Yoga studios in Cape Town have been slammed for being "too white", "too exclusionary" and "catering for only a certain body type". And clients and teachers are accusing some of the biggest studios in the city of "outpricing people of colour".
The ancient tradition has its roots in Northern India and stretches back more than 5 000 years. But it has become big business worldwide. Market analysts put its worth to at least R1.34 trillion. The global yoga mat market alone is worth an estimated R164 billion this year.
And in South Africa, despite the economic downturn wrought by coronavirus restrictions, yoga continued to enjoy increasing popularity, with online sessions.
Nadia Padayachi, a yoga teacher, told Weekend Argus: “Instead of yoga studios in Cape Town creating safe spaces for all bodies, they reinforce a stigma that yoga is an elite practice, which it is not at all. Many people who would like to practice yoga don't feel welcome to do so.”
Another yoga teacher, Firdose Moonda, said city studio, Yoga Life, was “owned by someone who also owns a modelling agency”.
“In itself there is nothing wrong with that,” said Moonda. “However, for a long time, they used to give discounts to models. And so they were encouraging people of a particular body shape and body type - almost to the exclusion of others.”
Yashna Singh, who moved from Durban to Cape Town, said she found it difficult to find an inclusive studio here. “I find the yoga scene in Cape Town often comprises a certain race group, a certain body type. They're often quite expensive and not within the reach of most people's budgets.”
Yoga Life, one of the most popular studios in city, has came in for the most criticism.
Gabriel Meltz, a client at Yoga Life from 2016, who was an instructor there from 2019 until a few months ago, said: “I did notice a lack of diversity and I brought it up with them (management) a couple of times. Last year when the Black Lives Matter movement made a resurgence and diversity became a topical issue again, I brought it up with them again,” said Meltz.
“I think they lack awareness when it comes to diversity and inclusion. I was constantly pushing their boundaries and asking them for more. I was doing workshops at the studio with the students. I was facilitating Zoom sessions with the teachers. I was really trying my best as a white person in the community to get this space a little more inclusive.”
Meltz added: “The philosophy behind yoga is to bring people together. To be inclusive. And I think yoga has become such a privileged thing, that I really try to challenge them to do more to open it up to a broader community in Cape Town, not just an upper class white community.”
Yoga Life's recent hosting of an Asian night event meant to celebrate that continent's culture and cuisine, angered many in the community, particularly those of Asian descent, who called it “cultural appropriation”.
Moonda said: “We had people from Yoga Life wearing chopsticks in their hair, which is a misuse of an instrument that is used for eating. And bindis on their foreheads on one of the most significant religious days for people of a particular kind of Hindu ideology in India. And then also wearing the Japanese kimono.
“And I just think to see these all-white faces and all-white bodies, making use of our cultures and representing them in a completely inadequate way, was hurtful, and was harmful to the people who were looking at this from the sidelines. Not least because Yoga Life is a place they consider themselves to be shut out of.”
Padayachi also reflected on Asian night, saying: “The Yoga Life incident was incredibly offensive. And it was handled so badly. Having said that, it is not surprising. Because this is not the first incident. And in fact, it is almost normalised that studios act inappropriately. And then they issue half-hearted apologies.”
Yoga Life apologised on their social media pages. “Cultural appropriation is serious, and at Yoga Life we aim to expand our awareness around this. It is important that we learn and keep asking ourselves where we have in our white fragility been guilty. We take full ownership of our actions and feel very uncomfortable with how we stereotyped and misrepresented a culture.
“Our sincerest apology for the cultural misappropriation that took place. We welcome further conversations around this topic and as we learn and grow so too will this important message spread. We are fully committed to cultural respect and integration in our community.”
But when Weekend Argus tried to speak to the owner Cle Latouf, and the rest of her management team, Latouf replied via email, “We have given our statement which is available publicly and we have no further comment at this time.”
The statement Latouf was referring to, was the social media post which drew a number of angry replies.
Nasreen Peer wrote: “I definitely can't be part of any community bc (sic) the unwillingness to address appropriation and insincere apologies when called out (and) make the space a hostile one.”
Chloe Russell posted, “But will you ever learn? This isn't the first time you've had to apologise for racial prejudices. An apology can only be sincere once the behaviour changes.”
Jerusha Shulberg posted: “Ignorance. The complete opposite of yoga.”
Liane Randaree posted: “To think nothing has changed since my friends and I attended this studio years ago. Wow. Just wow.”
Some people who practise yoga who spoke to Weekend Argus also highlighted the difficulty for people of colour to become teachers, saying it was “an expensive exercise”.
The cost for a 200-hour yoga teacher training course at The Shala: Cape Town Yoga School is R25 000 (including VAT). And on top of that there is a non-refundable R1 200 admin fee.
Moonda said: “It is difficult to become a yoga teacher because it needs two things, which only the privileged have - time and money.”
Padayachi said the hefty sum further complicated employment opportunities for black people. “In terms of my own experience as a yoga teacher, it is really difficult to find opportunities to teach at the yoga studios in Cape Town, which are predominantly white-owned.
“As much as studios offer to teach training programmes which are very expensive, studio owners don't see a responsibility to provide opportunities to diversify their teacher roster. They're happy to take our money for the course, but they're not interested in employing us,” she said.
Tamsin Sheehy, owner of The Shala, said: “I definitely feel like we have a long way to go with inclusivity. It's a huge conversation and it is definitely one that is essential." Sheehy said her teaching team was ”full“ and that ”it hadn't changed in the last three years”.
Kafui Awoonor said she's been part of the yoga community for 11 years. She is a qualified teacher and runs a studio called Holding Space. “My yoga studio came out of a need for spaces that were more inclusive versus the mostly white-based and a certain kind of wellness or spiritual people that inhabit and dominate the spaces of wellness in Cape Town, ”she said.
“I think there is a huge problem within the wellness community. Last year when George Floyd was murdered (by police) a lot of studios (in Cape Town) put up a black square and made all these pledges that they have not lived up to.”
Fulvio Grandin, the owner of Yoga Zone, agreed that yoga catered mainly to an elite market. “The industry should have many more teachers of colour and studios that are a lot more mixed, not only in staff, but also in ownership.”
So what's the way forward and what needs to be done to ensure more inclusivity? Moonda said : “Yoga will change when the people, who practice and teach yoga, begin to look more like the city that they are in.”
Sheehy said: “We are so far from healing our racial trauma in this country. I do a lot of teacher training. But there's a lot of work to do.”
Meltz said: “I think a huge problem with the yoga community is this term called spiritual by-passing which is where you use your spirituality to bypass serious issues. You can stand in front of a bunch of white privileged people and say I don't see colour, and I don't see race, because all I see is peace and love and unity and all this k*k. Because there are some serious issues that need to be dealt with.”
Grandin said: “We should incentivise yoga practitioners of colour to continue studying, to forward their education in yoga and to enter into the sector as service providers. That will also open doors for centre management, for ownership of yoga studios. We really need to amplify this more rapidly.”
Awoonor: “I have been in contact with a few studios that have reached out to me to gauge if I wanted to assist them in doing anti-racism work ... they realise this will be a year-long process at least, they do what I call the kumbaya version. And don't really delve into what needs to structurally change.”
Padayachi said: “I had a yoga studio owner tell me that good teachers teach. In other words, the good teachers are taken. And I refuse to accept that. As a person of colour it is not my responsibility to educate them. It is my responsibility to hold yoga studio owners accountable. I do know that the way forward is guided in the ancient practice of yoga. So we don't have to look very far.”