Waves of Joy (Tanzania, Zanzibar)

On the beaches of Zanzibar, water games are not just for fun: they form the first steps in an ancestral apprenticeship of the sea. From a very young age, children develop a natural ease in the Indian Ocean, between waves and tides, in direct connection with a thousand-year-old maritime culture. Through swimming, diving, or racing in the foam, they learn gestures inherited from the Swahili navigators, whose trade routes once linked the island to Oman, India, and the Persian coast. This informal but powerful transmission is achieved through daily practice and play: a knowledge of the body inscribed in salt, sand, and light.