Insight: Heritage

Bo-Kaap losing its spice

Many residents fear that gentrification of the historic neighbourhood is destroying their heritage and have embarked on protests to save their sanctuary

01 July 2018 - 00:00
By JONATHAN ANCER

You can smell Abdul Wahab Ahmed from a block away. He smells of turmeric, cumin, chilli and maybe a pinch of red gold - also known as saffron. Ahmed, 69, is a third-generation South African and director of Atlas Trading, known to anyone in the Cape who knows their spices. Ahmed's grandfather, Cassiem, a merchant from India, settled in the Bo-Kaap in 1890.

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