Freediving
Discovering the ocean gave Zandile Ndhlovu a new sense of freedom. Now South Africa’s first Black female freediving instructor is passing it on.
Zandile Ndhlovu was 28 when she fell in love with the ocean. Eight years later, she’s South Africa’s first Black female freediving instructor and the founder of The Black Mermaid Foundation. Her journey to this point has not been without detours. When Ndhlovu was a child growing up in the township of Soweto, her mother couldn’t afford the entrance fee for the local pool, so the young tomboy would get into trouble instead. In early adulthood, she trod a more conventional path for a young Black South African woman, landing a corporate management job and entering into a traditional marriage with a dowry.
When her husband told her he wanted to separate, Ndhlovu looked for her own escape. In the aftermath of this news, she travelled to Bali, where she signed up for a snorkelling trip. The experience was terrifying at first, says Ndhlovu, but then, when the fear had eased, transformative. On returning to Johannesburg, she took up freediving, exploring the ocean depths without scuba equipment, and learning to hold her breath for ever-longer stretches.
In 2020, she qualified as a freediving instructor, only later realising she was just the second Black South African – and the first Black SA woman – to do so. Now she’s fighting to redress the imbalance established by apartheid, which severed connections between Black communities and the ocean. Her foundation introduces young people to the sea, and Ndhlovu also has a children’s book and a film in the works. “I’ve lived in a world that says survival comes first,” she says. “By actively living my life, I feel I give people permission to dream differently.”