Christian-Muslim Marriage and Cohabitation: An Aspect of Identity and Family Formation in Nineteenth-Century Cape Town

Abstract

Nineteenth century Cape Town – Mother City of a ‘Christian’ colony within the British Empire – became the home of an expanding Muslim community which, at its peak, numbered a third of the town's population. Islam had arrived at the Cape by a variety of means. Most of those who were attracted by that faith were slaves or, post-emancipation (1834) and apprenticeship (till 1838), the descendants of slaves. The slaves' exclusion from legal marriage until shortly before abolition had profound consequences for family life – notably, respecting out-of-wedlock births – which the state and the Christian churches attempted to address. In that environment the Muslim family, though on religious terms a thing apart, was often perceived as a model of stability; less acceptable were Christian-Muslim interactions when they entailed the formers' apostasy. This article investigates Cape Town's post-emancipation underclass through the lens of Christian-Muslim unions. It focuses on family life and the status of children born of marriages which, though binding on the parties thereto, did not legitimise their offspring. Equally it traces steps whereby an urban populace, which had been deracinated by slavery, forged new identities. In that development, the manner in which Muslims and Christians mingled, yet remained discrete, played an important part.

Notes

The research was sponsored by the National Research Foundation and the University of Cape Town Research Committee, which we acknowledge with thanks. The views expressed in this work, and the conclusions drawn, are those of the author and should not be regarded as those of the sponsors.

[1] Champion, The Journal of an American Missionary, 28.

[2] The Cape passed to Britain in 1795, to the Dutch again in 1802 and Britain in 1806.

[3] Bradlow, ‘Exploring the Roots of Islam’, 19, 43–44; Shell, ‘Islam in South Africa, 1653–2001’, 2, 5–7, 11–13.

[4] Davids, ‘The Afrikaans of the Cape Muslims’, 34.

[5] Thunberg, Travels at the Cape of Good Hope 1772–1775, 47–48. The toponym ‘van de Kaap’ signified either a Cape-born slave or a free Cape-born person of slave descent.

[6] Bradlow, ‘Exploring the Roots of Islam,’ 3 (n. 12), 14.

[7] Bank, ‘The Erosion of Urban Slavery’, 87; Gerstner, ‘A Christian Monopoly’, 18–22; Shell, Children of Bondage, 330–50.

[8] For example, Shell, ‘Rites and Rebellion’, 5:2–10.

[9] Mason, Social Death and Resurrection, 199, 201.

[10] Davids, ‘The Afrikaans of the Cape Muslims’, 59, 62.

[11] Shell, Children of Bondage, 357.

[12] Theal, Records of the Cape Colony, vol. 9, 130.

[13] Davids, ‘Muslim-Christian Relations’, 80–101. The NHK held a monopoly of public worship until 1780, when Lutherans were granted that right.

[14] Theal, Records of the Cape Colony, vol. 35, 364.

[15] du Plessis, Merkwaardig Verhaal aangaande het leven en de lotgevallen van Michiel Christiaan Vos, 216.

[16] Shell, ‘Between Christ and Mohammed’, 269–70.

[17] Pratt, ‘The Anglican Church's Mission’, 37; Shell, ‘Between Christ and Mohammed’, 274–75; Veltkamp, ‘Meent Borcherds’, 206–08 (my thanks to Gerald Groenewald for this reference).

[18] Shell, ‘Islam in South Africa’, 8, citing Cory Library, Rhodes University: MS 16, 579; Davids, ‘Muslim-Christian Relations’, 80–101.

[19] Although all the churches probably experienced this phenomenon, I have had to rely on the Nederduits Gereformeerde Kerk Archive (NGKA) for examples.

[20] NGKA, G1 1/16, 7 Sept. 1835, 232. Cape Ordinance 62 of 1829 had made 21 the legal age of majority.

