Islam in Saint Helena: history and Muslim population data

History of Islam in Saint Helena

Saint Helena, Ascension, and Tristan da Cunha is an Overseas Territory of the United Kingdom, which conquered it in 1657. The Territory has an area of 308 sq km comprising three main islands spread over 2,500 km from Mid to South Atlantic Ocean. The largest of these islands is Saint Helena with area 122 sq km and 80% of the population and where the capital Jamestown is located. It was captured by the British in 1657. About 1,300 km to its northwest is Ascension with 88 sq km in total area, a seventh of the population, and which was captured by the British in 1815. About 2,500 km south of St. Helena is the Island of Tristan da Cunha with area 98 sq km, which was captured by the British in 1816.

The Islands were uninhabited when they were discovered by the Portuguese navigator João da Nova; the first was discovered in May 3rd, 1502, which coincided with the Catholic feast-day for the finding of the True Cross by Saint Helena in Jerusalem. The island of Ascension was discovered by the Portuguese navigator and naval general Afonso de Albuquerque on Ascension Day (May 21st) in 1503, from which fact it derives its name. Afonso was accompanied by a Portuguese nobleman named Fernão Lopes, who will convert to Islam in Goa, India, and return to St. Helena to live permanently. The island of Tristan da Cunha was discovered in 1506 by the Portuguese explorer Tristão da Cunha who named it after himself. However, rough seas prevented his landing.

For several centuries, the British have used the island of St. Helena as a place of exile, most notably for Napoleon Bonaparte’s exile and death (1815-1821), the exile of Dinzizulu Kacetshwayo (1890-1897) from Zululand, and five and half thousand Boer prisoners of war from South Africa (1900-1902). In fact, the first permanent inhabitant of St. Helena was an exiled Muslim. His name is Fernão Lopes, a Portuguese nobleman who accompanied the Portuguese naval general Afonso de Albuquerque on his first voyage in 1503 to Goa on the west coast of India. Lopes converted to Islam and sided together with his troops in 1512 with Rasul Khan in a rebellion against Portuguese rule of Goa. Rasul Khan was a general that the Sultan of Bijapur, Ismael Adil Shan, sent with an army to reconquer Goa from the Portuguese. When Lopes was captured by the Portuguese, he was tortured, disfigured, and exiled to St. Helena where he lived in almost complete solitude from 1516 until his death in 1545.

Muslims in British colonies also took their share of exile and imprisonment in St. Helena. For example, the 1921 census recorded 32 Muslims or 0.9% of the total population, who were also listed as “African Prisoners”. These Muslims consisted of Sheikh Sayyid Khalid bin Barghash Al-Busaid and his party who were exiled from Zanzibar to St Helena from June 1917 to April 1921. He ruled Zanzibar from August 25th to August 27th, 1896 seizing power after the sudden death of his cousin Hamad bin Thuwaini, who many suspect he was poisoned by Sheikh Khalid. Britain refused to recognize his claim to the throne, preferring as Sultan Hamud bin Muhammed who was more favorable to British interests. In accordance with a treaty signed in 1886 a condition for accession to the sultanate was that the candidate obtain the permission of the British consul and Sheikh Khalid had not fulfilled this requirement, so the British sent an ultimatum to him demanding that he surrender. He did not, barricading himself inside his heavily-fortified palace, which the British decided to take by force. Sheikh Khalid managed to evade the British forces and was smuggled out of the country to German East Africa where he lived as a Sultan for twenty years. The British continued to pursue him and on 27th February 1917, Sheikh Khalid was arrested in the Rufiji delta, 250 miles from Dar es Salaam. Four months later, on 22nd June he was escorted with his entourage to exile in St Helena.

On arrival Sheikh Khalid and his followers, seventeen of them, plus three political exiles from Kenya, were kept in military custody in the Jamestown Barracks. There is no information available on the prisoners; all newspapers and other records relating to Sheikh Khalid were censored during that period. It is known that they did not mix much with the local population.

The weather conditions and the lack of Muslims on the island did not suit Sheikh Khalid and his party. He requested to be moved to his relatives in Oman or to his property in Dar es Salaam, but this request was refused. However, in January 1921 it was decided to send Sheikh Khalid and his entourage to the Seychelles, where there were already held in exile political prisoners from the Gold Coast, Uganda, Nyasaland, and Somaliland. Sheikh Khalid and his entourage left St Helena at the end of April 1921 after four years on the island. He died on the 15th of March 1927 in Mombasa age 53.

The final exile by the British was that of three Bahrainis (1957-1961). The three, Abdali al Alaiwat, Abdulrahman al Bakir and Abdulaziz al Shamlan, had been prominent members of the National Union Committee in Bahrain and had been tried by the ruler of Bahrain for offences against the state and sentenced to fourteen years imprisonment. The ruler of Bahrain asked Britain for assistance in removing them to a British Territory and it was decided that they should be sent to St Helena. They were sent to England in 1961 after their four-year exile in St. Helena.

With the exception of the 1921 census, no other official census recorded any Muslims in these islands until 2021, when there were sixteen Muslims on the main island of St. Helena or 0.4% of the total population of the island. Thus, assuming that the Muslim population will increase by one-tenth of a percentage point per decade; then the Muslim population is expected to be around thirty in the second half of this century, reaching 0.7% by 2050 and 1.2% by 2100.

Historical Muslim population dataset for Saint Helena

The figures below are from the CoMPS historical dataset. Population values are expressed in thousands; 2100 is a modelled projection, not a present-day count.

For the full time series and visualisation, use the interactive map above.