first experience of running a chain, though of schools, not of stores’ (Ackerman, 2001:42). In the course of this involvement he met Wendy Marcus, who not only became his wife, but who later was a pivot of the expanding Pick 'n Pay empire of supermarkets in the 1970s. In 1965 the SHAWCO Night School at Windermere was forced to close and finally the last of the schools of the Cape Night Schools Association, St Mark’s in District Six and the twenty-two year old Retreat Night School closed down by order of the Deputy Minister, Mr Blaar Coetzee. Maryland is a Catholic institution in Hanover Park, where Mr Harry Fortune taught for many years, long after he had gone into retirement. Harry Fortune was raised in District Six before he went back to High School as an adult. After further studies at UCT, he became a high school teacher in Bonteheuwel, where Ashley Kriel, an UDF activist, was one of his learners. (Ashley Kriel was killed by police on 9 July 1987. He became a symbol of youths bringing about social change in and out of the Western Cape. On his release from prison on 11 February 1990, Nelson Mandela highlighted Ashley Kriel's sacrifice for the anti-apartheid struggle in his speech in Paarl.) UCT students were very much in the forefront in 1972 and 1973 in the battle for equal education and better health care for 'Blacks'. Geoff Budlender, leader of NUSAS, Ivan Thoms. (As theological students form the Moravian Seminary we were given freedom to participate. During an 'illegal' protest at St George's Cathedral where we had reckon with arrest, we were only tear-gassed. Returning from there, a very special airmail letter from my bonny over the ocean awaited me at 18 Ashley Street. in this letter Rosemarie wrote of the permission that we received from her mother ahead of her 21st birthday. We were allowed to resume our correspondence! This was also the trigger to start the process for her application to come and serve at the German Lutheran Church Kindergarten the following year.) A Significant Power Encounter When Ds. Davie Pypers commenced work in 1956 as a minister of the Dutch Reformed St Stephen’s Church in Bree Street, he discerned the need for increased prayer for the Muslims of the area. Soon he initiated praying for Bo-Kaap and the Muslims living there. Together with two other pastoral colleagues, he interceded every Monday for the area that became even more pronouncedly Islamic in the wake of the envisaged implementation of Group Areas legislation. Ds. Pypers appears to have been one of the very few ministers at the Cape of his era who had any notion of spiritual warfare. It was by far not common practice yet. And satan was definitely not going to release his gains so easily. Davie Pypers was called to become the missionary to the Cape Muslims on behalf of the Dutch Reformed Church, linked to the historical Gestig (Sendingkerk) congregation in Long Street. It is the church where once people from different denominations worshipped, the cradle of missionary outreach in South Africa.16 Ds. Pypers had hardly started with his new work when a challenge came from a young imam, Mr Ahmed Deedat, to publicly debate the death of Jesus on the Cross. As a young dominee David Pypers prepared himself through prayer and fasting in a tent on the mountains at Bain’s Kloof for the event which was to take place on 13 August 1961 at the Green Point Track. Because of publicity in the media, 30 000 people of all races jammed into the Green Point sports venue. The stadium quivered with excitement like at a rugby match. In the keenly contested debate, Imam Deedat started with the assertion that Jesus went to Egypt after the disciples had taken him from the Cross. He thoroughly ridiculed the Christian faith, challenging Pypers to give proof that Jesus died on the Cross. The young dominee rose to the challenge by immediately stating that Jesus is alive and that his Lord could there and then do the very things He had done when He walked the earth. Dr David du Plessis, who was nick-named ‘Mr Pentecost’, reported on the event in his autobiography: ‘Taking a deep breath, he (Pypers) spoke loud and clear, ‘Is there anybody in this audience that, according to medical judgement, is completely incurable? Remember, it must be incurable...’ Of course, the stadium was abuzz by now. And then several men came along, carrying Mrs Withuhn, a 'White' Christian lady, with braces all over her body. She was completely paralyzed. Then Pypers went ahead, asking whether there were any doctors present who could examine her and vouch for her condition. ‘Several doctors came forward, including her own physician, and they concurred in pronouncing her affliction incurable.’ Pypers simply walked to her and without any ado prayed for her briefly and proclaimed: ‘In the name of Jesus, be healed!’ Immediately she dropped her crutches and began to move. The Green Point Aftermath The Green Point Track event resulted in a victory for the Cross, with Mrs Withuhn being miraculously healed in the name of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. Many Muslims were deeply moved, but an unfortunate thing also happened. The booklet The Hadji Abdullah ben Yussuf; or the story of a Malay as told by himself (in an Afrikaans translation) was re-issued. Its distribution at the gates of the Green Point Track was definitely not helpful. Actually it was quite unfortunate and insensitive. The booklet refers negatively to the Qur’an and Muhammad, the founder of Islam.17 The Cape Muslim community was enraged by the re-publication of this nineteenth century pamphlet. What was perceived as the defeat of Ahmed Deedat, and thus of the Muslims at Green Point, inspired a call for revenge. Deedat stated publicly that the original motivation for public debates was his humiliation at the hand of Christians. He was not willing at all to accept defeat lying down. The effect of the Green Point Track miracle was almost nullified by news that came from another part of the world on that same day. The report of the building of the Berlin Wall resounded throughout the world! A new type of battle was cemented - the ‘cold war’ between Soviet Communism and Western Capitalism! Islam Linked to Communism? As the ensuing cold war became the focus, the enemy of souls abused Communism with its atheist basis, attempting to stifle the spreading of the victorious message of the Cross, as it had been proclaimed at the Green Point Track. Was there a subtle link to Communism in opposition to the Cross? I propose that the event of 13 August 1961 had great importance in the spiritual realm. One wonders whether the Islamic Crescent was not probably subtly linked to Communism in opposition to the Cross at that occasion. (This was to happen again in reverse in 1990 after the demise of Communism. Islam took over the mantle from the atheist ideology as a threat to world peace when the Iraqi army marched into Kuwait. That event became the catalyst for many Christians to start praying for an end to the bondage and deception at the base of the ideology of Islam as a destructive spiritual force.) In his denomination, Ds. Pypers was still a lone ranger. In some quarters he was vilified after the Green Point event, although he had actually been challenged by the literature on faith healing, which had been written by Dr Andrew Murray, a revered hero of his church. Pypers was out on a limb in the Dutch Reformed Church. At the Kweekskool in Stellenbosch, the theological seminary of the denomination, it was officially taught that faith healing was a doctrinal tenet which pertained to the days of the apostles, and not valid any more. Pypers was heavily criticized by his denomination for undertaking the confrontation without getting prior synod approval. His leaders were still clinging to an untenable interpretation of divine healing – that it belonged to a past age. Ds. Davie Pypers Leads the Outreach to Muslims The Dutch Reformed Church pioneered the work among the Cape Muslim slaves from 1731. It is fitting that the initiative for the resumption of evangelistic work among the Cape Muslims in the second half of the twentieth century was undertaken by the South African Missionary Society. Ds. Pypers, who became a full-time missionary for this purpose in July 1961, was joined by Pieter Els who had been challenged to reach out to Muslims with the Gospel along with two other student theological colleagues, Willem Louw en Coen Brand, while they were studying at Stellenbosch in 1960. A witness group - spearheaded by 'White' theological students - was started in Stellenbosch in the 1960s, reaching out to the Muslims of Idas Valley, the local ‘Coloured’ residential area. The group of ‘Coloured’ churches called the ‘ring’ (circuit) of Wynberg - stretching from Retreat to Claremont including a big part of the Cape flats at that time - decided to give a bigger responsibility to the churches to witness to the Muslims and Hindu’s. The ‘Coloured’ sector of the denomination accepted Muslim Evangelism as their special task. In many suburbs they were their neighbours. The stalwart work of women in breaking down the prejudice of Muslims has too often not been duly recognized. Johanna van Zyl and Ria Olivier kept the loving outreach to Muslims in Bo-Kaap and other places going, along with other women of the Vrouesendingbond (Women’s Missionary Guild). That Johanna van Zyl could write in the August 1974 edition of Die Ligdraer about her 25 years of work amongst children in Bo-Kaap is an exception that only amplifies the rule. The fact is that whereas quite a few Cape Muslim women came to faith in Christ, conversions among their male counterparts remained rare for decades. A Special Couple in