Amid its idyllic façade lies a history fraught with discomfort and pain, a history long overshadowed by its British naval heritage.
While Simon’s Town’s ties to the British Royal Navy is well-documented, there is another narrative.
This narrative has, sadly, been neglected. It is the story of enslaved people who once called the coastal town home.
For centuries, their voices have been silenced, their lives reduced to mere entries in inventories, alongside household goods and livestock.
Finally, their stories have surfaced through a recently published book, An Uncomfortable Paradise: A history of dispossession and slavery in Simon’s Town.
Written by Joline Young who is a doctoral student of African Studies at the UCT, Young tells the human stories of enslaved people, shedding light on their struggles and resilience.
Through meticulous archival research, Young uncovers the interconnected lives of slaveholders, indigenous peoples of False Bay, “prize negroes”, “liberated Africans”, and West African Krumen, revealing the complex tapestry of Simon’s Town’s past.
Studying slavery in Simon’s Town through the lens of Cape archival records provides a nuanced understanding of the historical phenomenon.
It highlights the complexities of power, exploitation and resilience in the lives of enslaved individuals and their descendants.
Slavery was introduced to the Cape Colony by the Dutch, who brought enslaved individuals from various parts of Africa, as well as from Asia, to work on farms, in households and in other industries in 1652.
It was abolished in the era of British colonialism in 1834.
A couple of years ago, when I discovered the grave of an Ottoman descendant who, among the tales recounted, is that of Carel Pilgrim, Hadje Ghasanuddin Effendi, a freed slave who embarked on a remarkable pilgrimage to Mecca, challenging prevailing narratives of oppression and subjugation, I realised how difficult it is to work on such a complex subject like slavery.
Thanks to talented student Daiyaan Peterson, who assisted me with documents in the Cape Dutch language, we completed the research.
Ghasanuddin’s journey underscores the rich and diverse heritage of Cape Town. This includes its connection to slavery and the early Turkish Ottomans in South Africa.
Believed to be Hadje Ghasanuddin, he was son of an Ottoman trader, Abdullah Effendi, abducted by pirates near present-day Maputo, Mozambique, in 1772 and, subsequently, sold into slavery.
Numerous Turkish historical records corroborate the connection between Abdullah Effendi and his son, Ghasanodien, particularly his enrolment at the Imperial Ottoman School on Castle Street.
Residing and dying at 71 Wale Street, now the site of the Bo-Kaap Museum and buried Tana Baru Cemetery.
The story of Abdol Gaviel, who is mentioned in An Uncomfortable Paradise, parallels with the story of Muslim pioneers like Ghasanuddin Effendi who sacrificed their comfort for the Muslim community in South Africa.
As the sun sets over the tranquil shores of False Bay, let us not forget the shadows that linger beneath its surface, urging us to remember and to honour the resilience of those who once walked these shores as slaves.
Their their stories are etched into the soul of this picturesque paradise.
* Halim Gençoğlu.
** The views expressed here are not necessarily those of Independent Media.
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