Abstract
This chapter is a close reading of public engagement over Muslim shrines (kramats) at Oudekraal outside Cape Town. These shrines are situated along a breathtaking drive on the Atlantic Seaboard of Cape Town, between the upmarket suburbs of Camps Bay and Llandudno. Between 1996 and 2007, the kramats were the subject of a legal battle and public debate between the state, the owner of the ground on which the kramat are founded, and various Muslim and environmental activists. In the post-apartheid public sphere the kramats were recon?gured as heritage sites located in environmentally sensitive areas. At the same time, it was also clear that the kramats revealed a Muslim public that extended beyond the boundaries and concerns of the national public sphere. This Muslim public was the product of intense contestation and diverse appropriation by various Muslim groups. This chapter argues that a Muslim public was invariably refracted through multiple engagements: with the state, among competing theological groups, and through religious activities and agencies that used symbols such as the kramat to create individual and social meaning.
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© 2010 Abdulkader Tayob
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Tayob, A. (2010). Muslim Shrines in Cape Town: Religion and Post-Apartheid Public Spheres. In: Bompani, B., Frahm-Arp, M. (eds) Development and Politics from Below. Non-Governmental Public Action. Palgrave Macmillan, London. https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230283206_4
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DOI: https://doi.org/10.1057/9780230283206_4
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