Map of Cape Town from above, Bo-Kaap: The Enslaved People Who Built the Wine and Created the Cuisine marked with a wine glass

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Bo-Kaap: The Enslaved People Who Built the Wine and Created the Cuisine

Bo-Kaap's Cape Malay cuisine emerged from enslaved East Indian women who adapted their heritage recipes in Dutch households from the 1760s onward.

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EducationBo-Kaap: The Enslaved People Who Built the Wine and Created the CuisineBetween 1658 and 1795, 60,000 people from Indonesia, Malaysia, Madagascar, India, and Mozambique were enslaved at the Cape. They built the wine industry with their hands -- one enslaved person added 16.6% more wine output per capita (peer-reviewed Stellenbosch research). They also created the cuisine that defines Cape wine pairing: bobotie, bredie, sosaties, all born from spices they brought from Batavia. The colourful houses of Bo-Kaap climb Signal Hill, painted bright after 1994. The Auwal Mosque (1794) was built by Tuan Guru, who spent 13 years on Robben Island and wrote the Quran from memory.

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