So the Prayer Call is a is a very special sound that is very
it it's very close to me in my heart and it helps me to to
to do a lot of things and to continue to get the motivation and energy to do things
and the morning Prayer Call is perhaps the most important one for me because it signifies not
just the start of a day but it signifies a relationship between man and The Creator
in a way where you are actually seeking a partnership in the morning with someone so
that partnership you know a day breaks a morning breaks and you know if it's early enough you
capture the special moment that special ingredient in the morning and when you hear the Prayer Call
it kind of reminds you that you were starting a morning with a partner that can actually make
everything perfect for you that day and uh it's something that uh i think uh is is very special
to to everyone in B-Kaap and a sound that uh you know I'll never never get bored of hearing
my name is Zaki Harris and we're in Bo-Kaap at the moment Cape Town South Africa
Well if somebody's never been here we normally just do a little bit of detail
you know not detail but a little bit of history that these people living here were kept together
because of apartheid and is still together, but this is a community who came here 350 years ago
as slaves brought by the Dutch
My name is Zainunissa Misbah everybody calls me Zainie for short, looks like a long name
Bo-Kaap has always been a diverse community in terms of the people that live here and you know
the colorful community for me actually extends to, to the people, it extends to the people and the way
that they uh they live with one another the relationships they have and it also the way
that they use the spatial environment within the community the way they visit the stores the
stores that they visit the neighbors that they visit the family that they visit and how they
use the communal spaces. Bo-Kaap doesn't have a lot of private spaces you know we're sitting
in one of very few private gardens uh communal gardens in Bo-Kaap that have a private space
This is the oldest garden um older than the public gardens in Adeleigh Street I think, it had the
masters well further up where we park our cars and down here was the slave well so there's a lot of
slaves running up and down here which we can't see but this is the story here, there's a slave well
and obviously where there's water that's where they started building across the road from here on
the other side there is the slate quarry you know the quarry that comes down there's like a piece
of land missing in some in Strand Street it runs up to here this point behind me so the stone that
you find these walls were built is the same stone from just across the road so stone is here and uh
the water was here so a lot of the Bo-Kaap buildings were built from this point you know people
come to the Bo-Kaap we don't have much we're not a drinking society so our social life evolves
around food Cape Malay food has been preserved for 350 years so we cook the same way it's never changed
and because of the time of the Dutch with a Spice Route and the whole thing was about spice
so yeah we bought we basically taught the Dutch to cook we taught
the British to cook with the spices they were in search of so yeah we're still there
The importance of stories in understanding a community or a group of people I think is is is
very important especially at a time like this everyone's got a lot of stories at the moment
but Bo-Kaap the storyline behind Bo-Kaap has always been or the history of Bo-Kaap or the narrative
call of that has always been embedded in people and and Bo-Kaap is a community of storytellers
and unless you're willing to listen to stories unless you find pleasure in in in in extracting
um you know knowledge and from stories uh you will not really find the true the true meaning
uh of of of what community uh is is in Bo-Kaap or what life is is like uh in a community like this
so stories connects us to the past but it also gives us a window into the future into how the
past can be used to to try and carve out a better a more sustainable a more inclusive future for
for ourselves within within communities so the human human connection and understanding
that community human connection I think best is done is done through stories
People come here they're coming here out of curiosity the color houses attracts them on their
social medias and everywhere so they come into the Bo-Kaap and we are very warm people we welcome you
but we also want you to also not be completely ignorant to our culture and also have respect for
our culture because our culture is our Religion as well so we want people to come and enjoy it
The Bo-Kaap is definitely the heart of Cape Town