As the VOC entrenched its power in Asia, the Cape became useful as a place of exile for political prisoners, unco-operative royalty and opponents of its expansion. That was in 1652, when it established a refreshment station here to supply trading ships with fresh water and food on the long journey to the colony in Batavia, now the Indonesian city of Jakarta.īut their colony proved more than simply a safe harbour. Although semi-nomadic tribes had long moved through the region, the Dutch East India Company (VOC) was only just pitching the first permanent settlement at the Cape of Good Hope. The southern tip of Africa was a wild and untamed landscape. And yet it beckons visitors in to discover one of the unsung stories in the Cape’s cultural history.īut first, let’s wind the clock back to the mid-1600s.
Here, in this affluent suburb, the sight of a crescent moon rising above vineyards and oak forests is more than a little unusual. “Salaam aleikum,” comes the caretaker’s greeting as I step through the archway at Islam Hill, one of the many kramats that create a "circle of saints" around South Africa’s Mother City. Look carefully and you’ll see waterfalls tumbling down the precipitous slopes that tower above the city. As the colder months take hold in the city of Cape Town, the crystalline light throws Table Mountain into sharp perspective. It’s a bright sunny day in early winter, and the historic vineyards of Constantia have shed their leaves.
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