Cape Town - In an attempt to get families and loved ones involved in the upkeep of the final resting place of their deceased, the Mowbray Muslim Cemetery held a community clean-up event over the weekend.
The Mowbray Community Cemetery Day was initiated by the Mowbray Cemetery and supported by the Muslim Judicial Council (MJC), Biesmiellah at the Lounge, Things on Wheels, and Parker Surveys.
The clean-up initiative saw scores of people joining on Saturday and Sunday, carrying spades, grass trimmers, and bags and wheelbarrows filled with deciduous plants, leaves, and dirt to be discarded.
Muslim Cemetery Board chairperson and MJC burial administration secretary Faizal Sayed said the project aimed to redefine how people feel about cemeteries and to create a less macabre and morbid feeling around cemetery visits.
“Like any cemetery, we believe that the general state of all the graves are not where they are supposed to be,” Sayed said.
Due to its location on the mountain slopes, the cemetery faced maintenance and infrastructural challenges. During winters the grounds are muddy and wet, trees are damaged, and fast-growing grass cannot be cut.
Those who had come out could partake in ritual prayers (dhikr), with talks from Islamic scholars given. Vendors specialising in tombstone construction and flower sellers, as well as other organisations such as the Cape Mazaar Society, were present.
The effort was also in preparation for the cemetery’s surveying process, in which each grave will be individually surveyed.
“We want to invite the public back in and say be a part of these developments, preserve our heritage, know that your heritage lies here. Most people, or if not everybody that lives in the Cape, will have some family member buried here and in honour of those people and the preservation of that history, people need to get involved.”
MJC second-deputy president Shaykh Riad Fataar said people from different parts of the community came together to honour those who had passed on.
“This community of the Western Cape, this community of Cape Town, has come out and shared that responsibility with the Mowbray Maqbara in coming to clean graves. Taking care of those who have passed on.”