Hostname: page-component-848d4c4894-xfwgj Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-06-20T00:34:50.288Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

From the Madrasah to the Museum: The Social Life of the “Kietaabs” of Cape Town1

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  09 May 2014

Saarah Jappie
Saarah Jappie*
Affiliation:
University of Cape Town
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Ebrahiem Manuel sits opposite me, about to embark upon his story. His living room is filled with material manifestations of his research: boxes overflowing with books and papers cover his entire sofa, newspapers and articles line the floor, and collages of images and texts hang on the walls and sit in the cabinets. It is clear that he is consumed by his passion for heritage, and his personal journey of discovery. He speaks in an animated, almost theatrical tone, raising and lowering his voice, stressing certain syllables, alive as he tells his story of “the ancient kietaabs.”

The journey began in 1997, when Ebrahiem returned to South Africa after years at sea, working as a cook on shipping vessels. Upon his return, he began a quest to learn about his personal heritage, inspired by a dream he had had about his grandfather. This search led him to an old kietaab, given to him by an elderly aunt. This was not the first time he had come across the old book; he remembered seeing it as a child, amongst other kietaabs, stored out of reach of the children, on top of his grandfather's wardrobe. It was inside this book that a possible key to his ancestors was to be found.

This significant find was a range of hand-written inscriptions inside the book, in Arabic, English, and an unknown script. The Arabic script and its corresponding English transliteration read “Imaam Abdul Karriem, son of Imaam Abdul Jaliel, son of Imaam Ismail of Sumbawa.” Here was his family tree, starting from his great-grandfather and leading to two generations before him and, it seemed, their place of origin, the island of Sumbawa in eastern Indonesia. Ebrahiem then decided to go to Indonesia to solve what had become the mystery of “the ancient kietaab.”

Type
The Making of an Archive
Information
History in Africa , Volume 38 , 2011 , pp. 369 - 399
Copyright
Copyright © African Studies Association 2011

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

Footnotes

1

This paper is based on my Masters research, generously supported by the University of Cape Town (UCT) and the Tombouctou Mss Project. I would like to acknowledge also the support and guidance of the Archive and Public Culture Research Initiative at UCT, which has been influential in the development of the ideas put forth and the approach taken in this paper.

