Isn’t it mashallah that the dates for Heritage Month in South Africa and Moulood coincide with one another this year, the birthday of the Prophet Muhammad (peace be upon him) during Rabbi Al-Awaal, the 3rd month of the Islamic lunar calendar. A time when I wave my South African and Islamic flag high out of heritage pride, an opportunity for our multiple identities as Muslim South Africans to integrate and harmonise with one another.
Of course, I wasn’t going to miss an opportunity to attend a Rampies-Sny, an old Cape Muslim tradition which forms part of the Moulood where lemon leaves are cut and fragranced with rose water, lemon oil and burning incense potpourri style, as it undergoes the “oker” – being prayed over with Arabic recitations, asking for God’s blessings.
This year I accepted an invitation from Soraya Salie to attend a Moulood programme led by the Al Wiedaad Thiekrollah Jamaah, a prayer group established to further the legacy of Haji Latiefa Manie, a direct descendant of Imam Abdullah ibn Qadi Abd al-Salam, known as Tuan Guru, a political-religious figure who arrived in Cape Town in the 1700s as a banished prince from Indonesia.
Tuan Guru founded the first madrassah (Arabic for “Moslem School”) and mosque in Bo-Kaap known as the Al Awaal Mosque – the land for this mosque was donated by Saartjie Van De Kaap, a woman of Dutch origin and a pioneer for the empowerment of slave Muslims. Inside this mosque is where the first manuscript of the Qur’an, written from memory by Tuan Guru, is housed, which he wrote while being imprisoned on Robben Island. According to Bo-Kaap & Islam by Ursula Stevens, Tuan Guru and Saartjie Van De Kaap are both buried at the Tana Baru Cemetery just off Longmarket Street.
Moulood is a cultural event, but not religious, a tradition which comes from the Indonesian and Malaysian communities that accompanied the arrival of Tuan Guru and other slave Muslims. Moulood is still a big festival celebrated in Indonesia, and it is well attended by groups of Cape Muslims. In Cape Town, the Rampies-Sny is traditionally led by women dressed in their best white clothing.
Soraya Salie embraced Islam in 1977 under the tutelage of Haji Latiefa Manie, and she’s also been leading the Bonteheuwel Walking Ladies (BWL) for 18 years now, a social welfare and empowerment organisation for more than 100 women. Soraya also teaches Qur’an classes from her own home. She is a wife and mother of 2 sons and 6 grandchildren.
When you’re grieving your late mother and picking yourself up again as a writer once she’s gamaningal (passed on), you yearn to be in the company of spiritually conscious women who remind you of the rich legacies you come from – the ones like Aunty Soraya, and the ones like my Mamma. I once took Mamma to one of Aunty Soraya’s weekend classes during Ramadaan in 2021. Mamma was fascinated with the innovative posters on the wall scripted by Aunty Soraya herself with the intention of unpacking key Qur’anic-reading concepts to her students. Mamma said to Aunty Soraya, “You’re doing the work I only dream of doing.” Had Mamma not made the niyyah (intention) to finish her masters programme during her retirement, I’m sure she would’ve joined forces with these organisations. Mamma always felt called to impart knowledge and literacy for children and families in our neighbourhood.
At the end of the programme, we collected our rampies in small fabric bags. I took 3 of them home with me – one for Daddy, one for me and one for the Aunty in the next road who donated twigs of lemon leaves for the rampies table. I was also chuffed to have worn my black-and-white Palestinian keffiyeh (Arabic: كوفية, romanised: kūfiyya) to the Moulood and have it perfumed around the “oker” along with the rampies. The perfumed keffiyeh still rests next to my pillows at night, an aesthetic memory of the celebration that fills me with comfort in the wake of Mamma’s absence and hope as we stay connected to our heritage.
Tasneem Daniels has a 10-year combined portfolio in media, education, arts and entertainment. Tasneem formed part of the first group of playwrights to take up residence at the Jakes Gerwel Foundation (JGF) Paulet House. Here she wrote Miela’s Box, a show collaboratively produced with the JGF in 2020 that debuted on stage and radio stations nationally. Tasneem’s play lead to a career in TV and radio programming with Suidooster (kykNET), An Nur – The Light (SABC 3), Radio 786 (100.4 FM) and the University of the Western Cape (UWC) in collaboration with Bush Radio (89.5 FM). Miela’s Box made a comeback on internet radio in 2024 with Cape Flats Radio and Radio Eersteriver. Tasneem also writes for LitNet, and she is writing her first musical after completing the How to Make a Musical Masterclass in 2019 with David Kramer at the Baxter Theatre. Her interests include tracing her Cape Malay / Indonesian roots and using her travel pursuits to develop her creative businesses.
