Bo-Kaap Museum

Welcome to the Bo-Kaap Museum attraction page - in addition to guides like this article we also list a great selection of hotels, B&B's, guesthouses and self-catering establishments. Please take a look at our Cape Town page if you're looking for Cape Town accommodation. The Bo-Kaap Museum at 71 Wale Street is maintained as a 1760s period house. All furnishings are typical of an 18th century Muslim home and the bedroom is decorated as a traditional bridal suite. The museum is in the oldest surviving town residence that belonged to Abu Bakr Effendi who hailed from turkey. He started a local arabic school and wrote one of the first books to be published in Afrikaans.

Also known as the Malay Quarter, Bo-Kaap is nestled at the foot of Signal Hill on central Cape Town's western perimeter. It feature steep, narrow streets, many of which are cobbled, densely built-up with distinct, brightly colored, single-story, flat-roofed houses and mosques which were originally built in the 19th century to serve the Cape Malay community.

Much of the Cape muslim community draws its roots from slaves brought in from Indonesia and other eastern countries. They were sought after for their skills as tradesman and their cooking skills. When slavery was abolished in the 1830s many of these slaves settled to the beautiful Bo-Kaap (meaning 'Upper Cape Town'). The Bo-Kaap remains a traditional, devout muslim society to this day that is highly integrated into Cape Town life.

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