Hailing from the small coastal town of Pellsrus–the proverbial black sheep of the Jeffreys Bay region–Joshe Faulkner grew up a short distance from world class waves but a long way from the opportunity and security of his neighbors and visiting surfers. Against the odds, Joshe has become one of the brightest lights in the country.
As a 2x South African Champion, his legacy as one of the best surfers to ever come from J-Bay is in no doubt–but it’s his legacy as a community leader that is really starting to take shape. The culmination of all of his efforts were most clear at the J-Bay Community Lunch, a first-of-its-kind event that provided over 1500 meals to local kids and residents plus sports clinics with professional athletes during the day. By late afternoon, the vibe went through the roof with live performances from Don Delicious, YoungstaCPT, and DJ Doowap.
The event was hosted on Nelson Mandela Day (Friday, July 18th) and during the J-Bay Surf Fest–a ten-day celebration of surf culture, music, sport, and community–which coincided with the WSL Finals Day. While all eyes were on the perfect waves at Supertubes for the dramatic finish where Connor O’Leary and Gabriela Byran won in pumping conditions, the community of Pellsrus rejoiced in the memory of South Africa’s greatest leader.
Chris Dodds
The Community Lunch was made possible thanks to Pellsrus Primary School and the collaboration of the House of Mandela, the Faulkner Family Trust, and a network of local churches, artists, surf leaders, and residents–the event signaled a new era for Pellsrus anchored in the values embodied by Nelson Mandela and the collective spirit of Ubuntu: “I am because we are.”
Chris Dodds
As a township (a segregated residential area that was deliberately created during apartheid), the community of Pellsrus is often overlooked and underserved. During apartheid, black citizens had no freedom of mobility and were forced into segregation of space. Now that it has been gone for over 35 years, they have the freedom to move, but they’re still physically segregated. The central hub of surf shops and restaurants of Jeffreys Bay are only one street away from Pellsrus–but they are world’s apart. Up until this year, the community of Pellsrus had yet to receive many tangible benefits from hosting an international sporting event, the J Bay Open, just minutes away.
The lunch was just the beginning as the intention is to build on this momentum and provide weekly meals to challenge the fact that one in four households in the Eastern Cape Province face food insecurity. What happened this year was the catalyst for a sustainable feeding program to be powered by the network of Joshe and Kweku Mandela, grandson of Nelson Mandela, and others, driven by the values of Ubuntu.
Chris Dodds
“Food grown, cooked, and shared by communities builds lasting bonds more than anything else. Here, we honour the mothers’ recipes, the farmers’ soil, and the shared responsibility to care for one another, as we always have.”
Kweku Mandela
When speaking to the event organizers, Kweku and Herman de Klerk, there was a clear consensus on how everything was meant to be. “After getting to know Joshe we realized we had more in common with him than a love of sport. For years leading up to this, Joshe would take whatever money he could from comps and earnings to do food drives for the community. We wanted to build on that energy, and started planning the J-Bay Community Lunch as something for the people of Pellsrus.”
Chris Dodds
Joshe still resides in Pellsrus and engages the locals on monumental levels as he travels the world and pursues his career as a surfer–something he credits with saving his life from gang violence that has taken many promising youths who grew up in townships, including his own brother and cousin.
He says, “When I started getting good at surfing as a youngster my cousins always used to lie to me when the waves were really big. Days when no one wanted to surf, saying they needed someone to paddle out with them. They’d say representatives from the big brands were on the beach and they’d see me if I surfed every day. That kinda pushed me. It’s what I wanted to do, and still do to this day.“
Herman explains, “His is a journey carved out by sheer determination and with the help of notable phenomenons from South Africa’s surfing annals. A product of a renowned family of chargers (including Bertie Stuurman and Dominiquåe Abersalie) his predecessors paved the way to make the sport more diverse in Jeffreys Bay and South Africa. The elder statesmen lay the foundations along with Steven Jeggels, and more recently on the international stage Mikey February, who now sees Joshe flourishing. It’s been a decades-long process of ripping up the script and redefining the genre.”
A sincere thank you goes out to Joshe, Kweku, Herman, Luvuyo, Jay, Sfiso, Kojo, Dominique, Zoe, Dj DooWap and her fabulous dancers, for hosting me in South Africa and trusting me to share this story. As well as to headmistress Stuurman, for all of her hard work for the students and community of Pellsrus.