Bilqees

Location
Cape Town
Available Tours
Bo-Kaap Neighborhood Tour: Immigration and Islam
About Bilqees
Bilqees Baker, a resident of the historic and colourful Bo-Kaap area, was born in Johannesburg and has lived in Cape Town for 30 years. Her career as a qualified and registered tour guide was inspired by the history of the old slave quarter and her involvement in community matters of heritage and social issues. Aside from tours, she manages a non-profit organization that assists needy elders in the area through a dignified social programme, and, on economically empowering women through projects with culture and tradition at their core. Having been born and raised during the Apartheid era her university dreams had to be sacrificed for a more hands-on career. She studied fashion design after school, but it was never her calling. She fulfills her passion today by sharing the authentic history of the Cape, in context of the Bo-Kaap. The previously hidden history of the slaves and colonialists is being unearthed at a fast pace since South Africa’s democracy in 1994. Bilqees is guided by historians like the late Dr. Achmat Davids and Professor Robert Shell (UCT), Patric Tariq Mellet, Professor Nigel Worden (UCT), Ebrahim Rhoda, Halim Gencoglu (UCT), Mogamat Kamedien and the many elders in her community.
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