The Black Mermaid Foundation & uLanga

Hello Friends,

I hope you've had a good time with family and are rested for the week ahead,

The 27th of April is a special day in South Africa where Freedom Day is celebrated, this honours the anniversary of South Africa's first democratic/ non-racial election in 1994 and pays homage to the country's liberation from apartheid rule, where the minority exercises political power over the majority of the country.*

This is an important share, that we continuously observe where we come from, where we are and where we want to be as we hold ourselves up to be vessels in the creation of the society we want to live in. .

I wanted to share about the work The Black Mermaid Foundation has been doing, I have been working with a community in Cape Town located in an area called Langa,

It is so rich with history but was also the first township where Black people were relocated to, once dispossessed of their lands.

What is interesting is the human I’ve been working with and how he references Langa in conversation, he says ‘uLanga’, uLanga infers a personification of the area, in my dialect, and so I would think he would say ‘eLanga’ which would frame it as an area,

In the many discussions we had I couldn’t help but love the ideal of Langa being referred to as uLanga, though a grammatical correctness from the Xhosa dialect, was the power it was, how Langa could redefine itself, grow itself, protect itself and its people, and rise anew despite the challenges it faces.

The discussion felt so powerful.

Langa has never had an ocean facing program that looks to create these Interactive Ocean experiences with young humans who are still deciding what they want to be in life. A powerful place to be from The Black Mermaid Foundation mission statement, to introduce the ocean in a safe environment that could see Ocean facing careers and sports become more diverse.

In the deciding on how I wanted the program to work, I wondered what it means to go through the School vs the Community, and in the end decided to go through the Community because I need the healing to be more than over there…. but here, an acknowledgement and understanding of what this program is by the parents as well.

From the works, I am moved new.

And so, all we have is the passion in our hearts meeting purpose, and what does it mean to expand ourselves in the knowns and unknowns.

So, this is a big Thank you to everyone who has signed up for a course with me because part of your fee paid went to making these excursions possible, and a special thank you to Hanli Prinsloo from the I Am Water Foundation for providing gear for the little people and Parusha Naidoo from Camphor and Coconut for providing meals on our excursion days,

I appreciate the partnerships provided by these humans that allowed the foundation to expand on its initial expected reach.

In closing, a big congratulations to the Film Making Crew of My Octopus Teacher for this momentous occasion where a South African Documentary won an Oscar, there's an opening in the World, a reminder that your stories are valid and needed too.

*Freedom Day Source : African Travel Canvas

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