Exile In the 1970s the Organisation of African Unity (OAU) was ready to finally grant recognition to the Unity Movement of South Africa (UMSA) as it was now known. Kenneth Kaunda of Northern Rhodesia, later renamed Zambia, opposed this and he succeeded on the basis that the OAU was constitutionally bound to decision-making on the basis of total unanimity. It should be noted that despite the failures of the UMSA to gain official political credence, Jane Gool and Isaac Tabata gained the personal respect of senior political figures across the African continent. They eventually settled in a home purchased by the organisation as its headquarters in Harare, Zimbabwe. Here they received the personal support of senior officials of the ruling Zimbabwe African National Union – Patriotic Front (ZANU-PF) party which also offered them full citizenship of Zimbabwe. In exile, Jane and Tabata never wavered in their purpose. Against all odds they doggedly sought to maintain their links with the struggle at home. In this period they produced literature which assessed the developments in South Africa on an ongoing basis, with the purpose of giving ideological guidance to those actively engaged in the struggle at home. They set in motion a plan to smuggle this literature into the country on a large scale. IB Tabata died in exile in October 1990. Jane returned to South Africa for the burial of her lifelong comrade and partner. She returned permanently in 1992 to Gatesville, Cape Town. In 1993 she was elected President of the UMSA. In her life time Jane Gool-Tabata became renowned as an unrelenting and uncompromising fighter. Her intolerance of any tendency to water down the ideas and principles, for which she stood, made her a particularly fearsome opponent in political debate. Jane did not consider herself to be a writer but she is known for her thought-provoking papers on the international situation which she was regularly selected to present to conferences of the Unity Movement and the APDUSA. She actively collaborated in the writings of her husband IB Tabata and while in exile she produced two works viz 8. The Beginning of Apartheid's Swan Song The clampdown of the government on all political activity of resistance in the 1960s caused fear and a relative indifference in the oppressed communities. In some cases sheer opportunism and convenience occurred – such as to achieve the right to remain living in Bo-Kaap. Some Christians deemed it an appropriate reprisal to turn to Islam to vent their anger. Political Inertia and Indifference of Christians Opportunistic vultures of colour - people who had seen their own communities destroyed - were just waiting for the government to change its mind on Bo-Kaap with its scenic beauty. Prior to the District Six boycott, this part of the city - with its excellent views and proximity to the central business district of the city - was expected by many to follow suit, also to be declared a 'White' residential area. The influence of Dr I.D Du Plessis, who might have put up a fight on their behalf, was waning by this time. Muslim entrepeneurs sensed the chance of making big profits in Walmer Estate, buying up property for a song. When the Muslims started moving in, the Portuguese-speaking people who had come there after the communist take-over in Mozambique and Angola, left one after the other. This resulted in the previously out and out Christian suburb turning Islamic, although it still has only one mosque which had already been built in 1923. The government of the day got a fright through the effect of the successful boycott to purchase property, organised by the church-based Friends of District Six. If they had their way here and in Walmer Estate, the Nationalist government would have been able to steam roll through other areas as well. ‘Exports’ from the Cape Quite a number of gifted non-'White' people left South Africa because their skin pigmentation prevented them from using their talents to the full. The history of the cricketer Basil D’Oliviera, one of the greatest cricketing all-rounders which South Africa produced, is perhaps the best known in a long list of Capetonians of colour who had to go elsewhere to get recognition. The cricketer who was raised in Bo-Kaap’s Bloem Street, went on to play for England in an illustrious career. Lesser known were the five Abed brothers from Aspeling Street in District Six, who originally came from India. While playing in the Lancashire league in England, Goelie, one of the brothers, hit three sixes off Garfield Sobers, possibly the best all-rounder ever to play cricket.18 Dik, another brother from the Abed clan, settled in Holland, where he later captained the Dutch national cricket team. One could say that Dik Abed performed development work in this way, enabling the Dutch to compete internationally, and participating in the Cricket World Cup.19 Culture On the female side 'Cape Malay' cuisine definitely made its mark. Boeboetie, samoosa's and koeksisters made the ladies from Bo-Kaap well known. Bo-Kaap and District Six formed together a hub in various facets of sports with cricket and rugby the more prominent. The history of the cricketer Basil D’Oliviera, arguably the greatest cricketing all-rounder which South Africa produced, is perhaps the best known in a long list of Capetonians of colour who had to go elsewhere to get recognition. The cricketer who was raised in Bo-Kaap’s Bloem Street, went on to play for England in an illustrious career. It remained more or less completely unknown to South Africans that Johaar Mosaval, who was born at 1 Little Lesar Street in District Six, was the solo dancer in Gloriana, an opera specially composed by Benjamin Britten in 1952 at the coronation of Queen Elisabeth. Mosaval was discovered at George Golding's Ashley Higher Primary School in 1932 during a pantomime performance of The Beauty of the Beast before he went to the Royal Ballet School in London. The repressive clampdown by the government on school teachers in the late 1950s and early 1960s turned out to be counter-productive from the viewpoint of the regime in a sense. Resistance was actually exported to country towns like Upington. However, a major exodus of ‘Coloured’ teachers transpired when some of their most gifted professionals left first for especially Zambia and Canada. Later Australia became a preferred destination. The loss due to emigration was the gain of these countries. About Winston Layne was written by Yousuf Rassool, a teacher colleague of the Chapel Street Primary School in District Six: ‘His career might have been stunted in the South African context, but in Canada his intellectual talents were recognized by the State of Saskatchewan where he helped to revolutionize the teaching of English.’ Many other countries profited from the brain-drain from South Africa. Quite a few of the emigrants came from the ‘Coloured’ sector of the Western Cape, but they were not always politically motivated. Thus Professor Forgus – a protegé of District Six – after lecturing in Pschychology at the University of Pennsyllvania in the USA, became a renowned speaker in his field. He later landed up at the famous Harvard University. I had little option in 1973 than to leave for Germany after Rosemarie, my wife – whom I had met in Germany during a study stint there – had twice been refused visas because government spies got to know about our friendship.20 Unfortunately, parallel to the positive forces of resistance to injustice and compassion, the demonic influences of resentment and bitterness were also exported from District Six. The Sports Boycott The effective sports boycott contributed significantly to the breakdown of the apartheid edifice. It can also be traced to beginnings which originated at the Cape. Yousuf Rassool (2000:189) recalled how he agitated with all the passion he could muster in the mid 1950s. The result was that a proposed West Indian cricket tour did not take place. What drove him and those who voted with him was the idea that ‘by supporting apartheid cricket, they would be relinquishing principle in favour of expediency’. (This was probably also the principle which guided the Muslim Judicial Council for many years to refuse money from undemocratic Islamic countries, such as Saudi Arabia for the building of mosques.) In later years Hassan Howa, a principled Muslim sports administrator and leader of the South African Council for Sports (SACOS), with its strong base in the Western Cape, became a real thorn in the flesh of apartheid die-hards. When the government appeared to make special exceptions for sports, they consistently proclaimed: ‘no normal (i.e. multiracial) sport in an abnormal society.’ One notable example is the saga around the cricketer Basil D’Oliviera. Raised in Bo-Kaap’s Upper Bloem Street, he was one of the greatest cricketing all-rounders which South Africa have produced. He had to go elsewhere to get the recognition he deserved. Although he was already well beyond his prime, he was able to go to the UK. Basil D’Oliviera had an illustrious career in England, where he was picked to play for England in 1966. The D' Oliveira affair had a massive impact in turning international opinion against the apartheid regime. It triggered changes in South African sport and eventually in society at large. The D’ Oliviera Controversy A dilemma arose when the British team was due to tour South Africa at the end of 1968. South African Prime Minister B. J. Vorster used all sorts of intrigue to prevent D’Oliviera from becoming a member of the initial touring team. South African cricket officials exerted pressure on the Marylebone Cricket Club (MCC) hierarchy, which led to the decision not to pick him as part of the English team to tour the country. When Tom Cartwright was ruled out because of injury, D' Oliveira was called up. Unlike a 19th century case, there were many negotiations in the case of the Bo-Kaap prodigy Basil D' Oliveira. Prime Minister Vorster and his government were not impressed, declaring that they were not prepared to accept a team that had been thrust upon them with political motives. According to Prime Minister B. J. Vorster, it was not a team of the Marylebone Cricket Club, but of the Anti-Apartheid Movement. The tour was cancelled. The decision to disallow the Cape-born Basil d’Oliviera to represent his new home country England, sparked off international sporting fury. This ushered in the sporting isolation of the country for many years, arguably the most important incident to usher in the beginning of the end of apartheid.. Evening Schools The ANC in the Western Cape was virtually defunct when James La Guma was elected secretary. In no time he reorganized things, starting an office in Caledon Street and launching the ‘African Labour College’, a night school where the students were taught socialism and the politics of the labour movement. Towards the end of World War II there was an evening school experiment in a Presbyterian Church Hall in Retreat.21 It proved so successful that it finally expanded into a literacy project and an educational organization that for two decades involved thousands of 'Black' and ‘Coloured’ men and women as pupils. Thousands of 'Whites' served as volunteer teachers. Inspired by Emily Gaika, an elderly 'Black' woman, Oliver Kuys, an engineering graduate, started the evening school. Those who volunteered to teach often became deeply interested and involved in their work. On the other hand, the desire for education among the 'Blacks' expanded rapidly. The infamous Bantu Education came into affect in 1955, which forced churches to hand control of their schools to the government. (A government commission set up in 1948 concluded that the missions had done nothing but destroy 'Black' culture. Another commission set up under the chairman of Dr Werner Eiselen in 1951 had to look into means of controlling 'Black' education and further curtailing the influence of mission and independent schools). The result of the Eiselen report was the Bantu Education Act of 1953. This was followed by regulations that caused night schools to collapse in other parts of the country. The Cape Night Schools Association persevered with a strong determination, finding ways and means to carry on when the government stopped subsidies. In 1957 regulations stated that schools outside the townships had to secure a Group Areas permit, and then apply annually for registration with the Department of Bantu Education. Restrictions on teachers and the substitution of short-term contract labourers for the old, more permanent labourer, made many schools redundant. Student Involvement When the apartheid legislation prescribed education segregation at tertiary level as well, thus interfering with academic freedom, UCT students were incensed. Zach de Beer was a student leader along with Raymond Ackerman, who was also on the Student Representative Council. Together with other students Raymond Ackerman developed SHAWCO 22 Night Schools, which had grown into a chain of schools. After leaving UCT, Ackerman became the principal of them all – ‘my first experience of running a chain, though of schools, not of stores’ (Ackerman, 2001:42). In the course of this involvement he met Wendy Marcus, who not only became his wife, but who later was a pivot of the expanding Pick 'n Pay empire of supermarkets in the 1970s. In 1965 the SHAWCO Night School at Windermere was forced to close and finally the last of the schools of the Cape Night Schools Association, St Mark’s in District Six and the twenty-two year old Retreat Night School closed down by order of the Deputy Minister, Mr Blaar Coetzee. Maryland is a Catholic institution in Hanover Park, where Mr Harry Fortune taught for many years, long after he had gone into retirement. Harry Fortune was raised in District Six before he went back to High School as an adult. After further studies at UCT, he became a high school teacher in Bonteheuwel, where Ashley Kriel, an UDF activist who was killed during the 1976 school uprising, was one of his learners. UCT students were very much in the forefront in 1972 and 1973 in the battle for equal education and better health care for 'Blacks'. Geoff Budlender, leader of NUSAS, Ivan Thoms. (As theological students form the Moravian Seminary we were given freedom to participate. Unfortunately, parallel to the positive forces of resistance to injustice and compassion, the demonic influences of resentment and bitterness were also exported from District Six. Evolving of 'Black' Theology It is a theology that gave to disadvantaged South Africans human dignity and an identity, at a time when they were still described as non-Europeans and non-White. Black is beautiful like all other colours that God has created. 'Black' Theology in South Africa confronted the imbalances of power and abusive power structures through an affirmation of human dignity and the uniqueness of the identity of black people. It got kick-started via James Cone, an Afro American 'Black' Theologian and popularised in South Africa by the Canadian Basil Moore, thrived at the Cape. A lecture on the theme published by him, Towards a Black Theology' via the University Christian Movement in 1970, was followed by a booklet by papers collated by Stanley Mtwasa, that was not unsurpringly banned by the apartheid government, was printed by Ravan Press,23 that had also published the PROCAS series, that had its home in the Anti-Apartheid Christian Institute (CI). (These papers, supplemented by a few others, were later published by the London publisher, Christopher Hurst, under the title Black Theology: The South African Voice.) Two of the authors were Clive McBride and Claude Bongonjalo Goba, both of whom were going in and out of the Moravian Theological Seminary, after it had been relocated from Fairview in Gqerberha (called Port Elisabeth at that time) to Ashley Street in District Six temporarily at the end of 1970 because of Group Areas classification. The Cape office of the CI near to the Mowbray train station, was part of a building shared by other organisations of non-racialism that was a hub of anti-Apartheid activities. Islamic Infighting Theological issues resulted in disputes and fighting which have even led to new mosques being built in the 19th century. Since then, discussions around the influence of the occult in Folk Islam, e.g. with Ratiep - where people pierce themselves with swords, but without the flowing of blood, also caused some heated discussion. The operations of the Tabligh movement spawned serious reverberations in the Muslim community after the beginnings of the Muslim Youth Movement and the Muslim Student Association because of their uncritical stance towards the oppressive policies of the government of the day. The impression gained by the outsider was that the movements were opposing each other (Cilliers, 1983:121). With its traditional base in Sufism (the mystical faction of Islam), the Tabligh movement got a reprieve after the visit of Maulana Zakariyya in 1981 (Cilliers, 1983:115). Yet, the tabliegies caused dissension as they were perceived to humiliate the Ulama (clergy) and to force people to participate (Cilliers, 1983:120). Since the major rifts of the previous century and the dispute in the first half of this century which led to the formation of the Muslim Judicial Council in Daves Street in Bo-Kaap in 1945, Sunni Islam of an orthodox nature ruled the roost at the Cape. Bo-Kaap Saved By Far-Sighted People Far-sighted people like Dr Izak David Du Plessis, a lecturer from UCT and a famous Afrikaans poet - along with other 'Whites' like Dr E.G. Jansen - had a deep sense of cultural history. Dr Du Plessis especially was loved by many Muslims of the Bo-Kaap and appreciated by them for his efforts to get the Malay Quarter restored to its former glory. It is appropriate to repeat that when the Malay Quarter was definitely threatened with extinction, Du Plessis rallied many friends - almost all 'White' and Christian - to fight for the restoration of the dilapidated houses. In altruistic style Du Plessis passed the honour to the group headed by Dr E.G. Jansen, who later became the Governor General of the Cape Province. Du Plessis described them as ‘...untiring idealists who realize that the Malay Quarter is the pivot of Cape Malay life’ (Du Plessis and Lückhoff, 1953:12/13). They succeeded to get 15 houses restored in the block between Rose, Wale, Chiapinni and Longmarket Streets. The rest of the Bo-Kaap continued to deteriorate. At the request of the government Department of Community Development, the City Council drew up a scheme for the general rehabilitation of the area. In 1966 Mr P.W. Botha had a number of houses built in his capacity of Minister of Community Development. How genuine he was, was never clear. It really was a question whether it was not merely a gesture to placate the opposition after the furore and outcry after the District Six proclamation of 11 February 1966. Soon Botha would show his true colours when he became the Minister of Coloured Affairs. Yet later, he was known as the unbending ‘groot krokodiel’ as Prime Minister. Also on the Christian side, there was a threat at this time. Only a remnant of St Stephen’s Church members had remained when many moved away to other parts of the Peninsula. The maintenance of the building became a big burden to the church. Rev. P.S. Latsky, who served