Melodies came to Zolani Mahola in her first ever kelp-forest dive
In her book "Deep Blue: why we love the sea", Veruska de Vita traces human bonds with the ocean. For one of South Africa’s most famous singers, that bond runs through the Cape’s kelp forests, as described in this extract
I want to further understand what binds us to the sea, so I chat to Zolani Mahola, a performer, producer and singer who goes by the name of ‘The One Who Sings’.
‘I’ve just had a swim at Cosy Bay, which is in Oudekraal. I swam to Seal Island, which is a good little swim – nice and playful,’ she tells me as she brushes her hands nimbly through her short hair.
Cosy Bay is also known as Sandy Cove, a secluded beach on Victoria Road on Cape Town’s Atlantic Seaboard. Zolani loves to swim and she tells me that she took to the water with surprising ease.
From her home in Cape Town, Oudekraal is easy to get to and it’s cold enough to give her a buzz. It’s become her habitual swimming spot. I ask her if she swims regularly and she tells me that she uses it as a barometer for her health and her headspace. If she’s in good swing, she’ll swim three times a week. If she’s not doing well, she’s generally not spending time in the sea. On the shelves behind her are photos of her young sons.
Zolani is fresh faced and petite with alert eyes. She was the lead singer of Afro-fusion band Freshlyground for 17 years and is the producer of the podcast Back to the Water.
"Before entering they did a small ritual — they prayed to all the ancestors asking permission to enter the underwater environment"
Zolani connects with her ancestors in the ocean IMAGE Craig Foster
Zolani connects with her ancestors in the ocean IMAGE Craig Foster
"Before entering they did a small ritual — they prayed to all the ancestors asking permission to enter the underwater environment"
She created the podcast with her friend Pippa Ehrlich and it won them the Independent Nonfiction Audio Storytelling Award at the Tribeca Film Festival in 2024. The podcast showcases the relationship that people in South Africa have with the ocean.
One of the first things she tells me is that she sees kelp as an embodiment of her ancestors.
In 2020, Craig Foster of the Sea Change Project commissioned her to capture the song of the sea, asking her to produce a sea forest anthem with renowned French-American cellist Yo-Yo Ma.
Yo-Yo Ma has been a United Nations Messenger of Peace since 2006, and he uses his music to link culture to nature, promoting unity and environmental awareness. Through his musical projects and performances, he highlights our common responsibility in protecting the planet.
“The whole reason Craig took me on that first dive was for me to really listen and open myself to the underwater environment and catch the song.”
Zolani remembers it as a clear day with the sun shining when Craig took her and Aron Halevi, her collaborator from Freshlyground, to the kelp forest off Miller’s Point. The water was remarkably clear. Before entering they did a small ritual – they prayed to all the ancestors asking permission to enter the underwater environment, and thanked the ocean.
Zolani’s first wandering through the kelp forest set the stage for what would become the nature of her relationship with the aquatic environment.
“It felt like a welcome home, it was so familiar and yet at the same time so new. That first immersion had a massive impact on me,” she says.
Craig taught her to open to the natural world and to listen with her whole body, not just her ears. So, she listened with the fundamental idea that we are not separate from nature. The idea was to create a composition that embodied the spirit and sounds of the sea forest. The song was, quite aptly, to be titled Song of the Silent Forest.
During that first dive, melodies came to her and she was catching songs. It fascinates me how human creativity is piqued when there is newness and the skin feels something unfamiliar, but pleasant. Zolani was in the sea, floating, her feet not touching ground, flying through the kelp forest vertically when music came to her.
“I remember the feeling of coming out of the water and feeling that giddy, cold, drunk feeling that people talk about. I had to keep getting back into the water.”
DEEP BLUE: WHY WE LOVE THE SEA
In this exploration into humans’ relationship with the sea, Veruska de Vita speaks to singers, scientists, swimmers, athletes and others about their relationship to this body of water that forms the bedrock of life on Earth.
Deep Blue is available at The Book Lounge, Exclusive Books, Wordsworths Books and other book stores. R340