Rehana Rossouw
MALAYSIA’S Prime Minister, Dr Mahathir Bin Mohamad, acknowledged Malaysian roots in South Africa when he and a powerful business delegation swept into the country on a four-day visit this week.
“The people of Malay descent in Cape Town are of some interest to us — it is good to re-establish the linkages broken many years ago,” Bin Mohamad said. “But we do not intend to focus exclusively on people of Malay descent in our business with South Africa. We want to interact with everyone.”
South Africa’s Cape Malays are descended from slaves and political exiles brought from the East Indies by the Dutch 300 years ago. They left an indelible mark on South Africa, establishing the basis for the Afrikaans language and introducing Islam.
Centuries later, Malaysian business is firmly set on leaving an economic imprint on South Africa, with trade between the two countries last year valued at more than R430-million and set to rocket this year.
During the Cape Town leg of the tour, Malaysian investment giant the Malaysian Resources Corporation Berhad (MRCB) announced plans to embark on an investment spree that will see millions of rands poured into South Africa in joint ventures with local
Researcher and author Achmat Davids, who has published numerous articles and books exploring the history and contribution of people of Malay descent in South Africa, said Malays in South Africa are unique among former slave populations in the world as they have maintained their culture, some of their language and all of their religious customs despite being cut off from their homeland for centuries.
Davids’ family has occupied his home in cobbled Longmarket Street in the old Malay Quarters for more than 100 years, opposite a mosque built by his great-
“Malays have a saying that no matter where they are in the world, they never lose their culture,” Davids said.
Descendants from slaves succeeded in retaining their culture largely because they were literate and able to exert extensive influence over other cultures, particularly the people who are now regarded as Afrikaners, Davids contends.
He carefully handles well-preserved documents dated from around 1806 to show an early version of Afrikaans written in Javanese script. Malay slaves came to the Cape reading four languages and speaking 14 dialects, some of which live on in Afrikaans today. Words such as sosatie, bobotie, koeksusters, piering, baklei, baadjie, baie and bredie are either Malaysian or Indonesian and still in use in Southeast Asia.
“Not only did the slaves have a tremendous impact on the Afrikaans language, but some of the most elite Afrikaner families as well. Ansiela of Bangor was the owner of Kronendal and the founding mother of the Basson family and Lanzerac belonged to Louis of Bangor,” Davids said.
The first school for blacks in South Africa was founded by Malays in 1793 and by 1842 the Dorp Street Madressah had 1 069 students enrolled.
The Malay community is also credited with bringing Islam to South Africa. Last year massive celebrations were held to mark the arrival of Sheik Yusuf, a Muslim political exile brought to the Cape by the Dutch in
It was only after 1990 that Malays in South Africa re- established their links with Malaysia. South Africans were restricted from visiting there during apartheid although a few managed visits while on pilgrimage to
“When we rediscovered each other, there was total amazement on both sides that the culture had been so well preserved in South Africa,” Davids said. “A Malaysian speaker at the tricentenary celebrations was so taken aback that he said he had found his lost brothers in Cape Town.
“There is a lot of curiosity among Malays in Cape Town about Malaysia and many people are interested in discovering their roots there. But wanting to experience your ancestral home does not necessarily translate into settling back there.”