During a walking tour through Cape Town’s historic Bo-Kaap, a gaggle of tourists rush for the watermelons.
The fruit, which is a symbol of Palestinian solidarity and resistance, is painted on the façade of a number of the neighbourhood’s colourful buildings, alongside images of olive trees, keffiyeh (traditional headdress) and Palestinian flags.
Many passers-by photograph these and other images of Palestinian solidarity keenly, others walk on briskly or simply ignore their presence.
The guide shepherding our group keeps needing to wait for participants to finish their photographs of a Palestinian mother cradling her baby, hands held out in prayer or the many painted pleas to “Free Gaza” or to “Free Palestine”.
These slogans refer to the longstanding and current deadly conflict between Israel and Gaza.
A community-based organisation called Murals for Gaza is behind the Bo-Kaap’s artistic awareness campaign. Founded by Obeidullah Gierdien, who works alongside his mother Ayesha Gierden, Murals for Gaza has facilitated the painting of over 70 such murals in the Bo-Kaap included in the approximately 250 murals painted in solidarity with Palestine across the Western Cape.
Gierdien, a registered nurse, and his mother, speak to film-maker Yazeed Kamaldien about the origins of the project in a documentary currently on YouTube titled, ‘Palestine: Paint, Politics and Protest in Cape Town’.
“It’s actually Obeid’s story. He’s the one who came home from visiting Wale Street and telling me: Mom, there’s a genocide happening and yet there is nothing in the Bo-Kaap to show that something is happening in Palestine. I told him: So what do we do? I thought he wanted me to put up a flag. And then he said: No mummy, no flags. I want to paint,” says Ayesha in the documentary.
According to Obeidullah, the Bo-Kaap is a prime spot for artistic expressions of solidarity.
“The Bo-Kaap serves as a very good picture background. It’s very well-known and there are certain spots that are better known and we target those spots,” he says in Kamaldien’s documentary .
“When we paint murals, it serves as a double-edged sword, because we are spreading awareness and when we provoke the city, it actually ignited the fact that they are trying to cage us in our own homes,” he says in the documentary that expands on some of the issues Murals for Gaza has had with law enforcement and the local government.
“We’ve liberated the Bo-Kaap and actually woken up [to the fact] that we are a community of resistance and with the power and with the space, the strategic space that we are placed at, we can make a big difference.”
The first Murals for Gaza mural, a Palestinian flag, was painted at the Bo-Kaap’s Rose Corner Superette on 14 October 2023. Though many of the murals are striking, an artwork that can be seen for miles is titled ‘Signal’. It depicts a large Palestinian flag painted across the entirety of an apartment block.
“She watches over all the murals that we make. She is our pride and joy, as well as our emblem. She represents everything that Murals for Gaza stands for. Bright and out there. And from every corner, every angle and every post, if you’re coming to the Bo-Kaap, you can’t miss her,” he says.
“It’s a big statement.”
“Flags tatter in the wind and we can only march for so many hours, but a mural is here to stay.”
– martha@namibian.com.na; Martha Mukaiwa on Twitter and Instagram; marthamukaiwa.com
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