the congregation from 1930, had a heart for the historical value of the building. He fought successfully for its preservation when developers wanted to use the church and the adjacent lot for a parking garage in 1949. Protests For the Life of the Unborn Reminiscent of the protests of the Black Sash with their actions to mourn the rape of the constitution in the apartheid era, when people of colour were removed from the voters’ roll, Africa Christian Action has hosted a March for Life every year on 1 February, followed by a prayer rally outside parliament. For the emulation of a funeral procession, participants dress in black. A short memorial service and wreath laying ceremony is usually held outside the Parliament buildings in memory of babies killed by abortion in South Africa since 1997. A Significant Power Encounter When Ds. Davie Pypers commenced work in 1956 as a minister of the Dutch Reformed St Stephen’s Church in Bree Street, he discerned the need for increased prayer for the Muslims of the area. Soon he initiated praying for Bo-Kaap and the Muslims living there. Together with two other pastoral colleagues, he interceded every Monday for the area that became even more pronouncedly Islamic in the wake of the envisaged implementation of Group Areas legislation. Ds. Pypers appears to have been one of the very few ministers at the Cape of his era who had any notion of spiritual warfare. It was by far not common practice yet. And satan was definitely not going to release his gains so easily. Davie Pypers was called to become the missionary to the Cape Muslims on behalf of the Dutch Reformed Church, linked to the historical Gestig (Sendingkerk) congregation in Long Street. It is the church where once people from different denominations worshipped, the cradle of missionary outreach in South Africa.24 Ds. Pypers had hardly started with his new work when a challenge came from a young imam, Mr Ahmed Deedat, to publicly debate the death of Jesus on the Cross. As a young dominee David Pypers prepared himself through prayer and fasting in a tent on the mountains at Bain’s Kloof for the event which was to take place on 13 August 1961 at the Green Point Track. Because of publicity in the media, 30 000 people of all races jammed into the Green Point sports venue. The stadium quivered with excitement like at a rugby match. In the keenly contested debate, Imam Deedat started with the assertion that Jesus went to Egypt after the disciples had taken him from the Cross. He thoroughly ridiculed the Christian faith, challenging Pypers to give proof that Jesus died on the Cross. The young dominee rose to the challenge by immediately stating that Jesus is alive and that his Lord could there and then do the very things He had done when He walked the earth. Dr David du Plessis, who was nick-named ‘Mr Pentecost’, reported on the event in his autobiography: ‘Taking a deep breath, he (Pypers) spoke loud and clear, ‘Is there anybody in this audience that, according to medical judgement, is completely incurable? Remember, it must be incurable...’ Of course, the stadium was abuzz by now. And then several men came along, carrying Mrs Withuhn, a White Christian lady, with braces all over her body. She was completely paralyzed. Then Pypers went ahead, asking whether there were any doctors present who could examine her and vouch for her condition. ‘Several doctors came forward, including her own physician, and they concurred in pronouncing her affliction incurable.’ Pypers simply walked to her and without any ado prayed for her briefly and proclaimed: ‘In the name of Jesus, be healed!’ Immediately she dropped her crutches and began to move. The Green Point Aftermath The Green Point Track event resulted in a victory for the Cross, with Mrs Withuhn being miraculously healed in the name of the resurrected Lord Jesus Christ. Many Muslims were deeply moved, but an unfortunate thing also happened. The booklet The Hadji Abdullah ben Yussuf; or the story of a Malay as told by himself (in an Afrikaans translation) was re-issued. Its distribution at the gates of the Green Point Track was definitely not helpful. Actually it was quite unfortunate and insensitive. The booklet refers negatively to the Qur’an and Muhammad, the founder of Islam.25 The Cape Muslim community was enraged by the re-publication of this nineteenth century pamphlet. What was perceived as the defeat of Ahmed Deedat, and thus of the Muslims at Green Point, inspired a call for revenge. Deedat stated publicly that the original motivation for public debates was his humiliation at the hand of Christians. He was not willing at all to accept defeat lying down. The effect of the Green Point Track miracle was almost nullified by news that came from another part of the world on that same day. The report of the building of the Berlin Wall resounded throughout the world! A new type of battle was cemented - the ‘cold war’ between Soviet Communism and Western Capitalism! However, it was nearly just as bad that Pypers was heavily criticized by his denomination for undertaking the confrontation without getting prior synod approval. Furthermore, the leaders of his denomination were still clinging to an untenable interpretation of divine healing – that it belonged to a past age - to the times of the apostles. Islam linked to Communism? As the ensuing cold war became the focus, the enemy of souls abused Communism with its atheist basis, attempting to stifle the spreading of the victorious message of the Cross, as it had been proclaimed at the Green Point Track. Was there a subtle link to Communism in opposition to the Cross? I propose that the event of 13 August 1961 had great importance in the spiritual realm. One wonders whether the Islamic Crescent was not probably subtly linked to Communism in opposition to the Cross at that occasion. (This was to happen again in reverse in 1990 after the demise of Communism. Islam took over the mantle from the atheist ideology as a threat to world peace when the Iraqi army marched into Kuwait. That event became the catalyst for many Christians to start praying for an end to the bondage and deception at the base of the ideology of Islam as a destructive spiritual force.) In his denomination, Ds. Pypers was still a lone ranger. In some quarters he was vilified after the Green Point event, although he had actually been challenged by the literature on faith healing, which had been written by Dr Andrew Murray, a revered hero of his church. Pypers was out on a limb in the Dutch Reformed Church. At the Kweekskool in Stellenbosch, the theological seminary of the denomination, it was officially taught that faith healing was a doctrinal tenet which pertained to the days of the apostles, and not valid any more. More Dutch Reformed Outreach to Cape Muslims A notable by-product of the work of Ds Davie Pypers at the ‘Coloured’ S. A. Gestig congregation in Long Street ensued when one of his former congregants, Lizzie Cloete, came to the conviction in 1964 that the Lord was calling her for the spreading of the Gospel to the Muslims (Els, 1971:432). As a church worker in the congregation of Wynberg, she thus became one of the first full-time missionaries from the ‘Coloured’ community to the Muslims, but it was not regarded that way by the denomination at large. She was just seen as a normal church worker. Her consecration on 17 May 1964 was nevertheless a landmark for the ‘Coloured’ sector of the Dutch Reformed Church. The Sendingkerk as a whole hereafter announced its intention forthwith to be mission-minded corporately, i.e. not only to send individuals. The synod of 1966 resolved their striving formally: ‘Every church member - the whole church – instead of missionaries, must be the church in action.’ A special variation occurred in the violent suburb of Elsies River. Monica Williams, a compassionate Christian of the area, took it upon herself to see her suburb transformed through prayer. Reacting to a dream, she approached the local police and started caring especially for juvenile delinquents and rape victims. Within months, corruption within the local police force was exposed. In nearby Ravensmead, Lea Barends endeavoured to combat crime and domestic violence through prayer. In September 2003, she approached Freddie van Wyk of the local police station, with the request to come and pray for the staff. He was excited and soon a prayer watch started there, with five women attending every Thursday. By May 2004 ten women were attending. Within months, crime in Ravensmead had dropped dramatically; many drug lords were apprehended. Mqokeleli Mntanga helped to facilitate unified prayer among churches in the township of Mbekweni, Paarl. The churches there started a house of prayer at the local police station. From time to time drug syndicates were discovered, very often after concerted prayer. Thus a factory where drugs were produced was exposed in Woodstock at the end of the previous millennium. A Chinese syndicate brought the new drug ‘tik’ to the Cape market. By the end of 2004, the locally produced drug had become a scourge of Cape townships. It was significant that the producers operated from the posh suburb of Plattekloof. Amanda Buys and her team had just been praying intensely around the link between China and crime in the Cape. During a visit to Hong Kong in 2004, she discovered that (possibly poached) South African abalone was sold there in many shops. The police discovered the house factory where ‘tik’ was produced towards the end of 2004, four houses from the Buys home in John Vorster Street, Plattekloof. At the turn of the millennium the new drug ‘tik’ started to ravage the Cape Peninsula, AIDS was killing young and old by