References

Ajam, Mogamed, “The Raison d'Être of the Muslim Mission Primary School,” PhD dissertation, University of Cape Town (1986).Google Scholar
Anwar, Rosahin, “Keturunan Sumbawa di Afsel,” Kompas (9 May 2005), n.p..Google Scholar
Appadurai, Arjun, “Introduction: Commodities and the Politics of Value,” in: Appadurai, Arjun (ed.), The Social Life of Things: Commodities in Cultural Perspective (Cambridge, 1986), 3–63.Google Scholar
Bangstad, Sindre, “Diasporic Consciousness as a Strategic Resource – A Case Study from a Cape Muslim Community,” in: Manger, Leif, and Munzoul, Assal (eds.), Diasporas Within Without Africa: Dynamism, Heterogeneity, Variation (Uppsala, 2006), 32–60.Google Scholar
Besten, Michael, “We are the Original Inhabitants of this Land: Khoe-San Identity in Post-Apartheid South Africa,” in: Adhikari, Mohamed (ed.), Burdened by Race: Coloured Identities in Southern Africa (Cape Town, 2009), 134–55.Google Scholar
Campbell, Debe, “The Forgotten Children,” Flying Springbok (July 1997), 83–87.Google Scholar
Cornell, Carohn, Slaves at the Cape: A Guidebook for Beginner Researchers (Bellville, 2005).Google Scholar
D'Arcy, Cassiem, “Ripping Out the Heart of History in Simonstown [sic],” Muslim Views (June 2001), 28.Google Scholar
D'Arcy, Cassiem, “Timbuktu is Right Here,” Muslim Views (June 2008), 41.Google Scholar
Davids, Achmat, The Mosques of Bo-Kaap: A Social History of Islam at the Cape (Cape Town, 1980).Google Scholar
Davids, Achmat, “Words the Cape Slaves Made: A Socio-Historical-Linguistic Study,” South African Journal of Linguistics 8 (1990), 1–24.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Davids, Achmat, “The Afrikaans of the Cape Muslims 1815-1915: A Socio-Linguistic Study,” MA thesis, University of Natal (1992).Google Scholar
Davids, Achmat, “The Early Afrikaans Publications and Manuscripts in Arabic Script,” in: Westra, Pieter E., and Warner, Brian (eds.), Festschrift in Honour of Frank R. Bradlow (Cape Town, 1993), 67–82.Google Scholar
Deacon, Harriet, “The Cape Doctor and the Broader Medical Market, 1800-1850” in: Deacon, Harriet, Phillips, Howard, and Van Heynigan, Elizabeth (eds.), The Cape Doctor in the Nineteenth Century, A Social History (New York, 2004), 54–84.Google Scholar
De Kock, Christine, “Aunty Patty, Keeper of Cape-Muslim Heritage,” Cape Argus (25 January 2005), 14.Google Scholar
Dennis, Michelle, “Dream Leads Royal Ebrahiem from Grassy Park to a Sultan's Palace,” Southern Mail (26 July 2000), n.p..Google Scholar
Dommisee, Boet, and Westby-Nunn, Tony, Simon's Town: An Illustrated Historical Perspective (Simon's Town, 2002).Google Scholar
Du Plessis, Izak D., The Cape Malays (Cape Town, 1947).Google Scholar
Du Plessis, Izak D., Hart van Java (Cape Town/Bloemfontein/Port Elizabeth, 1942).Google Scholar
Erasmus, Zimitri (ed.), Coloured by History, Shaped by Place: New Perspectives on Coloured Identities in Cape Town (Cape Town, 2001).Google Scholar
Garinto, Aris, Purba, Mandala S., Nafia, Tubagus, Sari, Fitria, and Rakiep, Rizki (eds.), Seminar on Manuscripts in Conjunction with the Spread of Islam in South Africa (Cape Town, 2006).Google Scholar
Hamid, Abu, Syekh Yusuf Makassar: Seorang Ulama, Sufi dan Pejuang (Jakarta, 1994).Google Scholar
Haron, Mohamed, Going Forward: South Africa and Malaysia Cementing Relations (Selangor, 2008).Google Scholar
Herwitz, Daniel A., “Introduction: The Heritage of Heritage (and How I Entered It),” paper presented at the Archive and Public Culture Workshop, University of Cape Town (15 March 2010).Google Scholar
Horstmann, Alexander, “Nostalgia, Resistance, and Beyond: Contested Uses of Jawi Islamic Literature and the Political Identity of the Patani Malays,” The Journal of Sophia Asian Studies 20 (2002), 111–22.Google Scholar
Jacobs, Rayda, Postcards from South Africa (Cape Town, 2004).Google Scholar
James, Wilmot, Caliguire, Daria, and Cullinan, Kerry (eds.), Now That We Are Free: Coloured Communities in a Democratic South Africa (Cape Town, 1996).Google Scholar
Jaffer, Mansoor, Guide to the Kramats of the Western Cape (Cape Town, 1996).Google Scholar
Jappie, Saarah, “Tombouctou Mss Project Report on Arabic & Arabic-Afrikaans Manuscripts in CapeTown” (unpublished report, 2008).Google Scholar
Jeppie, Shamil, “Historical Process and the Constitution of Subjects: I.D. du Plessis and the Reinvention of the ‘Malay,’” Honours dissertation, University of Cape Town (1987).Google Scholar
Jeppie, Shamil, “Commemorations and Identities: The 1994 Tercentenary of Islam in South Africa,” in: Sonn, Tamara (ed.), Islam and the Question of Minorities (Atlanta, 1996), 73–91.Google Scholar
