Eid-ul-Fitr 1427, Rylands, Cape Town
Islam’s month of Ramadaan came to a close yesterday in Cape Town - there was some debate about whether it should have been the day before, but the new moon wasn’t sighted, so the fasting continued - and, as always on the eve of Eid for the past two decades, a school parking lot in the Cape Flats suburb of Rylands came curiously to life.
Scores of molehill-sized piles of sand were shaped on the tarmac; firewood was stacked into neat cords around the perimeter; crates of rice, potatoes, mutton chops, buttermilk, cilantro and spices were arranged in groups under a big tent; and a dozen 5-foot-high black plastic garbage bins labelled “Drinking Water” were wheeled in. This was Nakhlistan, one of the city’s biggest single-day philanthropic efforts.
“Nakhlistan” means “oasis” in Persian; the parking lot became an oasis of heat in the cool, breezy night after prayers and a few words by Western Cape Premier Ebrahim Rasool. Cooking fires were lit under 125 gigantic pots set up in long rows, and men with wooden paddles began to roam the lanes. Each pot, 100 liters in volume, would eventually provide food - a rich, delicious stew called akhni - to over 350 people.
Premier Rasool & Nakhlistan Organizers
The idea, said the Premier, was to ensure that everyone could share in the joy of Eid, when Muslims break their Ramadaan fast. The food is taken to homes, prisions, mosques and schools - to 45 000 destitute and marginalized people in all, spread out inside a geographical triangle formed by the city, Worcester and Atlantis. Rasool made it a point to mention, in the context of the negative perceptions of Islam that prevail in the world today, that the initiative was “the work of ordinary Muslims. This is what Islam is,” he said. “It’s about preferring others above ourselves.”
The cooking finished well after 1 am. The heavy pots were loaded into cars and trucks after daybreak, taken to their designated “dishing out” points, reheated until steaming, and uncovered - with no small fanfare, one imagines - to coincide with the Eid celebrations taking place across the Cape today.
