A battle on the beach
I rarely go to Camps Bay. One of the reasons is that, when I was growing up, it was off limits to people of colour under South Africa’s Apartheid era Group Areas Act which enforced racial segregation. So, we stuck to beaches on the other side of the peninsula… and I actually have zero recollection of ever having gone to Camps Bay with my family.
The other reason is that Camps Bay, in my mind, was a beach for the body-beautiful. And I have never counted myself among those who could confidently walk along, or lie on the beach in a bathing costume.
So in the spirit of taking back public – and sometimes contested – spaces through Box Anywhere, Coach Romeo and I took on Camps Bay beach on a blustery early morning. With the wind howling and an icy Atlantic Ocean whipping at my legs, I confronted the darkness of the past and battled my own insecurities about what it is to be body-beautiful.