the thousands. Youth Opposition to Apartheid When the Cape Muslim Youth Movement (MYM) was formed in District Six in 1957, young Muslims found the term ‘Malay’ under apartheid conditions objectionable. Initially they met in the basement of the Muir Street mosque. Because the movement was perceived by many as overtly politically active and therefore non-Islamic, the young were promptly barred from using the mosque (Tayob, 1995:83). This eventually led to the estrangement of many young people from the main stream of Islam. In a similar way Christian youths were leaving the mainline churches. The youth regarded the church and the mosque as irrelevant to the struggle against apartheid and injustice. The Muir Street mosque regained its stature of resistance when Achmat Cassiem became the imam there. Already since his high school days he was active in the 'struggle', going in and out of prison. He served a five year sentence under the Sabotage Act and became one of the youngest people to be imprisoned on Robben Island. Cassiem became a founder member of the radical Qibla (which means Islamic prayer direction) movement. It started in 1979 in the wake of the Iranian Revolution with the purpose of defending and promoting Islam in South Africa. Graffiti in Bo-Kaap hailed an Islamic revolution as 'the only solution'. ` The work of Imam Haron with young people, especially those linked to the Stegman Road mosque in Claremont, redeemed much of the damage in the 1960s, but the lack of visible commitment by the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) undid almost all his good work. Haron’s overt political agenda  - with the religious conviction seeming to take a back seat - possibly made it difficult for the conservative Imams to support him. That Father Bernard Wrankmore, an Anglican priest - and not their own imams - was calling for an inquiry after Imam Haron’s mysterious death in detention, was not appreciated by Muslim youth. When many of the Ulema (Muslim clergy) pitched up at Haron’s funeral in September 1969, the young radicals regarded this as a smoke screen. Many of them thought their leaders to be lethargic in respect of the apartheid brutality. Concretely, the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC) was regarded as indifferent with regard to the unjust incarceration and murder of their leader. In the wake of the Group Areas removals, Qibla conveniently quoted the Qur’an for revolutionary purposes. It was quite easy to point out that it was predominantly the people of colour who were ‘those who have been expelled from their homes in defiance of right’ (Surah 22:39,40). The Qibla radicals gave the young people the impression that licence was given for the armed struggle by the Islamic sacred book. They quoted the Medinan Surah’s one-sidedly, just like the Ayatollah Khomeini had done so successfully in Iran, e.g. ‘Fight them until there is no more tumult and oppression’ (Surah 2:193). Opposition to Apartheid in District Six and Woodstock One of the most effective campaigns against apartheid was launched in the area as a result of the Group Areas proclamation of 11 February 1966. It is noteworthy that the first two phases of resistance with regard to District Six was started by a prayer campaign. Four days after the notorious proclamation, a twelve man steering committee proposed a ‘Peninsula-wide prayer period’. This was possibly the first time that a city-wide prayer event was mooted at the Cape. Syd Lotter, a trade unionist, appealed to ‘all the churches and mosques… (to)…call a day of prayer on which our people can give vent to their humiliation and frustration, to the Almighty’ (Cited in Jeppie/Soudien, 1990: 148). Of special significance was the response of Muslims to this call. Two weeks after the declaration, several thousand people crowded into the four mosques of District Six and Walmer Estate. In the Muir Street mosque alone, 3000 assembled, with many hundreds spilling into the streets surrounding the mosque. The government’s reaction was a stepping up of the harassment. ‘Spyker’ van Wyk, the notorious Gestapo-like Special Branch agent, intimidated the movement by visiting all the members of the District Six Defence Committee. Significantly, the second phase of resistance with regard to the removal of ‘Coloureds’ from District Six was also started by a prayer campaign. The vehicle for carrying the campaign was the District Six Ministers’ Fraternal, an energetic group of clergymen from a few local churches. Father Basil van Rensburg, who was based at the Holy Cross Roman Catholic Church and who came to District Six with advertising skills in September 1978, launched a fundraising initiative, along with the new prayer campaign: ‘our aim is to start in a small way with Holy Cross as a nucleus and gradually to build a forceful campaign of prayer and action until official thinking on District Six changes’ (Cape Argus, 5 September 1978). The parish priest of St. Philip’s Anglican Church expressed some of this commitment as he invited other congregations to join in prayer: ‘May we all by the Power of His Holy Spirit seek nothing else but a miracle from the Lord.’ Lay people were well represented in the Friends of District Six movement, an offspring of the District Six Ministers’ Fraternal. The members came not only from the above-mentioned churches, but also from other circles, notably Muslims and Jews. They included some 'Whites'. Among those who joined were the Black Sash, the National Council for Women, the Civil Rights League and the Institute of Race Relations. 'Whites' were encouraged to refrain from buying property in the maligned and stained District Six. The area, together with Sophiatown in Gauteng, became a local and international symbol of the suffering caused by apartheid. A‘Hands Off District Six’ campaign prevented private development for many years. The land remained vacant, until in the 1980s Housing for Police and Army Personnel and a Cape Technical College were erected. After the 1994 Democratic Election, claims for restitution were made by families, which had been forced out of District Six. A large number of them have been given the option to resettle in District Six, or accept financial compensation! 9. Turn of the Tide? Involvement in trade unions, beginning in Durban in 1973, helped create a strong, democratic political culture for 'Blacks' in South Africa. Mass urban protest could also be traced to the student upsurge in Soweto in 1976. Opposition to the ‘divide and rule’ policies of the government surfaced especially in the reaction of High School pupils in the years after 1976, which sent the clear message that ‘Coloureds’ are not falling any more for the ‘divide and rule’ tactics. The apartheid state wrote a new constitution in 1983 "in an attempt to allay criticism against apartheid and to set a new course." The new form of government created a Tricameral Parliament which allowed Coloured and Asian South Africans 'nominal representation.' 'Blacks' were still not allowed to participate in the government. During a protest in the 'Black' Cape township of Langa in 1984, police shot the participants. This triggered further insurrection, leading to a 'Black' youth uprising by 1985 throughout South Africa. In 1989, the UDF and the Congress of South African Trade Unions (COSATU) began cooperating more closely in a loose alliance called the Mass Democratic Movement (MDM), following restrictions on the UDF and COSATU by the apartheid government. The Tri-Cameral Parliament as a Spark The divisive Tri-Cameral Parliament with limited representation for 'Coloureds' and (South African) Indians which triggered the launch of the National Forum and the UDF. ('Black' Africans would be left in the cold). Humanly speaking, this was a major factor which sparked the beginning of the end of the apartheid edifice with Western Cape leaders like Dr Neville Alexander, Dr Allan Boesak and the lawyer Dullah Omar. Neville Alexander came from a ten-year imprisonment on Robben Island in 1974, appears to have been the main spur for the uniting of opposition forces when he proclaimed: ‘Let us make 1982 into the year of the united front and raise our struggle for liberation from apartheid and capitalism to a higher level. Let us unite for a non-racial, democratic and undivided Azania-South Africa’ (Alexander, 1985:17). The wording seems to have been a deliberate attempt to unite the PAC and ANC factions in the liberation struggle. Azania was the preferred terminology for the country to be liberated by AZAPO and the PAC but resented by the Charterist movement. A Bergie Becomes a Pastor Pastor Willie Martheze, a qualified welder from Mitchell's Plain, was still a so-called bergie, a vagrant, when he was initially ministered to. Jesus found me first! Humorously he would recollect how he had been such a good-for-nothing alcoholic that his own mother sent the police and the gangsters after him. ‘But Jesus found me first’, he proclaimed. Willie Martheze was radically delivered by the Gospel after attending an evangelistic service on the Grand Parade in February 1974, where the Scottish missionary Pastor Gay preached. Soon hereafter, the latter got a job for Martheze at Arthur’s Seat Hotel in Sea Point. The prayerful ministry of Pastor Gay in District Six caused him to attend an evening training course at the Bethel Bible School in Crawford. Obedient to God’s voice after seeing a very destitute vagrant, Martheze followed a call to work with homeless people, with the intention of ministering healing to them. One of the aims was to empower the homeless, and to enable them to return to the homes they had left. In the spiritual realm it was significant that