African Odyssey: Report 2

June 18, 2010

World Cup Fever has officially hit South Africa. There is nothing you can say except that the World Cup is everywhere, and it hopes to unite the nation. As I arrived at OR Tambo Int'l Airport last Wednesday, I was greeted by a mariachi band, playing live in the airport lobby, as well as greeters, much like you see at Walmart. The entire airport, nee the whole nation, is dressed up nice with large welcome posters and the obligatory Coca Cola ads.

And if there is one thing that says South Africa 2010 like nothing else, it's the vuvuzela. As my taxi sped down the newly completed highway from the airport towards town, I was greeted by mobs of thousands, dressed up in various outfits and lining the roads, blowing their own horns. What an odd sight, people literally just standing on freeway overpasses, exit ramps, and street corners all dressed up and blowing the vuvu. Had they nothing better to do? Some, I suspect, did not. Only later did I come to learn that 12:00 noon, Wednesday June 9th was National Blow Your Horn To Support Bafana Bafana (the South African team) Day. So it wasn't all just for me...

The next morning, my first in South Africa, I was awakened by the sound of a vuvuzela at 5 in the morning. I kid you not. Believe the hype.

Further, the hopes of South Africa rest rather firmly on this event. For anyone who has seen the movie Invictus, the parallels are obvious. In 1995, just five years after the end of aparteid and one year after the first free and open elections, newly elected President Nelson Mandela got the nation behind the Rugby World Cup. South Africa won the tournament, and fears of civil war were quieted.

Now, in 2010, the Soccer World Cup seeks to do nothing less than unite the fractured nation and races to a new level. Fiveteen years after the end of white rule, the decendants of British, Dutch, and Africans almost uniformly seem to want to move on past race, and start worrying about the business of making all of South Africa a better place. Their may be deep seeded stereotypes or racism, but every South African you meet certainly says all the right things.

As one very nice White South African told us, "Just like they supported our rugby, we're going to support their soccer." He didn't mean it in a racist or negative way - in South Africa, rugby is a traditionally a white sport, and soccer a black sport. And if you are measuring progress in numbers, the SA Springboks rugby team, ranked first in the world, now regularly starts six black players, up from only one in 1995.

Another great benefit of being at the World Cup is that people from around the globe are here. The Dutch in their orange. Every bandwagon follower in Brazil's yellow. The English in their pale white.

One Mexican man, interviewed at the airport by MTV, was dressed in the traditional Mexican peasant garb of a pancho and sandals. He reported to the interviewer that he had sold all of his earthly possessions to fly to South Africa and watch his beloved TriColores team. He had no idea where he was staying or how to get into games, but if there is any justice in this world, he will be just fine.

Finally, at the USA vs England game in Rustenburg, I saw a new kind of fan. The American fan. Dressed as Rocky, draped in the American Flag from Rocky 3, where he fights the evil Soviet, Ivan Drago. In costume as American icons Abe Lincoln and Ben Franklin, not Britney Spears or Michael Jackson. Wearing a Davy Crockett coonskin cap. These are not soccer moms. They are a new breed of soccer fan from the USA. Patriotic as you can be, while supporting the world's game, soccer. And in numbers ten times more than at Germany in 2006. They make me proud. Proud to be an American, and proud to cheer for our nation.

So today i say: Go USA!

Matthew-