The Vuvuzela Gees

Hello Everyone,

When I arrived in Johannesburg a month ago, someone asked me if I could feel the gees (an Afrikaans word rhyming with “see us” and pronounced using 12 muscles in the back of your throat). I quickly learned that gees means “spirit” and in this case, referred to the nationwide atmosphere that is accompanying the World Cup festivities. To be honest, I am usually not a gung-ho participant in spirit-oriented activities. My least favorite event in high school after prom was Spirit Week because I found it so stressful to think of creative outfits to wear. Couldn’t we forget all this nonsense and just get on with our learning? (I have since learned how to have fun which I’m sure has been a significant relief to most people around me.)

The spirit here, however, seems a bit different. People are comparing it to the elections in 1994 or the Rugby World Cup in 1995, which the movie Invictus dramatized. In the Apartheid Museum in Johannesburg, we were told that under the old government, one way to tell what race a man was by the sport he played. White people played rugby; black people played soccer. The Springboks (the national rugby team) was white; Bafana Bafana (the national soccer team) was black. The two teams are still mostly divided along racial lines, but it is a sign of how far this country has come to see how uniformly South Africans participate in the excitement surrounding the tournament. Everyone, it seems, has some kind of Bafana Bafana paraphernalia. Black and white take a back seat to green and gold.

A parade my mom saw in the days leading up to the World Cup.


On the corner of every street in Johannesburg, it seems,
there is someone wanting to sell you flags.



First Day of the World Cup: workers taking a break to play Foosball
in the Rosebank Mall in Johannesburg.

These folks seem to be supporting everyone!

Xolisa displays the gees.

Everyone talks about it. People who have never watched a soccer game in their life are finding themselves shrieking at their TV screens in fits of unbridled passion. The World Cup has replaced the weather as the natural, neutral conversation starter, and mentioning it has even gotten a few folks we know out of traffic violation fines.

The 2010 World Cup will probably be remembered for some surprising results -- already football giants like Brazil, England, France, Argentina have been sent home. But without a doubt, South Africa will be known for being the host country to introduce the world to the vuvuzela. For those of you who may not be familiar with this instrument, it is a slender horn, usually made from colorful plastic which you play after your team has scored a goal, or if your team hasn’t scored in a while, or if your team qualified for the World Cup, or even if you happen to be thinking about soccer at all. It is essentially a kazoo on steroids. If you have been watching any of the matches on TV, you would have heard a perpetual buzzing noise coming from the crowd. This isn’t angry African hornets, but swarms of congregating vuvuzela players. Individual vuvuzelas sound like wild geese tuning up at a middle school band concert. It is not the most melodic of instruments, but more than anything else, it has come to exemplify and relate the South African gees to the world. What’s more, they have taken off elsewhere and have become so popular that the officials at Wimbledon preemptively banned them this year.

From the stadium in Johannesburg . . .

. . . to the garbage dumps of Mthatha . . .


. . . everyone loves the vuvuzela!



A young Bafana Bafana fan wearing what have been dubbed "shushuzelas" in his ears.

Of course, South Africans played their vuvuzelas most excitedly during the matches in which Bafana Bafana played. South Africa scored the first goal of the tournament to tie their match with Mexico. In their match against Uruguay, they lost 0-3 due to some unfair refereeing and a lot poor playing on their part. Because of the significant goal differential from this game, the chances were very low that they could make it to the second round. Everything depended on their match with France and the outcome of the Mexico-Uruguay match. I was listening to both matches on the radio of a bus on my way to Grahamstown. Bafana Bafana scored quite quickly and everyone perked up. France seemed in disarray and soon one of their players got a red card. Things were looking up. When they scored their second goal, the entire bus erupted in cheers. We were just pulling into East London and there was an enormous full rainbow stretching over the city. It was cliché and perfect -- the Rainbow Nation’s hopes were sailing. If we could get two goals in the first half, there was a chance we could get enough to make it through to the next round. As we came into the city, people came out onto the sidewalks to waive and blow their vuvuzelas at us.

The sun was setting as we pulled out of East London and the second half began. France ended up scoring and the game ended in a Bafana win 2-1. This wasn’t enough to move onto the next round, but it was a good way to end the tournament, especially since France has been such a formidable team in the past. Of course, people were disappointed, but in general, the attitude seemed to be that Bafana Bafana did better than anyone expected them to and that’s good enough. As we get further from the initial round, the first and especially the final match South African played morph from news reports into legends and begin to take their place alongside the other stories this country tells itself.

People are divided about what the World Cup is doing to South Africa. Some folks are upset that so much money and energy can be put into something so temporary. If the government can get its act together and show off to the world for one month, surely they could work with similar vigor to battle the ever-present demons in the departments of education, healthcare and the environment? To a large extent, I agree. If I had to choose between quality education for the country’s primary schoolchildren or a well run soccer tournament, of course I would choose the former. I’m sure most sane people would.

And yet, nobody ever has all of their ducks in a row. I doubt that if South Africa had been denied the World Cup, people would have collectively said, “Well, with the extra time, energy, and resources, why don’t we tackle, say, the HIV/AIDS problem in this country?” I’m beginning to conclude that South Africans run their country the way that Bafana Bafana plays soccer: in fits and starts. Sometimes they fail miserably. Sometimes they defy our wildest expectations. You could never call them average, but on average, they do alright. I’ll leave it to wiser minds to decide whether that is good enough.

A few days ago, my family and I visited an older woman who we first met 20 years ago. Since we last saw her, she has had a stroke and has developed epilepsy. She must have round-the-clock care and can’t do even the simplest tasks without help. She told us that one blessing that has come as a result of the stroke is that she now has time to sit, think, pray and reminisce. She said she is more at peace than she ever has been. This lady reminded me of how important memories are in maintaining relationships and in continuing to hope. Yes, it’s unhealthy to live in the past, but it can sustain you when the present seems unable to.

Every so often, there is an event that unites an entire country. In the U.S. the only time I have experienced this was on and after September 11th, 2001. For better or for worse, people in S. A. still depend on memories of the democratic elections in 1994 as a source of strength and unity. A few years from now, when the knock-off green and gold jerseys have begun to fray at the edges and when what are now glistening new stadiums have begun to age, people will be left with stories of Tshabala’s gorgeous goals or the nationwide outrage against Khune’s (completely unmerited and idiotically-inspired) red card. People will still talk about crowding into fan parks or a friend’s living room to watch the matches. Such stories will reignite the gees which is currently uniting South Africa and for that alone, I think the World Cup is worth it.

At the very least, it’s given South Africans vuvuzela players a worldwide stage on which to perform!

Have a good week,
Sarah/Mouse