Adli Yacubi

Tag: Cape Muslim heritage

  • Camissa: The River That Remembers Us

    Camissa: The River That Remembers Us

    Before streets and buildings, there was water. From Table Mountain, the Camissa River carried sweet waters that gathered peoples — Khoi, San, slaves, exiles — into a wider circle of becoming. Though buried under the city today, Camissa still flows, whispering memory beneath our feet.

  • In Our Veins, In Our Graves: Mawlud and Memory

    In Our Veins, In Our Graves: Mawlud and Memory

    This reflection flows from my Radio 786 series with Gadija Ahjum — Rooted Light, Series 2. In the month of Rabiʿ al-Awwal and Heritage Month, I write of Mawlud as memory in our veins and in our graves: sandalwood tasbihs from Makkah, rampies leaves cut by children, the riwāyah of Barzanji, and the moment we…

  • Before Three Sisters: A Road Interrupted, A Heart Opened

    Before Three Sisters: A Road Interrupted, A Heart Opened

    “Some roads answer us back. Even in silence. Even before Three Sisters.” Before we reached the landmark called Three Sisters, something else shifted — a pickup turned into a homecoming, and memory took the wheel. This is a story of roads interrupted, hearts opened, and how a boat hitched behind us became a vessel for…

  • The Boy Who Waved Back: Remembering Riefaat Hattas of Manenberg

    The Boy Who Waved Back: Remembering Riefaat Hattas of Manenberg

    He was the boy who waved from the embassy window, the brother who made us laugh at rallies, the servant who built bridges inside City Hall as he once did on the streets. Riefaat Hattas carried the scars of struggle — but also the joy of belonging, the courage of standing out for justice, and…

  • The Forgotten Tongue of Remembrance

    The Forgotten Tongue of Remembrance

    A rare Cape relic — the Ratib al-Haddad handwritten in Arabic script, with Afrikaans transliteration in the same sacred calligraphy. A language of remembrance once shaped in the shadows now returns as a light for generations.

  • The Ratib al-Haddad: A Symphony of Spiritual Resilience

    The Ratib al-Haddad: A Symphony of Spiritual Resilience

    Discover the Ratib al-Haddad’s movements, history, and meaning, from slavery to anti-apartheid resistance in the Cape, told as a spiritual symphony.