[21] Art. 12–16, Marriage Order in Council, 7 Sept. 1838 (in force 1 Feb. 1839), in Tennant and Jackson, Statutes of the Cape of Good Hope, 1652–1895, vol. 1, 233–34. Slaves were ‘apprenticed’ to former owners, 1834–38.

[22] Shell, ‘Between Christ and Mohammed’, 274; Bickford-Smith, Ethnic Pride and Racial Prejudice, 73.

[23] Burman and Naude, ‘Bearing a Bastard’, 373.

[24] Bank, The Decline of Urban Slavery, 104.

[25] Somerset, ‘Proclamation by His Excellancy General the Right Hon. Lord Charles Somerset, 18th March 1823’; Shell, ‘Rites and Rebellion’, 5: 25–29. Slaves had lacked the ‘rights and privileges which distinguish the state of the free in civil society; they cannot marry’: Theal, Records of the Cape Colony, vol. 9, 150.

[26] Rev. W. Wright, see Gibson, Sketches of Church Work, 31.

[27] Bickford-Smith, ‘Meanings of Freedom’, 299.

[28] The NHK notulen (minutes) and doop (baptism) registers form the richest primary source. Unlikely to be traced are unions of persons not affiliated to a church.

[29] Bickford-Smith, ‘Meanings of Freedom’, 289. Gavin Lewis names several sources in Between the Wire and the Wall, 1–6.

[30] Bickford-Smith, Ethnic Pride and Racial Prejudice, 20.

[31] Studies by Judges, Elks and Adhikari are helpful, as are topics addressed by Edna Bradlow.

[32] Cape Town Archives Repository (CAR), Burgerraad (BRD) 27, Folder 2, Opgawes van Wykmeesters, Ward 13.

[33] Stewart, trans., The Travels of Mirza Abu Taleb Khan, vol. 1, 72.

[34] Schoeman, The Early Mission in South Africa, 129–30.

[35] Shell, Children of Bondage, 356–57; Theal, Records of the Cape Colony, vol. 35, 367.

[36] Cape Calendar and Annual Register for 1840.

[37] Shell, ‘Rites and Rebellion’, 5: 7; Worden, van Heyningen and Bickford-Smith, Cape Town, 123.

[38] A Synopsis of the Population… 1842, Cape of Good Hope Almanac and Register for 1844.

[39] For the likelihood that light-skinned slave descendants ‘passed’ into the ‘European’ category in official statistics, see Bickford-Smith, ‘Meanings of Freedom’, 292.

[40] ‘Preliminary,’ Cape of Good Hope Almanac and Annual Register for 1847.

[41] Meltzer, ‘Emancipation, Commerce’, 192.

[42] Cited in Loos, Echoes of Slavery, 70.

[43] CAR, Colonial Office (CO) 485, No. 94, 19 March 1836.

[44] Quinn and Cuthbertson, Presbyterianism in Cape Town, 15, 17.

[45] Worden, Van Heyningen and Bickford-Smith, Cape Town, 186.

[46] NGKA, G1 1/20: 5 March 1838, 366; 7 May 1838, 394, 396; 2 July 1838, 411–12, 413.

[47] Bronn/Bron/Brown appears to have been of slave descent, Suid-Afrikaanse Geslagregisters, vol. 1, 61–62.

[48] The Hansens had strong Christian roots: Aletta's mother was by birth a Keeve, whose father and brother were sextons of the NHK's Groote Kerk, see Suid-Afrikaanse Geslagregisters, vol. 4, 229–30; NGKA, G1 1/21: 4 Jan. 1841, 304.

[49] Bronn v Frits Bronn's Executors, Cases Decided in the Supreme Court, 3: 313–33.

[50] Suid-Afrikaanse Geslagregisters, vol. 3, 77; CAR, Verbatim Copies (VC) 615, 11 Oct. 1818.

[51] Searle, Cases Decided in the Supreme Court, vol. 3, 317.

