Last Saturday about 2 000 people gathered at sundown on Bo-Kaap’s Wale and Rose streets for iftar, also known as boeka time, when Muslims dine after a day of fasting during the holy month of Ramadaan.
Shafwaan Laubscher, a member of the Bo-Kaap Collective, arranged the street fast-breaking dinner, known as Boeka Innie Bo-Kaap.
“We usually have this on the 15th night but that falls in midweek and we had requests to host it on a Saturday instead of a Friday, and as we can see from the turn out it’s working. I think on a Friday people have to rush from work but on a Saturday there is more time to prepare for this boeka,” Mr Laubscher said.
“There’s a mixture of people from all over the city and not just Cape Town, and this is what we want, for their to be a cosmopolitan mix of people who get to know more about Ramadaan so we are pleased with this turnout,” he said.
The Bo-Kaap collective roped in Dr Allan Boesak, Sheikh Ebrahim Gabriels from Mitchell’s Plain as well as Palestinian citizen journalist Mansour Shouman.
“I was asked to report about what is happening in Palestine in English. So I am doing that, telling the stories of Palestinians that are there. Historically Palestine and Jerusalem was a place of peace for Jews, Christians and Muslims, it’s when the Zionism project came in that we could see genocide happening,” Mr Shouman said.
“It is your time to be careful in Bo-Kaap, be careful of the gentrification, they are going to try and divide you, stay strong with your religion, listen to your imams and with the upcoming elections be very careful. They are targeting South Africa and the world needs South Africa, Palestine needs South Africa, Gaza needs South Africa,” he said.
Mayor Geordin-Hill Lewis was also at the boeka and Sheigh Gabriels stated that they were waiting for the local government to condemn the conflict in Gaza.
“Our local government in Cape Town has never condemned the genocide. We are still waiting for them to condemn it, because if they don’t condemn the killing of children and 30 000 people, then they are complicit.”
Dr Boesak also questioned political parties, specifically Gayton McKenzie, the leader of the Patriotic Alliance as well as John Steenhuisen on their stance against Palestine.
“How can you even think that you can build a liberation on the blood of children? How do you think that you can even think of building security on the blood of children? How do you think that you can build a future on the blood of children? But we are here to say to those politicians, on May 29, we will make sure you will have nowhere to go because the people will have taken over the people’s house,” Dr Boesak said.
