Salaam'sCAPE TOWNPlan your trip

In the circle of the tradition · Signal Hill

Tuan Kaape-ti-low

Also remembered as Jawhi Tuan

Remembered as a general from Java in Shaykh Yusuf's army, exiled to the Cape with him.

Signal HillNational heritage site

Signal Hill rising behind waterfront buildings and moored boats.
Signal Hill from the harbour Photograph: Matti Blume

Further along Signal Hill Road, set back from the road and out of sight of it, lies the shrine of Tuan Kaape-ti-low. It is a simple rectangular building with a crescent and star on one wall, and inside, a grave built up in brick.

Tradition holds that he was a general from Java in the army of Shaykh Yusuf, and that he was exiled to the Cape with him. The Society's history notes that this cannot be confirmed from the official records. In the community he is also called Jawhi Tuan.

In the 1930s the shrine stood behind a pond, some distance from the path. The pond was lost when the area was fenced in as a military camp during the Second World War.

Pines over a low stone wall on Signal Hill, photographed for the Society’s guide.
Among the pines on Signal Hill Photograph: the Cape Mazaar (Kramat) Society guide

Sources: Guide to the Kramats of the Western Cape, Cape Mazaar (Kramat) Society (1996; third impression 2010); Government Gazette 45602, 3 December 2021: SAHRA declaration of ten kramats.