A Call to Prayer in Durban

After spending a few jam-packed weeks traversing South Africa, I was looking forward to a stop in Durban, where I had a week to just kick back and relax in the lap of luxury.

Upon arrival in Durban, I found myself devouring the city with my eyes as the car bounded down each road on the way to the apartment. I wanted to take in as much as possible–make mental notes of the places and things I saw: a rundown clothing store with fluorescent-colored “evening wear”; men dressed in salwar kameez; people in business suits hurriedly headed to meetings or out to grab lunch.

Mere minutes later, I sat in awe as I heard the Islamic call to prayer for the very first time. This was probably one of the most interesting and moving experiences in my life. Having lived my entire life in the US and being a target of various terrorist attacks at the hands of extremists, we often don’t get to see or hear about the beautiful (and dare I say “normal”) side of Islam. I’ve long been fascinated by this particular religion and had never been in an area where there was such a large population of adherents to it.

If you’re unfamiliar, the video is what a call to prayer sounds like.

Durban was pretty fascinating to me: it’s the third-largest city in South Africa with about 3.5 million people. It’s situated on a beach next to the Indian ocean. It’s incredibly diverse with large populations of Zulu, people of British descent, Indians, and Muslims.

I spent my couple days there exploring the beaches, grabbing breakfast and tea from a cafe next to a small surf shop near my apartment, learning how to braai, and trying to experience as much of the local culture as possible. One evening I had dinner at Moyo Pier Bar, which turned out to be an awesome experience. While dining on some fusion South African dishes, the staff turned up the music, came out and danced for all of us. I think it was the third time in South Africa when staff broke out in spontaneous dance while I was eating.