My love for nature comes a long way. Coming from a family of nature-loving people was a blessing. I still remember how my late uncle taught us ways of engaging with the environment. As a traditional healer, he did not look at nature as just a mere resource but as part of being. He honoured each plant and herb; he would ask Mother Nature for permission before extracting anything. As a silly ten-year-old, I would tell him, “Malume, it doesn’t matter because it cannot speak.” My uncle would simply respond that there will be signs (imiqondiso) that show when nature is giving you permission.
Ever since then, I started looking at nature in a different way. I developed a sense that wildness is indelible in every cell of our beings. Perhaps that’s why our hearts resonate so deeply with the flowers, the birds, and the somersaulting giants of the wild oceans.
A few years later, after spending time getting educated in institutions of higher learning, I had the humbling experience of learning that in the academic world, you can’t just say something and be right, you must say something that is peer-reviewed. If not, that knowledge is deemed insufficient. But something didn't sit well with me. I was raised by people who may have been "uneducated" by Western standards but were incredibly wise and knowledgeable. They shared so much with me about how to plant a tree, how to engage water bodies safely, and how to observe weather patterns and many other things long before I read about them in a textbook.
This conflict came to mind while reading "Blue Mind" by Wallace J. Nicholas, which explores the science of how being near water makes us happier and more connected. This book was published in 2014 when I was 13. Within those first 13 years, my uncle had already taken me fishing and swimming. I had witnessed the coastal communities of the Wild Coast performing spring equinox cleansings. I saw amagqirha (traditional healers) taking people to the ocean and big rivers for healing. Every 1st of January, abantu abantsundu flock to the beaches to wash off the bad luck of the previous year. Our people have always known the ocean is a place of healing, even if that knowledge hasn't been "peer-reviewed" in a journal.
Indigenous knowledge is not folklore; it is science rooted in lived experience. I know the ocean has healing power because I felt it before I could even articulate it. Ever since joining I AM WATER and AGULHAS I have come to understand that by grounding our systems in the patterns of nature, we begin the generational work of restoring our relationship with the living world. Many friends ask me, “James, are you not afraid of sharks? Are you not afraid of drowning? Remember, you are black!” My response is something you won't find in a scientific paper and would simply tell them that the ocean has a language. Every wave is a sentence, every swell a message, and every calm a pause to listen and no I’m not afraid of the ocean. And all of this is about honoring how I interpret our sacred connection with the natural environment.
James Njoloza graduated from Rhodes University and worked with I AM WATER as an adventure based learning graduate. He now manages AGULHAS' community of ocean explorers. James cares deeply about South Africa and his role in creating a better place for its citizens both in and out of the water.