Muslim Influence on South Africa

Muslim influence on SA includes a Muslim woman who marched with others against Apartheid in 1956, an event commemorated on Woman’s Day, August 9. Here are more influences:

  • Indian Delights, an internationally-renowned recipe book edited by a Muslim lady Mrs Zuleikha Mayat and published in 1962. 750,000 copies of the book have been sold with orders from places like Australia, America, England and Canada.
  • Indian cooking grew so popular that Zulus in Natal adopted curries as their own. Curries, atjars, samoosas, biryanis and now tandoori cooking and chicken tikka are all part of SA cooking thanks to Indians including Muslims.
  • Muslim Malays brought bredie (like a stew), bobotie (an improvement on shepherd’s pie), sosaties and their curries.