Pastor Martheze was allowed to use facilities at the Azaad Youth Centre, one of the few buildings that remained intact from the old District Six. (This complex was the former Preparatory School in Upper Ashley Street.) He and his wife were blessed to see quite a few of the homeless changed dramatically for the better, and some of them returned to their families. In a sovereign move of God’s Spirit, Pastor Willy Oyegun and a group of prayer Nigerian warriors were led to come and pray in South Africa in February 1994. It was touch and go or they would have been sent back to Nigeria from Johannesburg International Airport without having accomplished anything. Oyegun would see Africa as a huge gun with the trigger in Nigeria and the gun-point at the South of the continent, from where a revival spreading like a fire throughout the continent. He saw the coming of the Nigerian group as the pulling of the trigger. In East Africa God laid on the heart of many a Kenyan to pray for South Africa, it was heading for its general elections on 27 April of the same year. The ensuing miracle elections and the supernatural run-up to it, indeed had ingredients which could have given one the feeling that revival had come. Missionary Explosion from the Cape Much of the prayer endeavours of the early 1990s were connected to missionary work. David Bliss, an American missionary linked to Operation Mobilisation, had already put the Cape on the map with his Bless the Nations conferences. Love Southern Africa events started in Wellington, taking over from the Western Cape Missions Commission. Pastor Bruce van Eeden coordinated Great Commission conferences and Pastor Paul Manne organized an annual missionary event. Almost all these efforts fizzled out towards the end of the 20th century. Pastor van Eeden proved the big exception in this regard. He had always wanted to see South Africans involved in missionary work. The Lord laid India and China on his heart. When one of his daughters found employment as a stewardess with South African Airways, he saw that as his chance to get involved himself. In 1995 he started a Mitchell’s Plain-based agency called Ten Forty Outreach, which concentrated on sending out short-term workers to India. For three months a year Pastor van Eeden would go and minister in India, partnering with Indian believers and taking with him volunteers from South Africa. In 10 years they were involved in the planting of 320 churches. There are now 160 Indian national evangelists and pastors who are linked to the missionary agency. Cape Town’s Anchor to the Occult Cut Off? Eben Swart became the Western Cape coordinator for Herald Ministries, working closely with NUPSA (Network of United Prayer in Southern Africa), which had appointed Pastor Willy Oyegun as their coordinator in the Western Cape. Important work was done in research and spiritual mapping, along with Amanda Buys, a prominent teacher and intercessor of Kanaan Ministries. Ernst van der Walt (Jr) had ministered in China with OM on short term, and Buys had been involved in the counselling of Christians with psychological problems. The 2001 Newlands prayer event was bound to be a spiritual watershed. A word from God that Amanda Buys received on 21 March 2001 at the Transformation meeting, says it all: ‘During the prayer time God took me into intercession - I travailed much and I knew something was breaking in the heavenlies. I asked, “What is it Lord?” He clearly showed me the Lady of Good Hope with her anchor. I then saw her anchor being cut off. God said that Cape Town’s soul had been anchored to her, that’s why we turned to drugs, prostitution, gangs, etc. Today this anchor was cut off and replaced with God’s anchor. I asked for scripture. The Lord gave me Hebrews 6:19, 20 Now we have this hope as a sure and steadfast anchor of the soul - it cannot slip and it cannot break down under whoever steps out upon it - a hope that reaches farther and enters into the very certainty of the Presence within the veil. Where Jesus has entered in for us in advance, a forerunner has become a High Priest forever after the order with the rank of Melchizedek. Graham Power - a major mover of the Newlands event - had a dream in February 2002 that encouraged him to bring the stadium prayers to Southern Africa. In 2002 the prayer day started to spread throughout Southern Africa: eight stadiums were involved with some 160,000 people attending. In 2003 and 2004, mass prayer events were held in sports stadiums throughout the African continent. An interesting dynamic was starting to take off, namely that missionaries, who had been working in other Southern African countries, started encouraging missionary work from believers in the Cape Peninsula. Thus locals were challenged to minister to under-evangelised and forgotten peoples in Namibia and the Northern Cape. Georgina Kinsman from Mitchells Plain was among the first of a new generation of local believers to get going with church-planting in a powerful and blessed way. Cops For Christ It was exciting to see how in different parts of the country, the vision ‘adopt a cop’ - prayer for the police force - took off. It was surely in answer to prayer that Cops for Christ was started. The group saw themselves as stimulators and co-ordinators for prayer. Already at the City-wide prayer events of the late 1990s and the early years of the new millennium, Captain René Matthee had been a regular speaker, challenging believers to pray especially for the police. Kallie Hanekom, Danie Nortje and Michael Share challenged churches in the city area and further afield to pray concretely. They developed a system whereby a simultaneous prayer request could be sent to Christians with mobile phones. Believers were invited to come and pray at police stations. The Cops for Christ branch of Atlantis on the West Coast received countrywide prominence, such as in the organization and implementation of the 24-hour week of prayer from 16 to 23 May 2004 in their area. Crime reported to the local police station dropped significantly in the months thereafter. New Challenges Satan hit back via another stronghold at the turn of the new millennium – sexual perversion and drug addiction! The legalization of abortion in August 1996 was not surprising because in the run-up to the 1994 elections, the ruling ANC had already envisaged that as future policy. However, it took many Christians and Muslims by surprise that homosexuality received a major boost by the secular governing style. The new government propagandized the use of condoms in an effort to stop AIDS. In spite of warnings that condoms were really not safe in keeping the HIV virus out, the slogan ‘be wise - condomise!’ was used almost unabatedly at this stage. At the Cape Town Civic Centre, a gigantic erect penis with a condom over it, spread a debatable message to young people until it was removed by the well known Capetonian South Easter. When the government changed its stance in a stated intention to follow the example of Uganda, it was already very late in the day. (By propagating abstinence from sexual before marriage and fidelity within it, Uganda succeeded as the first country in the world to reverse the ratio of HIV infected people.) ABC However, the message of the government was ambivalent. On the one hand it turned to religion to help teach morality; on the other hand, agents like Love Life were and are still, being funded. This agency has no scruples in encouraging such practices as early experimenting with sex. In this way, traditional religious morality is contradicted and undermined. A situation had developed by the end of the previous century, which could only be countered with spiritual warfare on a national scale. A divine response appeared to follow when prayer warriors from different communities were raised up. In 1997, a team from the Dutch Reformed Church Suikerbosrand in Heidelberg (Gauteng) came to pray in the Mother City in general and in Bo-Kaap in particular. In the spiritual realm this was significant as a divine reply because Heidelberg was the cradle of the racist Afrikaner Weerstandsbeweging (AWB) in 1973, when the town belonged to the Transvaal province of the old South Africa. Bo-Kaap gradually lost its grip as an Islamic stronghold which it gained through the effect of apartheid, because many houses were sold to people who were not Muslims since the beginning of the new millennium. A substantial portion of the new inhabitants belongs to the ‘gay’ sub-culture. The borders of the City of Cape Town, which had become the gay capital of the continent since 1994, were now being extended into Bo-Kaap!! Church-Led Restitution? During a visit to Argentine in 1999 Pastor Martin Heuvel of the Fountain Christian Centre in Ravensmead was challenged to apply the principal of restitution to the South African set-up. His efforts to get other 'White' church leaders to move beyond mere oral confession and especially towards restitution for the evils of apartheid, took more than two years. Some of these personalities, who were challenged, had been involved with the prayer movement in the country for a long time. In 2002 Pastor Heuvel approached Charles Robertson, a prayer warrior of many years standing, and the catalyst of the monthly prayer concerts at the Cape. Here he found a prepared heart. This finally led to the establishment of the Foundation for Church-led Restitution, where believers from different races and church backgrounds met from time to time. They started to discuss possibilities to nudge the church towards meaningful restitution, especially to address and rectify the wrongs of apartheid. Charles Robertson put the challenge to South African Christians