Lecturer features in Blacks Can't Swim film

Blacks Can't Swim-Rewind is the third instalment of the trilogy from producer Ed Accura. Sports department lecturer Mo Jafar is one of the interviewees. The films open up the sensitive conversation and dialogue which previously would have been very uncomfortable to have with scenes based on experiences of swimming combined with interview footage.

According to Swim England, the sport's governing body, 95 per cent of black adults and 80 per cent of black children in England do not swim, and only two per cent of regular swimmers are black.

Mo is a former head of physical education and lecturer in PE, sport & development (PE) in the School of Health, Sport and Bioscience. He said:

Having an acute awareness of the impact race has on an activity like swimming could encourage PE subject leads to be creative and ensure swimming for black pupils is a necessity and not a luxury. These statistics show there is a huge gap that physical education can and should attempt to fill.

My frustrations with having a lack of support to implement changes within the physical education curriculum drive my interests today and will shape my research intentions in the future. People in education need support and encouragement to pursue changes that will work towards inclusion for all. Often policies that have inclusion at the heart, although well-meaning, can fall short of what they intend to do. One way to try to tackle this is to utilise the power of storytelling, hence why the Blacks Can't Swim films have been created."

The Making Waves Project involves young people from School 21 in Stratford who visited the campus on September 30 to watch the film. The students will use this as springboard to research, produce and showcase their own swim stories as well as the stories in their local community. Ed Accura introduced the film and offered some next steps on #changingthenarrative.

In conjunction with East London Sport and the applied sports and sciences department, the aim is to support young people to raise awareness around the benefits of swimming as a life skill as well as educate the community around key aquatic safety skills.

The project is part of a leadership programme Mo is enrolled on with an organisation called Big Education.

For more information, visit the Black Swimming Association.

And see the trailer here: Blacks Can't Swim  REWIND - Advert.