The Hadjie Abdullah Solomon Family Trust exists to preserve the heritage of the Solomon family of Sillery, to steward the Constantia land restored to the family, and to provide for the generations who descend from it.
To gather and safeguard the family's history — the farm at Sillery, the mosque, the forced removals and the long road to restitution — so it cannot be erased.
To hold and care for the Constantia land returned to the family in 2012, and to develop it for the benefit of all the beneficiaries.
To sustain the descendants of the family, and to serve the wider Constantia community from which we came.
To honour the elders who built the mosque, worked the land, and held on through apartheid — and the lineage of faith they carried.
The family's restitution is carried by two family trusts — the Hadjie Abdullah Solomon Family Trust and the Hadjie Ismail Solomon Family Trust — descending from the brothers whose forebears bought farmland at Sillery in 1902. Together they reclaimed the Constantia land, and together they hosted the opening of the Constantia Emporium in 2019.
Around 80 beneficiaries across the two trusts share in this restored inheritance.
The Trust's restitution was driven by Rashaad Solomon — founder, chairman and chief executive — son of Hadji Abdurahman and Gasiena Solomon, and brother of Imam Gassan Solomon. Born on the family's Constantia farm in 1945, he watched its homes bulldozed under the Group Areas Act, lodged the land claim in 1996, refused every offer of alternative land, and saw the title deeds returned in 2012.
Are you a former resident of Constantia, or a descendant of one of the valley's families? The Trust is gathering testimony, photographs and memories through its Apartheid Witness Project — and we would be honoured to record yours.