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View all search resultsIndonesia’s imprint on Cape Town history comes to light
A Jakarta exhibition traces more than three centuries of shared history, from Indonesian exiles and enslaved people who helped shape the South African city to the spread of Islam and the legacy of influential Muslim scholars.
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Fragments of belonging: A visitor views There Was Something Here Before, an exhibition documenting Cape Town’s history through photographs, archival materials and artworks, on Oct. 8, 2026, at Erasmus Huis in South Jakarta. (JP/Nur Janti)
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hotographs of Cape Town, a coastal city in South Africa, feature in There Was Something Here Before, an interactive multimedia exhibition by Zahira Asmal at Erasmus Huis in South Jakarta. Opened in early October, the exhibition explores historical connections between Cape Town and Indonesia spanning more than three centuries.
One photograph shows Saunders Rock, a seaside area once reserved exclusively for white people. It opened to all racial groups only in the late 1980s, following repeated protests by anti-apartheid activists.
In a note beside the photograph, Asmal, an urbanist and director of The City, an independent research, publishing and place-making agency founded in 2010, writes that the series captures a public space whose accessibility was hard-won. It also shows how apartheid-era urban planning continues to shape Cape Town.
Alongside the photographs, the exhibition features archival materials, sound and art documenting the city’s history and the communities that have shaped it, reflecting the exhibition’s title, There Was Something Here Before.
“The exhibition invites us to think about who really shapes a city. Who builds it, cares for it, brings knowledge, creates culture and fights to make it home?” Asmal said in a statement released by the Culture Ministry.
The exhibition runs at Erasmus Huis in South Jakarta until Dec. 23.
“The exhibition invites us to consider who shapes a city: who builds it, cares for it, brings knowledge, creates culture and fights to make it home.” — Zahira Asmal, urbanist
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