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Four South African rowers are making history over the weekend at the prestigious Head of the Charles Regatta in Boston as the first crew of color from the country to compete internationally.
Their participation marks a multinational effort to expand access to one of the most elite and exclusive sports, dominated by white athletes, and to open the 60-year-old regatta to a more diverse future of rowers.
Competitive rowing originates among Englishmen who colonized both South Africa and what is now the United States, but historically excluded large swaths of the populations that lived there from recreation on the water.
In recent years, a network of advocates has gathered athletes from around the world in efforts culminating with several firsts for representation at the Charles: the first all-Black women’s 8+ from the U.S., an indigenous 4+ and a native women’s 4+, among others. An 8+ is an eight-oared sweep boat with eight athletes and a coxswain to steer and direct the rowers, while a 4+ is a four-oared sweep boat with a coxswain.
Lwazi-Tsebo Zwane, a 23-year-old who trains in Germiston, South Africa, east of Johannesburg, said he and his boatmates are very aware they are role models for younger rowers.
Wearing the colors of Western Cape Rowing, Zwane said the legacy of poverty and economic inequality that were the result of racist policies like apartheid in South Africa and others leveraged in the U.S. “have shaped and narrated our story to be one of violence and oppression and being second rate.”
“There is a different story for us, but doing the work to get there is not an easy feat,” he said of reframing the false narratives.
