How Cape Town’s Creative Community is Championing the City’s Cape Malay Heritage

To experience the heartbeat of Cape Town’s creative scene, head over to the Pot Plant Club, a vibrant social hub nestled among Victorian houses on trendy Bree Street. Co-founded by Salik Harris in 2022, this boutique not only serves as a retail space but also as a gathering spot for locals to connect over coffee while browsing through racks of oversized jackets and denim.

At the Pot Plant Club, you’ll find a curated collection of emerging brands, including Asa Sadan, The Paint Company, and Yarns Worldwide, alongside Harris’s own streetwear brand, Leaf Apparel. Each of these brands is a product of Cape Malay talent, reflecting the rich cultural tapestry that this community has woven into Cape Town’s fabric. “I’ve always found Cape Malay people to be incredibly creative,” says Harris. “We resonate with both black and white communities. We occupy a unique space amid all the chaos.”

The term “Cape Malay” itself can be misleading, as it encompasses a complex identity formed through centuries of intermingling among Indonesian and Malaysian exiles, Africans, Europeans, Indians, and Arabs at the southern tip of the African continent.

As artist Thania Petersen explains, “The term Cape Malay describes a Creole community, a community that is completely mixed. We don’t exist anywhere else in the world.” Petersen channels her heritage through various mediums, including photography, painting, textiles, and performance art.

For most visitors, encounters with Cape Malay culture often begin and end in Bo-Kaap, a colorful neighborhood of vibrantly painted houses and historic mosques on the slopes of Signal Hill. Here, tour buses routinely stop at Wale Street, allowing passengers to snap quick selfies and taste local delights like koeksisters—sweet pastries soaked in syrup and dusted with coconut. However, the far-reaching influence of the Cape Malay community in South Africa often goes unnoticed by tourists.

While the Pot Plant Club’s streetwear brands reflect Cape Town’s contemporary style, they are deeply rooted in the city’s historical context. For generations, Cape Malays have played a pivotal role in the textile industry as tailors and factory workers, despite not owning the businesses themselves. “We never saw people like us in this space,” says designer Imran Mohamed, who is based in Woodstock, a creative hotspot. “I wanted to portray our people in a luxury fashion context.”

In 2021, Mohamed launched Asa Sadan, a high-end streetwear label inspired by his Cape Malay heritage and named after his grandmother. His work gained international recognition, featuring in the Africa Fashion exhibition at London’s Victoria and Albert Museum.

Across Cape Town, a new wave of creatives is exploring their multifaceted identities through various forms of expression—be it fashion, art, cuisine, film, or music. In a humble industrial setting in Salt River, chef Anwar Abdullatief artfully reinterprets Cape Malay classics in an exquisite eight-course tasting menu at The Happy Uncles, Cape Town’s first halal fine-dining restaurant.

Filmmaker Amy Jephta has garnered global acclaim for her 2020 Afrikaans comedy, Barakat, which tells the story of a family gathering for Eid. Meanwhile, South Africa’s renowned rapper YoungstaCPT often incorporates Cape Malay elements into his music, frequently wearing a fez in his videos. “His lyrics aim to reposition Cape Malay culture within the broader context of South Africa,” explains visual artist Imraan Christian, who has worked with YoungstaCPT on provocative music videos.

Cape Malays have achieved notable acclaim for their contributions to art, both locally and internationally. “The rest of the world is beginning to understand that African art is not solely about traditional masks,” remarks Igshaan Adams at his studio in Cape Town’s esteemed Zeitz MOCAA museum. His installation, Salat Aljamaeat Min Bonteheuwel, which features prayer mats from his hometown in the Bonteheuwel township, was a standout piece at last year’s inaugural Islamic Arts Biennale in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia.

Just above the Zeitz MOCAA at the Silo Hotel, lift doors open to reveal a captivating photographic collage of Thania Petersen, swathed in a striking red dress as she embodies the Indonesian dance of a thousand hands. Her work invites viewers to pause and reflect on heritage while seamlessly bridging the past and present.

“I aimed to learn this dance as a way to reconnect with our history, to face our past both literally and physically,” she shares. Yet, Petersen’s work speaks volumes about contemporary Cape Malay culture: “You cannot come to Cape Town and not smell us, see us, taste us. We are deeply embedded in the DNA of what Cape Town is today.”

Through their innovative approaches to art, fashion, and cuisine, Cape Town’s creative community is not just celebrating their Cape Malay heritage; they are ensuring it thrives in the modern cultural landscape.