Founding father of Islam in the Cape
In the late 1600s, many Muslim men of wealth and influence were banished to the Cape from their homelands in the East because the Dutch feared them as a threat to their political and economic hegemony. The first political exiles, or Orang Cayen, were the rulers of Sumatra. Sheikh Yusuf of Macassar is the best known of these.
Sheikh Yusuf (Abidin Tadia Tjoessoep) was born in 1626 of noble birth in Goa, in the East Indies. He fought alongside Sultan Ajung of Bantam, Goa, in his war against the Dutch. Twice Sheikh Yusuf escaped from Dutch custody in the East but was finally persuaded in 1686 to surrender on the promise of a pardon. The Dutch did not fulfil their promise and Sheikh Yusuf was banished, along with his family and followers, to a castle in Batavia, from where he was transferred, under armed guard, to a castle in Colombo, Ceylon (now Sri Lanka). Fearing Sheikh Yusuf’s influence in Ceylon, the Dutch exiled him to the Cape of Good Hope.
He arrived in the Cape on board De Voetboog on April 2 1694, along with an entourage of 49, which included his two wives, 12 children, 12 imams and several friends with their families. He was royally welcomed by governor Simon van der Stel. The group was settled on a farm in Zandvliet, near the mouth of the Eerste River, on June 14 1694.
The Dutch East India Company’s attempt to isolate Sheikh Yusuf at Zandvliet did not succeed, however. The farm became a rallying point for fugitive slaves and other exiles from the East. It was here that the first cohesive Muslim community in South Africa was established. Since many of his followers hailed from Makassar in Indonesia, the district around Zandvliet became known as Macassar.
Sheikh Yusuf is regarded by many as the founder of the Islamic faith in the Cape and the first to read the Koran in South Africa.
He died in Zandvliet on May 23 1699. His kramat in Macassar has been a place of pilgrimage ever since. — Source: SAhistory.org.za