Ed Accura (Part 1): A Film Called Blacks Can’t Swim: My Journey My Story
Words by Lydia Paleschi
Last month we had the pleasure of interviewing Ed Accura, co-founder of the Black Swimming Association, Producer of A Film Called Blacks Can’t Swim: My Story, Podcaster and Musician. He’s also recently started learning to swim. In part 1 of 2 in our Ed Accura blog series, we learn about Ed and how the film came to be.
The back story
Producing a film about swimming isn’t something Ed would have envisioned in earlier life. He explains “I am one of those people that has lived their whole life shying away from swimming and has used every excuse in the book not to swim.”
Even when he started taking his young daughter to swimming lessons, his own desire to enter the pool eluded him. It was only as she got older and he considered the risks of her falling into the River Wye at the bottom of their garden in Buckinghamshire, that he began to reflect on his swimming ability. “When my daughter was born we made sure a barrier was there so no accidents would happen. I never really thought about drowning or anything seriously anyway. But when my daughter was getting older I was thinking if she fell into the water and anything happened to her I wouldn't be able to save her and I wouldn't be able to forgive myself.” Despite this, being surrounded by society’s stereotypes of the Black community and swimming made Ed question if it was something he would ever be capable of: “I told my wife I would learn to swim but I always said next year, next year.”
Ed wrote the lyrics to A Film Called Blacks Can’t Swim whilst on a family holiday to Barbados in 2018.
It was during a family holiday to Barbados that the topic of swimming was on Ed’s mind once again. As a passionate songwriter and producer, it is unsurprising to discover that music played a part. “I’m well aware of the disproportionate amount of Black people that swim. I thought someone should make a film about Black people not swimming, so I wrote the lyrics: ‘a film called Blacks can’t swim, is it a cultural or physical thing?’ and put the song out on iTunes and YouTube.” Vocalising the topic gained a lot of attention and as a result Ed was offered free swimming lessons from Swim in Nature in return for them documenting it. He explains: “It’s because [they] want to prove to the world that it is a cultural thing and it is not a physical thing.” With the encouragement of friends and the help of producer Mysterex, Ed decided to start lessons and to make the film.
What is the film about?
The film explores the taboos surrounding the Black community and swimming. In a hyperbolised version of his own experiences, Ed plays a Black man plagued by aquaphobic thoughts in response to repeated flood warnings. These thoughts are personified as ‘Mr Society’ and prevent him from learning to swim, instead choosing to wear a life jacket at all times. Ed reveals, “the idea of safety [according to Mr Society] is stay away from the water and you will not drown. There are a lot of people within the Black community who live by that. But we know that it’s not true.”
The film also includes real interviews with Black Britons, exploring their relationship with swimming and the reasons for this. “One thing I realised is that swimming is one of the very few things that everyone has a story about, whether they know it or not. If they can swim how did they start? Why did they swim? Why did their parents find it important? And if they can’t swim, why don’t they?”
Ed’s character suffers from aquaphobia and chooses to wear a life jacket at all times so that he doesn’t drown.
The result
The film highlights some of the most popular myths, including aquaphobia, bone density and physical build. However, it also reveals the common theme of a generational gap and lack of prioritising being placed on swimming within the Black community. The two minute trailer of the film came out Christmas Eve 2018 and went viral. Ed reveals “The first thing I did was put it on Twitter and it’s like Twitter went mad. People were retweeting it and talking about it.” He continues, “Since then, it’s almost like the elephant is out of the room and people are having the conversations.”
Within the first month over 1,500 people requested the full version of the film. Now it is available globally on Amazon. A Film Called Blacks Can’t Swim has been an important step in raising awareness of barriers to swimming within the Black community. It’s encouraging more people to consider why they can’t swim and Ed hopes it will inspire others to take the bold leap to learn like he has. On a personal level, Ed’s life has changed immensely. It has led him on the path to co-founding the Black Swimming Association (BSA). Our second part of the Ed Accura series explores the work of the BSA and how it intends to get more Black people swimming in the UK and beyond.
Ed began learning to swim in 2019 and has since set up the Black Swimming Association.
