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“Those who died in shipwrecks in the slave trade were still Africans, they did not reach the America’s to become African American… and many of their souls remain at the bottom of the ocean. Through this exchange, we reclaim memory and reconnect youth with their heritage.” – NEWF Executive Director and Co-Founder, Noel Kok.
Nature, Environment and Wildlife Filmmakers (NEWF) officially launched the 2025 edition of the Youth International Cultural Awareness Program (YICAP) in partnership with Diving With a Purpose (DWP), a powerful transcontinental exchange bringing together young people from the United States and South Africa through marine conservation, archaeology, and cultural storytelling.
This year’s YICAP marks the second youth-led exchange between NEWF and DWP. The programme includes 10 Black identifying youth from the USA and 10 youth from the Sodwana region in Kwa-Zulu Natal, and is supported by fellows, mentors, and DWP leadership. Participants in the programme engage in maritime archaeology training, heritage storytelling, and an immersive cultural exchange, grounding their learning in shared ancestry and collective memory.
Local Sodwana Bay youth, Khulani Nyawo, shares that he, along with the other local participants, were excited and curious in anticipation of the arrival of their American counterparts. He shared that the “connection between storytelling, diving, history, and healing, made me look at my own journey underwater through new eyes. It’s not just about being beneath the surface. It’s about going deeper into identity, into self.”
The partnership was seeded in 2019 after a chance meeting at Jackson Wild between NEWF and journalist Tara Roberts, who later became the first Black woman Explorer featured on the cover of National Geographic. Roberts introduced NEWF to DWP, a U.S.-based nonprofit that trains Black SCUBA divers in maritime archaeology to uncover the untold stories of slave ships lost during the Middle Passage.
“Those who died in shipwrecks in the slave trade were still Africans, they did not reach the America’s to become African American. They died as Africans, and many of their souls remain at the bottom of the ocean,” says NEWF Executive Director and Co-Founder, Noel Kok. “Through this exchange, we reclaim memory and reconnect youth with their heritage.”
“This trip has been life changing,” said American exchange student, Naima Dortch as she shared the extent to which this programme has impacted her. She shared her appreciation of the teamwork and joint effort that she found among fellow attendees, adding that “the memories I’ve made here will forever be cherished and will be told to future generations.”
“DWP’s work is about legacy,” says Ken Stewart, Co – Founder and Program Director of DWP and key roleplayer in guiding this year’s youth cohort. “We’re not going to be around forever. That’s why we teach these skills, to ensure the next generation continues the work of documenting history and telling our stories.”
Last year’s pilot exchange between DWP youth and NEWFfellows laid the foundation for the expanded 2025 programme, which includes mentorship from Stewart and hands-on training in underwater archaeological mapping techniques. Using mock wreck sites set up along the coast, the young divers are gaining practical experience in grid based documentation, orientation, and artefact recording, all aligned with expert archaeological methods.
These artefacts may seem like objects, but they hold something deeper, they validate the journey of millions of African people whose identities and histories were violently fractured. This programme gives Black youth the opportunity to piece together that story, not as treasure hunters, but as citizen archivists working with purpose.
The broader impact of YICAP lies not only in skill development, but in the transformational relationships formed through shared experience. In a region where international engagement is often out of reach for many, this programme opens space for cross continental belonging, self discovery, and healing.
“As we imagine the future of storytelling and science, we must ensure it includes all of us,” says Pragna Parsotam Kok, Co-founder of NEWF. “YICAP represents what’s possible when youth are trusted with the tools to explore identity, history, and purpose, together.”