The African surf brand Mami Wata is reinventing surf style
Selema Masekela—one of the co-founders of the first African surf brand,—remembers the first time he went surfing in South Africa, back in 1991. His father is from the country, but Masekela had grown up in New York and California, where he fell in love with the sport. That year, he decided to return to South Africa to witness it post-apartheid, when legislations
in South Africa began to lift, and he recalls the locals being shocked at seeing a Black man such as himself surfing. “The police tried to arrest me in Durban, because they were so perplexed at what they were seeing,” he says. “When I first got in the water, the kids couldn't speak—they thought I had come from a spaceship!”
Since then, Masekela—who is a well-known surfer, television host, and sports commentator—has returned to South Africa many times to surf. But over the years, he’s realized that the surf world outside the continent has continuously ignored the vibrant surf scene happening in Africa. “I always dreamed of a lifestyle brand that wasn't just driven from the narrative of Southern California or Australia,” he says.
Pienaar serves as the main creative director for the line, but he often collaborates with other African designers or artists on pieces, which are inspired by local, South African culture. Some of the clothes, like the “” hoodie, call out specific locations in South Africa ; others take a looser inspiration from its beaches. “If you’re a hardcore surfer, there’s a list of places that you want to check off, and Jeffreys Bay in South Africa is one of those places,” says Masekela.
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