We did it, we showed the world'

[tabatha]

Sunday's final will crown a World Cup that has united a nation. But if South Africa can deliver a global mega-event, why can't it tackle its inequality with the same energy and efficiency?

Sixteen years after experiencing the unforgettable rush of belonging and relief at Nelson Mandela's inauguration in 1994, I felt it again last month: at the Free State stadium in Bloemfontein, watching the South African national team play their last World Cup game on 22 June. We beat France 2-1, and although the victory was insufficient to qualify us into the next round, the consensus across the country following the game was that "we won!"

Why? First, because the Bafana Bafana played at last with optimism, unity, and occasional brilliance; as good a recipe as any for a nascent national identity. Second, because we proved to a sceptical world -- and thus ourselves -- that we could host a World Cup, a hopeful corrective against the negativity that keeps tourists and investment away. Third, because if our government could deliver the world's biggest mega-sporting event so efficiently, surely it could tackle South Africa's social and economic ills with similar resolve. But "we won" most of all, because we could finally say "we".

Just a few weeks previously, the Afrikaner right-wing leader Eugène Terre'Blanche had been killed by a black employee, and the world was predicting civil war. The African National Congress youth leader, Julius Malema, had defied his party by refusing to stop singing an old liberation song, Kill the Boer, and by calling for the dispossession of white farms. The racial temperature had never been higher.

But something shifted during the World Cup: with a team to support and half a million guests to take care of, we found ourselves all on the same side. The festive buzz of a million vuvuzelas came to override the habitual sounds of urban anxiety: the gunfire; the helicopters chasing stolen cars; the aggressive minibus taxis. Sure, it was holiday-time: daily matches, skiving from work, the cities aglitter with flags and foreigners. Still, for the first time in South Africa's history, it seemed, patriotism was not a political statement. South Africans were waving flags, and supporting their team out of a sense of joy and belonging, rather than the deficit-driven pride that has fuelled both Afrikaner and African nationalism for so long.

http://www.mg.co.za/article/2010-07-10-we-did-it-showed-the-world

long but nice article.

[XOKCowboy]

1. Recommend all but the vuvuzelas :)

Nice article. I think they did a great job.

[tabatha]

2. Actually, I think the vuvuzelas helped

foster the "we". People who have attended the games have said they contribute to the excitement.