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Outlook: The surfer who fought apartheid to become a world champion

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Cass Collier surfs a massive wave

05/05/2021 GMT

The surfer who fought apartheid to become a world champion

BBC World Service - Outlook, The surfer who fought apartheid to become a world champion

Cass Collier learnt to surf on segregated beaches – now he's fighting apartheid's legacy

Big-wave surfer Cass Collier grew up surfing on segregated beaches in apartheid-era South Africa – now he's fighting for all South African children to have access to the sport.

Cass Collier grew up surfing with his dad in apartheid South Africa, where signs designated the beaches as "whites-only", "blacks-only", or "coloureds-only" areas. The rules were enforced, often brutally, not only by the police but also by white surfers who would tell the Collier family to "go to your own beach" if they tried to surf in areas reserved for white people. But Cass's dad Ahmed, a pioneering South African surfer and member of the ANC, never backed down, teaching Cass that he had a right to be on the sand and in the water at any beach he chose. Cass eventually became a world-class surfer and went on to win the International Surfing Association Big Wave championships in Mexico in 1999, alongside his friend and fellow Rastafarian Ian Armstrong. He tells Anu Anand about the joy of big waves, and remembers the heartbreak and sacrifices he and his family faced en route to the world title.

Marwa al-Sabouni is an architect from Homs in Syria. When the war began, she was running an architectural practice with her husband. But as mortar shells and bombs devastated the very buildings around them – and even their own studio –  it became impossible to keep working. She bunkered down in her home with her family, not even seeing the moon for two years. Now, 10 years after the conflict, more than 60% of Homs has been destroyed. Marwa and her husband have reopened their practice and want their work to feature the most inclusive ways to rebuild Syria. Marwa’s written a book called Building for Hope: Towards an Architecture of Belonging.

Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com

Picture: Cass Collier surfs at Hout Bay, Cape Town, South Africa in June 2002
Credit: Grant Ellis/Getty Images

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