Abubaker Dawood
Abubaker Dawood was born in 1955 at 59 Protea Road, cnr. of Mark and Protea Road Claremont. The house was attached to the shop that his parents built after WWII. Abubaker’s father was born in 1900 in a village in India called Khordha, close to Chiplun. In India, their surname was Roomaney. He arrived in Cape Town with his first wife but she died soon thereafter, their five children were still in India. Abubaker’s father married Marriam Basadien from Draper Street Claremont and they had eight children: Abdulatief (deceased), Sakina, Zulagha, Ghironisa, Hamida, Amina, Abubaker and Zaida. The two sons from India came to live with the family in Cape Town and over the years about eighteen cousins joined them. Abubaker’s father would help new arrivals from India open stores and secure credit with suppliers.
Abubaker’s parents and his oldest sister went to hajj in 1956. They left in 1955 by boat with all the children and detoured to India, they left the younger children in the care of family in India. They returned 18 months later to collect the children, Abubaker was six months old. Abubaker visited the village in India twice after, once with his father.
Abubaker attended Newlands Primary from Sub A to Std 2, which was located up Kildare Road. The apartheid government closed down the school, so Abubaker was transferred to Stephen Reagan Primary from Std 3, this school was located down Protea Road, the principal was Mr Hammer. When Abubaker was in Std 5, just 3 months before the end of the year, the apartheid government closed this school as well. Abubaker was transferred to Portia Primary in Groenvlei for the last term of his primary school years. He had to walk from Protea Road to the terminus and then take a double decker bus to Lansdowne.
Abubaker was enrolled in Livingstone High, three months later. All the Dawood siblings attended Livingstone. Abubaker’s friends lived in lower Claremont, die vlak, Salie Kenny and the Yaghya’s (Arape). Abubaker’s uncle, Shuaib Basadien (Boeta Sahippie) lived the cnr. of Princess street and York Road. Abubaker was expelled in Std 9 due to political involvement. There were politically aware teachers at Livingstone High such as Mr Dudley and Mrs Newman. They taught history from the textbook and the real unbiased truth. There was no school in Cape Town who would enrol Abubaker, so he had to finish his schooling in JHB.
The Dawood home was very close to the Newlands Cricket ground, they could play on the field and watch the cricket games but never play for a white team. There was a swimming pool across the road and Abubaker and his friends would go swim there late at night after 10:00, if they were caught, they would be locked up. The Vineyard hotel was a cheap hotel with a dirty pool that was recommended to white sales reps from JHB. The Grove primary school was a zinc and wood structure for the poorer white children in the area. There were two bioscopes in Claremont, the Orpheum for the non-whites and the Scala for whites. Abubaker was fair skinned so he would go to the Scala and Newlands swimming pool with his white friends.
The Dawood shop was in Protea Road and they did home deliveries, so they had customers living in upper Claremont, Newlands and Kirstenbosch. Some of the customers were magistrates and judges. There were strange laws in place, you could not sell medicine, paraffin and soap after sunset and any African hired help should not be working after sunset. If shop owners were caught, they were fined. The police were corrupt, they wanted shopkeepers to pay them off with cigarettes so they wouldn’t be fined. But if you paid them once, they would be back every day. Abubaker accompanied his mother to court one day due to a “sunset” fine. The magistrate recognised her and cancelled the fine, this happened frequently.
When Abubaker’s eldest sister, Sakina got married, her reception was in the Claremont Civic at the time the use of the civic was reserved for whites. Mrs Stott the councillor got special permission for the Dawood’s to hire the hall. Mrs Stott was captured in a photo at Imam Haron’s funeral that was posted in the Muslim Views. Imam Haron was a friend of the Dawood family, the Imam worked for Roundtree and frequently visited the shop. The Dawood family attended Stegman Road mosque although Claremont Main Road mosque was closer to their home. At the time, the Abderoufs were the Imams at the Claremont Main Road Mosque, Abubaker remembers the Abderouf’s coming around to collect funds for the maintenance of the mosque. Abubaker attended the madrassah at Stegman Road and was taught by Imam Sep Ebrahim Davids and his brother Boeta Saleem. Both these brothers knew Abubaker’s mother well, they all grew up in Draper Street.
In Claremont most families had nicknames: the Kameele, the katjies, Maila “rot” Behardien and Abubaker’s maternal family was die Haane,
There were three families who remained in the surrounds and survived apartheid, Dawood, Jaffer and Lalu. Abubaker’s brother, Abdulatief Dawood remained in the family house until his death, his wife still resided in the house with her daughter. Mrs Jaffer and her son, a teacher at Rylands high still lives in their house. The Lalu family still live in Frederick Road. Mariam Basadien Dawood died in 2001 at the age of 87. She had a great memory for names, nicknames and street names.
Most of the houses in the surrounds was owned by the occupants and was in good condition and is currently in its original state, only high walls added. The owners did not want to sell their homes. The government had agents/spies within the community who told homeowners that if they didn’t sell now, then later the government would claim their homes with no compensation. The same tactic was used in the case of Imam Haron, the government used spies within the community. Abubaker remembers being in Stegman Road mosque with his father on Moulood night. They sat from magrieb to eshaai waiting for the Imam to arrive. Eventually Imam Sep Davids announced that Imam Haron had been detained by the government.
Mariam Basadien Dawood kept her Malay ID so that she could buy property in areas her husband was not allowed to. She owned properties in Frederick Road and plots in Denver and O’Kiep Roads in Lansdowne. She lost the properties in Lansdowne due to the forced removals and was paid peanuts for them.
Abubaker returned to Cape Town after he matriculated, he worked in the family shop. Abubaker’s sister got married and moved to JHB, so at 21, he left to live with his sister and work in JHB. In Claremont, everyone was cricket and rugby crazy, Abubaker played amateur cricket in Cape Town. In JHB, he played cricket for Transvaal against players like Baby Damon, he was an open bowler. Abubaker got married in JHB and only returned to Cape Town in 1994. In JHB Abubaker worked for Liberty Life and when he returned to Cape Town, he worked for Old Mutual for three years before he opened his own business. He sold his business a few years ago to retire but now works for a steel company. Abubaker currently resides in Athlone.
