Return to Lenasia

Upon my return to Ameera’s Fashions, Fatima recognized me immediately and greeted me warmly and introduced me to her brother, who worked there as well. She kindly exchanged the dress and the male shop attendants loaded me down with more Turkish candy after the exchange. When I asked if I could take photos of them and their shop, the men all agreed but Fatima declined to let me take her picture. I asked a young boy who was with his mother in the store if I could take his picture but he also refused. His mother, a completely veiled woman, however, struck up a conversation with me. She asked me “Do you believe in The Prophet,” to which I responded that I did. She then asked me “Do you believe that The Prophet Mohammad is the Messenger of God.” To this enquirery I said, “I believed that Abraham, Moses, Christ and Mohammad are all Messengers of God. To this she interjected the statement, “Yes, Christ was a Messenger, but not the Son of God.” To which I responded by saying, “God knows His Messengers better than I, and it is not my place to judge God’s Messengers.” My answers may not have been what she expected but it was a response that she could not debate. As our conversation concluded, she wished me “As salaamu alaykum” (Peace be with you); and I answered her saying, “And with you as well, sister.” She paused, perhaps surprised at the fact that I had understood her Arabic - or at the fact that I had called her sister. As I departed the shop, I once again had a good feeling about the people I had encountered.

Arriving again at Muslim Sound and Vision, I was recognized immediately by everyone who worked in the store, not only by Hassan and McDonald who I had met earlier, but also by Saeed, Sumayya and another Fatima who worked there. I asked if I could take their pictures and all of them obligingly collected for me to photograph them. This time Hassan reminded me of his earlier invitation to tour the recording studio up stairs, to which I agreed. After climbing the outside entrance to the studio, he introduced me to a young man named Muhammed who offered to give me a tour while Hassan returned to the shop. Very shortly I realized that I was in the midst of no small recording studio; I was being given a tour of the largest English speaking Muslim radio station in Africa, CII Broadcasting. I asked if I could take pictures and Muhammed, who I learned was the Head of the Middle East Desk, encouraged me to do so. I was introduced to their staff of three reporters, Hammed, Ismail and Liaaquat and to Alameen, the head of their newsroom. I’m sure my look of surprise was obvious in meeting Alameen, he was blond with light freckled skin and looked considerably more European than I. Everyone welcomed me warmly and asked if I had any questions, of which I had many. Muhammed also introduced me to their receptionist, Yasmeen, who although completely veiled, I’m sure is a very striking young women. When I asked if I could take her picture, she said laughingly, “Sure, but you won’t see anything.” I responded by saying, “Your eyes tell a great deal about you.” As I became more comfortable, Muhammed asked me if I would join him as he ran a couple of errands and I agreed.

We walked to his car and drove to a private home where he dropped off some discs, which needed to have copies made. He then invited me to have lunch with him and we drove to a new and quite modern shopping mall that was still under partial construction. On the way, he told me about the history of Lenasia. When I asked him why the Muslim community had settled here, he smiled and said, “During apartheid, most of the Muslims were moved out of Johannesburg.” Until that moment, I had really only viewed apartheid as being something that was imposed upon the Black and South Asian populations of South Africa. I guess that is because I had not heard much about the Middle Eastern population of South Africa at that time. He also told me that there were many black Christian churches in Lenasia, as well as a Buddhist and a Hindu temple. “There are no Catholic churches, however,” he added. Muhammed then asked me, “Where I was from in the U.S.” and “What had brought you to South Africa?” Again, I answered with caution, not announcing that I was a Bahá’í­ pioneer. He then told me that he was going to the U.S. to attend seminary in Hartford, Connecticut, to which I responded, “I didn’t know there was a Muslim seminary in Hartford.” He looked at me with a smile and indicated, “It isn’t a Muslim seminary, it’s Christian!” When I asked him why a devout Muslim was attending a Christian seminary, he said, “This is 2007, we all have to learn to live together.” As we ate lunch, he told me that he was quite active in the interfaith movement and that he dialoged regularly with Jews, Christians and Hindus. I then asked him about his feeling toward the small but growing Bahá’í­ population of South Africa, he said, with a confused look, “Bahá’í­, what’s that?” I then began to tell him about the principles of the Faith and he listed intently. He then asked questions about the Faith’s origins and activity level of the Bahá’í­ on the world scene and in South Africa. After a time he realized that my understanding of this Faith was considerably greater than a passing interest and asked me, “Are you a Bahá’í­?” I told him I was and that the Faith was the reason that my wife and I had given up our lives in the U.S. and moved to South Africa. After further conversation, he then told me that he would like me to meet his wife and two sons, and I told him that I would like to have him meet Sherri as well. After informing me that he was in Johannesburg regularly, I suggested that we might be able to have lunch together again soon, this time on me, and that I would contact him after I returned from a trip I was making to the U.S.

As we finished lunch and returned to the radio station, I couldn’t help but wonder why God had led me to this community and to the people, particularly Muhammed, who I had met. Perhaps this was one more gift I was being given, one more expansion of my capacities, one more opportunity to look into other faces of others, who I initially saw as different and find the face of a brother or sister. Just as I had, so many months earlier when I had first visited a Black township, I was coming away with a feeling of profound gratitude and a sense of embarrassment in the fact that I had again not expected the best and in reality discovered much greater.

As I conclude this portion of the blog, my next task will be to e-mail Muhammed and to tell him that I’m back in South Africa and suggest that we have a meal together soon. I also wonder how many other great surprises await me here and how I wish that so many of these wonderful gifts would have occurred earlier in my life so that I could have made better use of them over the years.

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