to consider seriously the options presented by the huge economic disparity in our country in a booklet published in August 2005 which he gave the title Swyg, vermy of vlug (Keep silent, avoid or flee).26 Praying Through the Window At the sending of prayer teams to different spiritual strongholds in 1997 as part of the Praying through the Window initiatives, a team from the Dutch Reformed congregation Suikerbosrand in Heidelberg (Gauteng) followed the nudge of Bennie Mostert's NUPSA (Network of United Prayer in Southern Africa), to come and pray in the Mother City. This was quite significant in the spiritual realm because Heidelberg had once been the cradle of the racist and right-wing Afrikaanse Weerstandsbeweging (AWB). That the AWB town was sending a team in November 1997 to pray for Bo-Kaap, might have hit the headlines had it been publicized! But all this had to be covert stuff. This was transpiring at a time when PAGAD (People against Gangsterism and Drugs) was still terrorizing the Cape Peninsula. Bo-Kaap was not geographically situated in the 10/40 window, but NUPSA leader Bennie Mostert discerned accurately that it was the case ideologically. (It had become a Muslim bastion in the wake of apartheid legislation.) Moravian Hill Hosts a Strategic Meeting As part of the special mission from Heidelberg (Gauteng), a prayer meeting of confession was organized for 1 November 1997, in front of the (former) Moravian Church in District Six. Our intercessory co-worker Sally Kirkwood had a vision for the suburb District Six that had become so desolate, to be revived through prayer. She also informed Pastor Richard Mitchell, a Hindu background Full Gospel pastor, and Mike Winfield, an Anglican member of the congregation in Bergvliet, about the event. The Cape prayer movement received a major lift. I asked Eben Swart to lead the occasion. That turned out to be quite strategic as well. Swart’s position as Western Cape Prayer Coordinator of Herald Ministries was cemented. Through this event he got linked to the pastors and wives’ prayer occasions that were led by Ps. Eddie Edson of the Shekinah Tabernacle in Mitchell's Plain. The confession ceremony in District Six on November 1, 1997 closed with the demolition of an altar that satanists or other occultists had probably erected there. With Eben Swart as a member of the strategic Lighthouse Christian Centre in Parow, this became a pivotal link for subsequent city-wide prayer events. The Moravian Hill prayer meeting attempted to break the spirit of death and forlornness over the area, so that it would be inhabited again. However, it would take another seven years before that dream started to materialise (and abused for election purposes in 2004). More than twenty years after 1997, not much had happened in terms of new inhabitants coming to District Six, but ideologically a change was taking place. New Prayer Initiatives On 2 September 1998 twenty thousand Cape Christians from different races and denominations marched in unity in the fight for freedom of religious expression in reaction to a move by the atheist attempt to regulate radio stations. The mass march to Parliament, in response to the perceived government attack on community radio stations was followed by a big prayer event on Table Mountain a few weeks later. At a prayer rally on 26 September 1998, hundreds of Christians prayed along the contour road of Table Mountain for the effort to rename the adjacent reviled peak ‘God’s Mountain.’ The latter event inspired a new initiative, during which a few believers from diverse backgrounds began to pray at 6.a.m. on Signal Hill on Saturdays every alternate week. After we had started with these early morning prayer meetings on Signal Hill, we got into a close relationship with Pastor Richard Mitchell and his family. When a door opened for a regular testimony programme on Friday evening on Radio CCFM, Richard Mitchell was an automatic choice to be the presenter. The programme ‘God Changes Lives’ was used to advertise the citywide prayer events. Tygerberg Radio cooperated with CCFM in all bigger Christian events. During the course of my historical research I had discovered that Duivenkop had been an earlier name of Devil’s Peak. Around the turn of the millennium I got to know Murray Bridgman, a Cape Christian advocate. He had previously also researched the history of Devil’s Peak, in even more detail. At that time Murray felt God’s leading to perform a prophetic act in District Six, pouring water on the steps of the Moravian Chapel, signifyimg the showers of blessings to emanate from that building. Along with Eben Swart, another church historical researcher of note, Dr. Henry Kirby was encouraged to lobby Parliament, to change the name to Dove’s Peak. (Dr. Kirby and his wife had been serving as YWAM missionaries in Mozambique.) Dr Kirby’s role as the prayer co-ordinator of the African Christian Democratic Party resulted in a motion tabled in the City Council in June 2002. The motion was however unsuccessful, probably because satanists had been influencing the liberal Democratic Alliance (DA) and the ANC. In 2009 the issue was tackled again. In due course, it was decided to disseminate the notion by word of mouth. Is it mere wishful thinking that it will be ultimately given the name Dove’s Peak? It is probably much more than mere co-incidence that Jacob Zuma became State President at that time. Murray Bridgman, who approached me and Ps. Barry Isaacs in an effort to affect the name change to Dove’s Peak, saw quite early the similarity to the corrupt rule of Willem Adriaan van der Stel and the farm Vergelegen, whom he acquired with unust way. Only many years later President Zuma abused tax payers' money to build the Nkandla estate. Support From Abroad In February 2000, Susan and Ned Hill, a couple from Atlanta (USA) linked to Blood ‘n Fire Ministries, visited the Mother City on an orientation visit after they sensed a call to come and minister to the poor and needy in South Africa. While being on a tourist visit to Table Mountain, their eyes were supernaturally fixed on a piece of desolate ground that they soon learned was called District Six. They visited the museum with that name, which was temporarily housed in the Moravian Chapel in District Six. There they heard the tragic story of the former cosmopolitan slum area of the Mother City that was demolished in the wake of apartheid legislation. (At that time the ear-marked locality for the District Six museum, a former Methodist Church, was being refurbished.) The unity of the body of Christ became visible at a mass half-night of prayer on 18 February 2000 on the Grand Parade, organised at short notice. On the same weekend two Dutchmen, Pieter Bos and Cees Vork, representing the prayer movement in Holland, joined local Christians in confession and in praying against satanic strongholds in the Peninsula. Four thousand Christians from a wide spectrum of denominations gathered on the Grand Parade. Denominationalism, materialism and other evils in South African society in which the church had played a role in the past, were confessed. In a moving moment just before midnight the two Dutchmen, Pieter Bos and Cees Vork, joined local intercessors, confessing the catastrophic contribution of their forefathers to the evils of Cape society. A prayer network had developed towards a preliminary culmination in the half-night of prayer on the Grand Parade. Thereafter, prayer events proliferated countrywide through the 24-Hour prayer watches and revival prayer attempts. Here the electronic media played a big role. The arch enemy would not remain idle at such activity. It had been discovered that satanists had been distributing cursed audio and videocassettes to various parts of the country. Subsequently, accidents occurred at these locations. The Cape Town City Bowl was confronted with the possibility of satanist activities after paint had been spilled on roads at night. The white lines formed in this way could have led to confusion that in turn would have resulted in motor accidents. The 7-DAYS Initiative As a follow up strategy of Transformation Africa prayer in stadiums all over Africa in 2004, a ‘7-Days initiative’ was launched. Daniel Brink of the Jericho Walls Cape Office invited believers to ‘proclaim your trust that, when we pray, God will respond. Declare your trust that if we put an end to oppression and give food to the hungry, the darkness will turn to brightness. Pray that houses of prayer will rise up all over Africa, as places where God’s goodness and mercy is celebrated in worship and prayer, even before the answer comes.’ Global Prayer Watch, the Western Cape arm of Jericho Walls, filled the first seven days with day and night prayer at the Moravian Church in District Six, starting at 9 o’clock in the evening on May 9, 2004. Every two hours, around the clock, a group of musicians would lead the ‘Harp and Bowl’ intercessory worship, whereby the group would pray over Scripture. In another part of the compound, intercessors could pray or paste prayer requests in the adjacent ‘boiler room’. What a joy it was for Hendrina van der Merwe, the fervent Afrikaner intercessor, to be present on that opening evening in the Moravian Chapel. However, she would neither experience a spiritual breakthrough towards new church planting in Bo-Kaap nor the start of a 24-hour Prayer Watch in the City Bowl. On the 31st of December 2004, with her Bible in her hand, she went to be with her Lord! From the 6th to the 15th of May, 2005, Jericho Walls challenged millions of believers all over the world ‘to seek the face of the Lord and ask him to fill the earth with his glory as the waters cover the seas’ (Habakkuk 2:14). Young people were encouraged to do a ‘30-second Kneel Down’ on Friday 13 May, and to have prayer, a ‘Whole night for the Whole World on Saturday 14 May 2005, just before the very first Global Day of Prayer.’ Thus one can say that the Global Day of Prayer, which became an annual feature internationally subsequently, started in the Moravian Church of District Six on May 9, 2004. The former slum area with its rich history was, however, in due course becoming increasingly Islamic. The group of people that ultimately determined who would be allotted accommodation there, created a list that made sure that Muslims would be the bulk of the beneficiaries of new-built housing. This was very clear after phase two was finalised. The Islamization process grounded however to a temporary halt in 2019 when the building company embezzled the funds for phase 3, the project of erecting flats near to the Moravian Church. New inhabitants started to move into this part in mid-2022. The quality of the three story flats with no lifts were inferior and completely unsuitable for people that would be older than 80 years, as the City told other folk who had been on the waiting list for decades. Epilogue When I turned 70 in December 2015, Rosemarie and I started looking more intensively at ‘re-tyring, ‘putting on new tyres’ as we called it. We still hoped and prayed for simple churches to be started in Bo-Kaap and that we could perhaps assist with some monitoring. ‘Crossing the Jordan’ became our goal as we prayed more intensely for three leadership units to take over from us. As our ministry had become so diverse that it was unrealistic to pray for successors to take over lock, stock and barrel. The Discipling House and the overall outreach to foreigners who had come to the Cape, our friends from abroad, were the other two units from our ministry that needed new leaders. We were blessed when shortly thereafter, a couple contacted us that was serving as missionaries elsewhere. Theo and Mignonne Schumann. In due course we could hand over the responsibility for ministry in Bo-Kaap to them. At the same time Rosemarie and I started to increase our involvement in District Six, initially with prayer walks, after starting in Bo-Kaap. On the other hand, the existence of terrorism as a force to be reckoned with, had come strongly to the fore on the 11th of September, 2001 with the twin tower event in New York. At the Cape, Imam Achmat Cassiem had already high-jacked a peace-loving PAGAD in October 1996. After the attempted assissination of Rashid Staggie in March 1999, he committed his life to the Lord in the Louis Leipoldt Hospital in Bellville. At the funeral of Glen Khan, a fellow Hard Livings gang leader a few weeks later at the Shikinah Church in Mitchell's Plain, he called on his followers to refrain from violence: My kom die wraak toe', he said. The effect of this intervention and negotiations with church leaders led by Ps Eddie Edson, had the net effect of marginalising of PAGAD. Pipe bombs were still exploding in various places hereafter, fuelling the fear that a Lebanon Scenario has arisen at the Cape. Seen as an answer to prayers, however, notably through a half night of prayer at the Lighthouse Christian Centre in Parow in October 1999, many PAGAD leaders were arrested thereafter. The presence of Graham Power, a Cape businessman at that occasion, led to the Newlands Rugby Stadium events from 21 March, 2001. Herafter PAGAD went quiet for decades while gang violence increased gradually once again. A residence in Jordaan Street became the national headquarters of HAMAS in 20?? while PAGAD came to the fore once again. 7 October 2023 in Israel exposed not only the violent nature of ISLAM once again, but it also saw PAGAD linking with HAMAS at the Cape to such an extent that two big Christian events at the Cape had to be cancelled. The first one was initially publicised as a march from the Cape Town Stadium to Sea Point on 12 November for two weeks already and due permission received. This was changed to an event without the march when thereafter the political party EFF got permission on short notice for a march to the City Hall from the Muir Street mosque in support of HAMAS for Saturday, 11 November. At this occasion thousands of Muslims attended the march at which Mandla Mandela, the grandson of our former State President, incited the participants to come earlier to Sea Point. This triggered a strong police presence for the Christian event that had been called in support of Israel. Many Muslim adherents arrived from noon on Sunday in Sea Point, some of them clearly intent on disrupting the Christian event. They violently interrupted preparations, tearing up Israeli flags at the venue, breaking the finger of a Messianic Jewish pastor and stabbing another person in the process. When a meetng Three Golden Keys On 1 September 2021, I gave a copy of the first edition of Part 1 of Revival Seeds Germinate to two intercessors who had just flown into Cape Town for a prayer assignment, soon their arrival. Patrick Kuwana immediately noted the three keys on the cover. (When I had phoned Anneline of Sela Publications in August 2019, I expressed my doubts about the suitability of the title Revival Seeds Germinate. She responded that she had completed a painting, a photo of which she would like to send to me. It looks very much as if I had ordered someone to paint something that would depict Revival Seeds Germinate!) I had also not been aware that a South African woman and man of Jewish descent (a Jew/Gentile team) were given a set of three golden keys in Jerusalem on the 21st of November 2019, and that they planted one of those keys at the Temple Mount in Jerusalem. The Lord then gave them instructions to return to South Africa with the other two keys, one to be planted at the Drakensberg and the other at what we trust will in due course become generally known as Dove’s Peak. During a time of prayer in the Isaiah 19 prayer room the same day, the guests felt unanimously that the third key should be taken to District Six on the slopes of Dove’s Peak. We buried the third key at the Krotoa sanctuary. The question remains when and whether Cape Christians will rise again in united prayer to pull the trigger, which would ignite the revival flames that could bless the continent from Cape to Cairo and bring biblical morality in its wings. The implementation of real unity of Christians on biblical grounds in the spirit of the person and example of Jesus - without semantics and bickering around peripheral issues like baptism and preaching by women – seems to be still some distance away. Yet, the biblical norm of sharing, so that something is done to close the gap between the extreme riches and poverty, cannot be overlooked. In the meantime, we live at the edge of a trigger of some sort. By being willing to get involved in programmes of restitution locally Cape Town and South Africa could set a modern example. The alternative is the trigger of desperation of the masses of the poor, which would definitely not resemble a Sunday School picnic. The Body of Christ in the Mother City could make the difference by pulling the right trigger. I believe that the combined expression of the Body of Christ in remorseful confession and repentance could be a catalyst towards spiritual renewal. It would be great if local churches could muster forces in prayer and action towards godly governance on the short term. This would be but a small - and yet significant – step. How wonderful it would be if church leaders could be the channel, voicing regret which could ignite remorse; that so many of our forebears claimed that the Church came in the place of the nation of Israel; that some of our co-religionists like Waraqah bin Naufal have been misleading Muhammad and because of that, millions are now caught in the web of religious bondage. The acknowledgment that Islam is for a great deal the result of heretical Christianity and distorted Judaism could be a possible catalyst for spiritual renewal. At the end of 2023 united action and prayer looked remote. The Covid pandemic of 2020 appears to have scuppered whatever there had been present in terms of Church unity. The HAMAS terror of 7 October in Israel sparked world- wide alarm and horror initially. The response of Israel in defense radiated the question whether this would lead to World War 3. Rallies in support of Israel brought Christians out in their thousands at some places. Whatever gains the Concerned Clergy of the Western Cape had made by then was by and large lost by one-sided invitation which was trashed on Sunday 12 November when hundred of HAMAS-supporting came to Sea Point to disrupt a prayer rally for which due permission had been received. The police asked the organisers to cancel the event. It looked as if Islam at the Cape got a new boost. Two days later, at a vote in Parliament initiated by Julius Malema's EFF, calling on the government to remove the Israeli Embassy, this was confirmed, now only waiting for the executive to implement this. In the spiritual realm this was significant, following the red-carpeting of HAMAS leaders in October 2015. A three-day evangelistic tent campaign was due to transpire in Portlands, Mitchell's Plain from 26-28 November, 2023. On 25 November the organisers were forced to cancel this event as well. Other whatsapp messages were circulating at this time, inter alia about the increase of teaching on Ancestor Worship. All in all, the impression cannot be ignored that spiritual warfare was raging at a very high level. Will followers of Jesus rise to the challenge, that is the question! 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