South Africa’s First Black Woman Free Dive Instructor is Changing Narratives

June 18, 2021 

South Africa's Zandile Ndhlovu is a woman on a mission to make the oceans more inclusive and welcoming for Black youth, while also helping disenfranchised communities. Based in Cape Town, she is the first licensed Black African PADI Freediving instructor in the country.

After discovering a love for the ocean and watersports during a 2016 Bali snorkeling trip, she started to realize how often she was the only Black person on the dive boat. Now, through her Black Mermaid Foundation, she is working to dispel myths about Black people's relationship with the water and "introduce the ocean in a safe environment that could see ocean-facing careers and sports become more diverse."

As reported in Okay Africa, Black youth suffer from the structural inequalities left by the Apartheid system, including the spatial segregation that limits access to the oceans. Furthermore, stereotypes about Black people and the fear of water are perpetuated by media and the existing structural barriers.

And, she told Travel Noire, “When I started scuba diving, for a solid year and a half, I was always the only Black person on the boat. It’s a hard thing because then the normative of that particular space become assumed normative for you.”

"I've always dreamt of making a positive impact in the lives of others, and am made happiest when inspiring, motivating and challenging people from all different backgrounds by simply being," she states on her website.

Ndhlovu runs interactive learning excursions for youth through local community centers in Cape Town, Durban and Johannesburg, supported by the money she makes from her instructing career and merchandise. She counts one of Beyond Sport's 2019 Sport for Climate Action Collective Impact Award winners, I Am Water, as one of her supporters. 

In an interview with CNN Africa last month, she said: "It's more than just free diving. It's the continuous work of how to make spaces diverse and inclusive...The Foundation's work is continuously taking little people out into the water, introducing them, helping them understand that changing the stereotypes and narratives that are attached to the ocean for us growing up - and that's the beautiful part."

Currently, Ndhlovu only offers hands-on training in South Africa but is working on a free online diving course that will focus on breathing, which is key for free diving. In the next 10 years, she says she wants to see more Black bodies occupying the oceans. 

Sources: OkayAfrica and The Daily Vox