Written by Nina van Zyl

For this month’s edition of Channels for Change, we have resisted starting off with an April Fool’s joke. Instead, we’re getting serious for a moment; and if there’s one thing we are serious about here at Viatu, it’s conserving the planet and empowering the people that do. Which is why this month’s documentary hits the ball right out of the park. Introducing: The Black Mermaid.

April’s binge: The Black Mermaid

“The minute you just allow people to experience [the ocean] for the first time, she does what she does and you fall in love with her and you will never let her go.”

Brief summary 

The Black Mermaid follows Zandile Ndhlovu, the eponymous pre-Disney mermaid from South Africa, as she shares her love for the ocean and why it inspired her to try to create the same passion in her community. In African folklore, the ocean is a formidable and dangerous force that is not to be trifled with. While many South Africans live in close proximity to the ocean, few Black South Africans can swim and even fewer view the sea as a place of pleasurable pastime. Instead, to many, the sea is scary and unwelcoming. A mythical place but inaccessible nonetheless. 

Available on: Waterbear

The sustainability factor

Overall: 4/5

Zandile’s goal is clear: to inspire more Black Africans to enjoy the ocean, take ownership of it, and protect it. She is shifting the narrative to one where the ocean is a friend, a home, a place where one can be free. By sharing her underwater world with the viewer, Zandile makes the case for not only its protection, but the carefree enjoyment of it that anyone can and should take part in. A freediving instructor and the founder of the Black Mermaid Foundation, Zandile’s organisation works to create more diversity within the ocean “arena”. What we find most exciting, though, is the fact that the Black Mermaid Foundation helps to create memorable first encounters between Black youth in South Africa and the ocean, thereby potentially setting off a passion for it and ultimately a sense of custodianship over it. 

The Viatu review  

Themes

The Black Mermaid unpacks a lot in just under 10 minutes. Even though the documentary is short, it manages to look at quite a few themes, such as racial inequality, women’s empowerment, Black agency, and conservation. Zandile sets herself as an example of what can happen when a Black person is empowered by the ocean to seek it out, enjoy it, and share it. She mentions the limitations that this enjoyment comes with for most of her cultural counterparts: the fact that most wetsuits aren’t made to fit a Black female body; excursions out on the sea are expensive; that communities of ocean lovers are intimidatingly white. Nonetheless, Zandile has cracked the door open and is holding it wide for others like her to follow. 

Production 

Produced by the Black Mermaid Foundation, The Black Mermaid sets out to further the organisation’s aims, which it does with aplomb. Stunning visuals of dolphins as they chase their prey during South Africa’s Sardine Run; a whale dramatically breaks through the top of a wave, only to crash back down again like an abandoned torpedo. In between: shots of Zandile, blue braids spread out like a cloud around her, floating in the endless blue with just snorkels and flippers, at one with the sea.

What makes it different 

The Black Mermaid is short enough that you can watch it on your lunch break and yet its story is universal: the need to feel accepted and the passion to share that acceptance once you’ve found it. For Zandile, the ocean is home. The hypnotising visuals make one want to get up and head to the beach, or at the very least, acknowledge what a privilege it is to feel comfortable enough in the ocean to enjoy it. 

Something as simple as being able to swim — to kick underwater and shoot your way through the bubbles — is an almost magical ability that allows us to experience a different world; an underwater world. The first step to conservation is to instil a love for that which we wish to protect. Zandile is making sure that more and more South Africans are growing up with a passion for the ocean, becoming its future protectors we need the most.

There’s so much to be inspired about when it comes to sustainability and we love sharing it. Follow along on our journey on Instagram to see how we are working to make travel more sustainable and empowering for local communities. There’s also our blog, where you can find more reviews of thought-provoking documentaries, podcasts and more.