Jeppie, Shamil, “Reclassifications: Coloured, Malay, Muslim,” in: Erasmus, Zimitri (ed.), Coloured by History Shaped by Place: New Perspectives on Coloured Identity in Cape Town (Cape Town, 2001), 80–96.Google Scholar
Jeppie, Shamil, “Introduction: Travelling Timbuktu Books,” in: Tombouctou Manuscripts Project & Iziko Social History Collections Department (eds.), Timbuktu Script & Scholarship: A Catalogue of Selected Manuscripts from the Exhibition (Cape Town, 2008), 13–20.Google Scholar
Kähler, Hans, Studien über die Kultur, die Sprache und die arabisch-afrikaanse Literature der Kap-Malaien (Berlin, 1971).Google Scholar
Kessler, Clive, “A Malay Diaspora? Another Side of Dr Mahathir's Jewish Problem,” Patterns of Prejudice 33 (1999), 23–42.Google Scholar
Mahida, Ebrahim M., History of Muslims in South Africa: A Chronology (Durban, 1993).Google Scholar
Malan, Rian, “War of the Red Kitaab,” Noseweek 88 (February 2007), 16–20.Google Scholar
Mandela, Nelson, “Speech by President Nelson Mandela at State a Banquet in his Honour (Jakarta, 14 July 1997),” http://www.anc.org.za/ancdocs/history/mandela/1997/sp970714.html, accessed 28 May 2010Google Scholar
Mbeki, Thabo, “Reply by the President of South Africa, Thabo Mbeki, to the Toast Remarks by his Excellency, the President of the Republic of Indonesia, Dr Susilo Bambang Yudhoyono, at the State Banquet, Istana Negara (Jakarta, 19 April 2005),” http://www.dfa.gov.za/docs/speeches/2005/mbek0420.htm, accessed 28 May 2010.Google Scholar
Miller, Nancy K., “Family Hair Looms,” Women's Studies Quarterly 36 1/2 (2008), 162–68.Google Scholar
Milner, Anthony, The Malays (Chichester, 2011).Google Scholar
Nirwandar, Sapta, “Sekapur Sirih,” in: PaEni, Mukhlis (ed.), Katalog Naskah, iv.Google Scholar
PaEni, Mukhlis (ed.), Katalog Naskah: Koleksi Masyarakat Keturunan Indonesia di Afrika Selatan (Jakarta, 2008).Google Scholar
Rowlands, Michael, “Value and the Cultural Transmission of Things,” in: van Binsbergen, Wim, and Geschiere, Peter (eds.), Commodification: Things, Agency and Identities (The Social Life of Things Revisited) (Münster, 2005), 267–82.Google Scholar
Shell, Robert C.-H., “The Establishment and Spread of Islam at the Cape from the Beginning of Company Rule to 1838,” Honours thesis, University of Cape Town (1974).Google Scholar
Shell, Robert C.-H., Children of Bondage (Johannesburg, 1997).Google Scholar
Shell, Robert C.-H., “Madresahs and Moravians. Muslim Educational Institutions in the Cape Colony, 1792-1910,” New Contree 51 (2006), 101–13.Google Scholar
Shell, Robert C.-H., and Dick, Archie, “From the Pen of a Slave: Jan Smiesing, Writing and Reading Master, 1697 to 1734,” in: Shell, Robert C.-H. (ed.), From Diaspora to Diorama [CD-ROM] (Cape Town, 2009), 1815–37.Google Scholar
Shepherd, Nick, “Heritage,” in: Shepherd, Nick, and Robins, Steven L. (eds.), New South African Keywords (Johannesburg, 2008), 118.Google Scholar
Stell, Gerard, “From Kitaab-Hollandsch to Kitaab-Afrikaans: The Evolution of a Non-White Literary Variety at the Cape (1856-1940) (Stellenbosch Papers in Linguistics 37),” (Stellenbosch, 2007).CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Svensson, Jonas, “Relating, Revering and Removing: Muslim Views on the Use, Power and Disposal of Divine Words,” in: Myrvold, Kristina (ed.), The Death of Sacred Texts: Ritual Disposal and Renovation of Texts in World Religions (Surrey/Burlington, 2010), 31–54.Google Scholar
Tayob, Abdulkader, Islamic Resurgence in South Africa: The Muslim Youth Movement (Cape Town, 1995).Google Scholar
Vahed, Goolam, and Jeppie, Shamil, “Multiple Communities: Muslims in Post-Apartheid South Africa,” in: Daniel, John, Southall, Roger, and Lutchman, Jessica (eds.), State of the Nation: South Africa, 2004-2005 (Pretoria, 2005), 252–62.Google Scholar
Van der Merwe, Annari, and Faber, Paul (eds.), Group Portrait South Africa: Nine Family Histories (Cape Town, 2003).Google Scholar
Van Selms, Adrianus, Arabies-Afrikaanse Studies – ‘n Tweetalige (Arabiese en Afrikaanse) Kategismus (Amsterdam, 1951).Google Scholar
Van Selms, Adrianus, “Die Oudste Boek in Afrikaans: ‘Isjmoeni se Betroubare Woord,’” Hertzog Annale II-3 (1955), 61–103.Google Scholar
Wacik, Jero, “Sambutan Menteri Kebudayaan dan Pariwisata,” in: PaEni, (ed.), Katalog Naskah, v–vi.Google Scholar
Worden, Nigel, and Groenewald, Gerald (eds.), Trials of Slavery: Selected Documents Concerning Slaves from Criminal Records of the Council of Justice at the Cape of Good Hope, 1705-1794 (Cape Town, 2005).Google Scholar
Zakaria, Munazzah, “Pengesanan Manuskrip Melayu di Afrika Selatan: Satu Catatan Ringkas,” Philologi Melayu 5 (1998), 111–18.Google Scholar
Zakaria, Munazzah, Katalog Manuskrip Melayu di Afrika Selatan (Kuala Lumpur, 1998).Google Scholar