The Muslim cemetery Tana Baru (meaning 'New Ground'), where some of the earliest and most respected Muslim settlers of South Africa were buried, was closed in terms of the Public Health Act No. 4 of 1883.
Following the granting of religious freedom to Muslims in 1804, the Batavian government granted the first piece of land for a Muslim cemetery - Tana Baru - to Frans van Bengalen on October 02, 1805.
Despite its closure, the Tana Baru, situated in the Bo-Kaap (Malay Quarter), has always been regarded as the most hallowed of Muslim cemeteries in Cape Town. Three prominent early Cape Muslim Imams, namely Tuan Nuruman, Tuan Sayeed Alawse and Tuan Guru lie buried on the Tana Baru grounds and shrines have been erected to honour them.
eventREF E-0011107Revised
15 January 1886
The historic Tana Baru Muslim cemetery is forced to close
- Updated
- 13 Jan 2021
Tana Baru, 2014
How we know this
- 01SAHO Tana Baru Cemetery Uprising [online] Available at: www.sahistory.org.za [Accessed on 3 December 2013]
- 02Tana Baru HISTORY OF THE TANA BARU AT A GLANCE [online] Available at: www.tanabaru.co.za [Accessed on 3 January 2013]
Last updated · 13 Jan 2021
South African History Online. (2011, March 16). The historic Tana Baru Muslim cemetery is forced to close. South African History Online. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011107
South African History Online (2011) 'The historic Tana Baru Muslim cemetery is forced to close', South African History Online, 16 March. Available at: https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011107 (Accessed: 26 October 2026).
South African History Online, The historic Tana Baru Muslim cemetery is forced to close [website], https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011107, (accessed 26 October 2026).
"The historic Tana Baru Muslim cemetery is forced to close." South African History Online, 16 Mar. 2011, https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011107. Accessed 26 Oct. 2026.
South African History Online. "The historic Tana Baru Muslim cemetery is forced to close." South African History Online. March 16, 2011. https://sahistory.org.za/ref/E-0011107.
Also on 15 January
- 1813Judges of the Black Circuit return to the Cape
- 1834Sir John Herschel, British astronomer, arrives in Cape Town
- 1876Die Patriot is published in Paarl
- 1929Martin Luther King, Junior, is born
- 1966Prime Minister Sir Abubakar Tafawa Balewa is killed in Nigeria’s first military coup
- 1996King Moshoeshoe II, the paramount chief of Lesotho, is killed in an accident
- 1999David Malebane, a student at the Tompi Seleka Agricultural College in the Limpopo, shoots three lecturers before shooting himself
- 2003Ignatius Iggy Mthebule remembered
Further reading
Article
Apartheid Legislation 1850's-1970's
1856-1910
Masters and Servants Acts of 1856
These Acts, which had been passed between 1856 and 1904 in the four...
Place
Orlando Stadium
This was the site of the first stadium in Soweto, officially opened in 1959. For almost 50 years this was a famous home....
Place
YMCA-Cape Town and later Athlone, as well
Formerly called: 'Young Men's Christian Association'. This is a welfare movement with branches all over the World, that....
Place
John Vorster Square Police Station or Johannesburg Central Police Station
John Vorster Square Police Station, was officially opened on the 23 August 1968 by John Vorster, the then prime...
Place
Kroonstad
It's name being symbolic of royalty (“Kroon” is Dutch for crown), Kroonstad has very humble beginnings.
Search events by date
This day in history
What happened on your birthday?
SAHO is free because readers fund it. Donate →
Contribute to this record0 comments
Comments are reader contributions. They are not part of the archival record.