Page 148 - Bulletin 17 2013

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The mosque was and is the centre of the Muslim community, not only as a place of worship but

as a place of community where people gather for meetings, bereavements and celebrations. In
those early years the whole community of Die Dam was closer than it is now. Anglican and

Muslim children went to the Klipskool together and Muslim children, accompanied by the Imam,
sang Easter hymns at Holy Trinity. On the death of a Muslim it was common for non-Muslim

members of the community to show their respects by going to the mosque.

“They did everything together. You had Muslim functions: when anybody died,

you had these prayer meetings and that, and half of your place was full of
Christians – and vice versa. And when you had something on at the masjid, you

used to get these people, when it’s funerals, the Kalk Bay’s Christians are all

behind the funerals and vice versa. And that is the type of relationship we had in
Kalk Bay with all the different faiths that were here: Catholics and Anglicans”.

Interestingly too, to this day at religious celebrations at the mosque chanting is in Arabic and

Javanese. None of this is written down and it is passed on orally from generation to generation. It
is unique to the Kalk Bay mosque and is a strong link with the ancestors of those hardy

fishermen.

All say it was a special place. A sense of community, it was safe, with many children running

free in the streets. Living conditions could be overcrowded but this was more a result of a lack of
housing than anything else. Men went to sea until they were in their 70s while their wives

worked hard to clean, feed and clothe their children. People of all races and creeds lived cheek

by jowl but the overwhelming impression is that although they didn’t have much, they were
happy.

Their food came almost exclusively from the sea – fish, chokka, perlemoen. When the boats

could not go out the children were sent down to the rocks for shellfish to supplement the diet.

Virtually no meat was eaten by the Muslims as the butcheries Kalk Bay were never halaal.