Call to prayer: the sound of the adhan, heritage and shifting urban identity in Cape Town

Abstract

Architectural analyses of heritage and the city largely focus on the visual and physical properties of buildings and sites. Traces of intangible, sensuous heritage such as sounds, smells and community-lived experience are often left out. This article critiques this tradition by tuning into the sound of the adhan as broadcast from mosques in Bo-Kaap, a neighbourhood of Cape Town, South Africa, as a heritage indicator. The sound echoes a history of Islam as a suppressed minority faith in the colonial past and the Muslim struggle for belonging. Yet this notion has become contested with noise complaints made about the adhan in contemporary Cape Town. This has led to heated arguments about gentrification, heritage and religious freedom. We unpack what is at stake in this debate and, using a range of data, evaluate public perception of the heritage significance of the adhan and its social resonance as heritage in Cape Town. We develop an expanded concept of the haptic, as being affected, to interpret community acoustic disputes. We argue that a multisensory approach, emphasising sound, touch and feeling, enables a nuanced reading of the negotiation of religion, heritage, identity and belonging in Cape Town.