[52] Searle, Cases Decided in the Supreme Court, vol. 3, 332 and passim.

[53] Gender balance was achieved in Cape Town in the mid-1800s.

[54] Davids, ‘Imam Achmat Sadik Achmat (1813–1879)’, 71–72; Toefy, ‘Divorce in the Muslim Community of the Western Cape’, 15; Vahed, ‘Should the question’, 374 and passim.

[55] The author is not aware of records providing an Islamic perspective on the Cape Town experience.

[56] NGKA, G1 1/12: 3 Nov. 1828, 191–92; 5 Jan. 1829, 204–05; 2 Feb., 228–29, 234.

[57] CAR, Cape Supreme Court (CSC) 2/1/1/32, No. 45, 27 Nov. 1835, McCullock v Darie; NGKA, G1 1/15: 15 Dec. 1834, 355–56; CAR, VC 616, Doop Register der Christen Kinderen…, 18 Jan. 1824.

[58] CAR, CSC 2/2/1/94, No. 84, 11 June 1850. The purchase, in 1839, coincided with Darie's appointment as executor of an estate: Friedman-Spits, 24.

[59] NGKA, G1 1/16: 1 June 1835, 135; G1 1/17: 6 June 1836, 636–37; G1 1/22: 6 Feb. 1843, 749; G1 11/7: 11 Dec. 1841.

[60] NGKA, G1 1/20: 6 Aug. 1838, 430; 3 Sept. 1838, 451.

[61] CAR, CO 490, Item 159, Wardmasters' Reports, 1840.

[62] Meltzer, ‘Emancipation, Commerce’, 185, 194.

[63] NGKA, G1 1/23: 7 Aug. 1843, 10–11.

[64] Aletta Jacoba Hansen bore two daughters before her marriage to Christiaan Frederik La Cock: Suid-Afrikaanse Geslagregisters, vol. 3, 77; vol. 5a, 10–11.

[65] NGKA, G1 1/21: 6 Jan. 1840, 9, and 3 Feb. 1840, 16–20. A ‘Pieter, alias Sataardien’ resided at 2 Waterkant, ‘Inhabitants’, Almanac and Annual Register for 1847.

[66] CAR, 1/Cape Town (CT) 5/21, No. 19, 26 Oct. 1842, Smith v Saayer.

[67] CAR, CSC 2/2/1/94, No. 84.

[68] NGKA, G1 1/23: 7 Aug. 1843, 17.

[69] The NHK synod had ruled that the clergy could not refuse to baptise when parents appropriated well-known (settler) family names even if the child were illegitimate, NGKA, Acta Synodi, 1824–1915, Point 14, 8th sitting, 26 Oct. 1837, 134, 186.

[70] NGKA, G1 1/22: 6 March 1843, 752–53; 3 April 1843, 762–63, 764.

[71] NGKA, G1 1/24: 6 Dec. 1847, 391–93; CAR, VC 631, 28 Feb. 1847.

[72] NGKA, G1 1/23: 1 Sept. 1845, 372; 19 Jan. 1846, 513–14. Jansen accused Davidsen of infidelity with a certain Doortje.

[73] NGKA, G1 1/24: 6 Dec. 1847, 398; 24 Jan. 1848, 417–19. For ‘Malay’ dress in the mid-1800s, see Mayson, The Malays of Cape Town, 13–14.

[74] NGKA, G1 1/25: 5 Aug. 1850, 228–29; 2 Sept., 248–49. It is unclear if Gabriel is the man whom Davidsen accused Jansen of marrying. By 1850 Davidsen was deceased.

[75] NGKA, G1 1/24: 5 July 1847, 175; 2 Aug. 1847, 312–13, 315; 6 Sept. 1847, 328–29. Staag was divorced in 1839 for his adultery with ‘Lea, a free woman of Colour’: CAR, CSC 2/1/1/42, No. 12.

