Lungani Memani Raw South African talent
For generations, AmaXhosa tribes of Southern Africa have feared the sea. Religious tradition beholds that the rivers and oceans are the dwelling place of an angry race of a webbed mer-people, who sometimes kidnap folk, or strike them mad.
But 17-year-old Lungani Memani, a descendent of these tribes, has no such qualms. Whenever he can, he races into the peeling rights of his home waters at Cowie Beach near Port Elizabeth, South Africa.
Lungani is one of the biggest successes of South Africa’s surfing development programme, created to foster surfers from poverty-stricken townships such as his, near the Transkei, in the economically constipated Eastern Cape.
Since winning through this preparatory system, he has become one of the most feared black surfers in the country. With a host of regional and national placings and victories and international experience from surfing for SA in the ISA World Games, no one wants to draw Lungani.
The young Xhosa learned to surf while working as a lifeguard, happily taking old boards from benevolent locals such as Warwick Heny and Dave Macgregor. He has also benefited from the sporadic presence of South Africa’s latest World Championship Tour (WQS) surfer Royden Bryson, a Cowie regular.
“He’s got all the elements: class, speed,” says Royden. “And he’s a humble kid. Without a shadow of a doubt he has a future in the sport.”
Lungani is keen to give the WQS a crack once he’s finished high school. With his positive attitude and support, he seems set to forge a career in surfing and make a name for himself internationally.
Not bad for a kid whose tribal traditions prevented his predecessors from enjoying the beach, as did, lest we forget, the apartheid government.
Even the evil fish people would have to smile at that.
This story originally appeared in Huck #003.
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