The noise heard around the World Cup is not just the vuvuzela horns that are blaring at each game. France's Patrice Evra started the debate about whether the vuvuzelas are now become a distraction to the players.
Kevin Blackstone writes about why the vuvuzela is critical to be included in South Africa's World Cup.
According to history, the first Europeans invaded southern Africa in 1488 at a place now called Mossel Bay a good drive east of the World Cup venue here named Green Point Stadium. They eventually imposed all manner of their way of living, particularly pernicious, on the indigenous people who forever called this land home.
The most recent invasion of Europeans began earlier this months when tens of thousands of fans of the 13 European countries that qualified for the first holding of this quadrennial global soccer championship in Africa started pouring in. And many of them are not much removed from the thinking of their ancestors.
To be sure, some of them carped in recent days about the deafening drone of what has become the iconic symbol of Africa's first World Cup -- a meter-long plastic horn called the vuvuzela.
They complained to World Cup governors that the vuvuzelas are too loud and, most annoying of all, disrespectful. How's that? They drown out the European soccer custom of singing songs, created often out of popular tunes, just for the teams Europeans follow.
Their complaining got so robust the past few days, and was joined by a few players and coaches who said they couldn't hear their play calls, that the organizers of this World Cup felt compelled to respond.
It was a good thing to hear on Monday, however, from World Cup boss Sepp Blatter, a Swiss native, that his fellow Europeans complaints fell on deaf ears.
"I don't see banning the music traditions of fans in their own country," Blatter said. "Would you want to see a ban on the fan traditions in your country?"
This may be the World Cup, but it is Africa's World Cup just like over half of the previous 18 were Europe's. Taking away the vuvuzela would be nothing short of another page of cultural imperialism exercised by Europe on Africa.
After all, the vuvu, as some have shortened the popular name to now, isn't just African. It isn't just South African. It is black South African. It is to black South African soccer what the black college marching band is to college football. It just happened to get appropriated, implemented and soon exported world over by this tournament.
The most recent invasion of Europeans began earlier this months when tens of thousands of fans of the 13 European countries that qualified for the first holding of this quadrennial global soccer championship in Africa started pouring in. And many of them are not much removed from the thinking of their ancestors.
To be sure, some of them carped in recent days about the deafening drone of what has become the iconic symbol of Africa's first World Cup -- a meter-long plastic horn called the vuvuzela.
They complained to World Cup governors that the vuvuzelas are too loud and, most annoying of all, disrespectful. How's that? They drown out the European soccer custom of singing songs, created often out of popular tunes, just for the teams Europeans follow.
Their complaining got so robust the past few days, and was joined by a few players and coaches who said they couldn't hear their play calls, that the organizers of this World Cup felt compelled to respond.
It was a good thing to hear on Monday, however, from World Cup boss Sepp Blatter, a Swiss native, that his fellow Europeans complaints fell on deaf ears.
"I don't see banning the music traditions of fans in their own country," Blatter said. "Would you want to see a ban on the fan traditions in your country?"
This may be the World Cup, but it is Africa's World Cup just like over half of the previous 18 were Europe's. Taking away the vuvuzela would be nothing short of another page of cultural imperialism exercised by Europe on Africa.
After all, the vuvu, as some have shortened the popular name to now, isn't just African. It isn't just South African. It is black South African. It is to black South African soccer what the black college marching band is to college football. It just happened to get appropriated, implemented and soon exported world over by this tournament.
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