[76] NGKA, G1 1/24: 6 Sept. 1847, 332; 4 Oct. 1847, 364–65; 7 Feb. 1848, 433; G1 11/8, 11 Feb. 1848 (the mother not named).

[77] NGKA, G1 1/25: 1 July 1850, 215–16. Carelse was baptised on 5 July 1850, NGKA, G1 8/19.

[78] NGKA, G1 8/18A: 16 Oct. 1859; G1 1/27: 7 Nov. 1859, 472–73. Pieterse stated that custody was awarded by the magistrate of Malmesbury, north of Cape Town.

[79] See Fredrik Jacobus Baks and wife, NGKA, G1 1/24: 7 Feb. 1848, 432–33.

[80] Rosa Pieterse requested baptism of a child of her daughter (deceased), a Muslim, NGKA, G1 1/25: 7 June 1852, 505–06. A child of the Muslim woman, Zoente, was baptised when an NHK member produced a notarised Act of Adoption, G1 1/25: 7 June 1852, 504.

[81] The request was granted, NGKA, G1 1/24: 5 June 1848, 510.

[82] Fairbridge, Letters from the Cape, 114, 146–47, 153.

[83] Fairbridge, Letters from the Cape, 37.

[84] Mayson, The Malays of Cape Town, 15.

[85] For present-day cross-faith unions see Bangstad, ‘When Muslims Marry Non-Muslims’, 349–64.

[86] Pratt, ‘Anglican Church's Mission’, 75, citing Lightfoot.

[87] Shell, ‘Between Christ and Mohammed’, 273. Abu Bakr's wife has been called a ‘Muslim girl’: Ajam, ‘The Raison d’être of the Muslim Mission Primary School', 97; alternatively, she was ‘reputedly the daughter of an English woman and a Cape Muslim man’, Worden, van Heyningen and Bickford-Smith, Cape Town, 188. The Maker family appears to have been Christian: Suid-Afrikaanse Geslagregisters, vol. 5b, 400. For Christian-Muslim interactions under conditions peculiar to the Cape, see, e.g., Davids and Adhikari.

[88] ‘Mohamedanism in South Africa’, in Prowse, The Lure of Islam, ii.

[89] Lightfoot, in Gibson, Sketches of Church Work, 30. Assuming a ‘Malay’ pseudonym, Abdullah Ben Yusuf, the Anglican John M. Arnold strongly criticised Islam. For a critique of Arnold's deception, see Pratt, ‘Anglican Church's Mission, 107–12.

[90] Lightfoot, in Gibson, Sketches of Church Work, 34–42.

[91] Bank, Decline of Urban Slavery, 110, 119.

[92] Bickford-Smith, ‘Meanings of Freedom’, 289, 294; Meltzer, ‘Emancipation, Commerce’, 194; Bickford-Smith, Ethnic Pride and Racial Prejudice, 76.

[93] Bickford-Smith, ‘Meanings of Freedom’, 291, 307. For periodisation of the positive and negative stereotyping of ‘Malays', see Bickford-Smith, Ethnic Pride and Racial Prejudice, 69–70. For the malleability of identity, see Lewis, Between the Wire and the Wall, 4.

[94] For attitudes regarding marriage in other slave and post-emancipation societies, see: Nazzari, ‘Concubinage in Colonial Brazil’, 107–18; Altink, ‘To Wed or Not to Wed?’, 81–112.

[95] Burman and Naude, ‘Bearing a Bastard’, passim.

[96] Bangstad, ‘When Muslims Marry Non-Muslims’, 353. See, e.g., Hugo, ‘The Cape Vernacular’.

[97] Bickford-Smith, Ethnic Pride and Racial Prejudice, 67. The 1875 census identified 7,700 Capetonians as Malays, a group set apart from the 11,000 counted as ‘Mixed and Other’: ibid.

[98] Sinha, Colonial Masculinity, 14; Sinha, ‘Gender in the Critiques of Colonialism and Nationalism’, 480.