Yesterday on July 2nd, I was at my father’s house in the township of Khayelitsha when the soccer game started between Ghana and Uruguay. My father who is 90 years old was lying on the bed – he is disabled and needs a wheelchair to move around. He listened to the game on the radio because he enjoys the radio more than TV – he says that radio explains more than TV. I was surprised that at that time of night he was not sleeping. He opened the radio loudly which I think shows that he is a proud African – that he feels the spirit, that connection of being an African.
I think the support of Africans around Ghana shows that Xenophobic anger in South Africa is not because we don’t love other Africans. It is financial difficulty that has caused the Xenophobia here, not hatred. When Ghana scored against Uruguay, everyone was excited. Unfortunately I don’t have a vuvuezala, but I went outside to see if there was anyone in the streets. I heard some vuvuzelas, kids were not sleeping. People did not give up on the World Cup or on Africa because Bafana Bafana lost. Ghana stood for our continent.
I went to the street where some Ghanaian people stay – there were songs, vuvuzelas and it was a party atmosphere. Instead of them celebrating alone they came together for the Cup. I was quite surprised to see the reaction to the South African people – Everyone was excited.
I think that the World Cup did play an important role in combining people, especially South Africans and other African countries even though we live with a tension between other Africans and South Africans. I noticed when looking at the game on TV that the stadium was full of different people – the world is being driven by the ball. Football makes us one, speaking the same language. Football has made all of us forget everything like Xenophobia, poverty, crime and just concentrate on the ball in the moment.
The support for Ghana that came from the township did surprise me because I didn’t expect Black South Africans to be so engaged around another African team. This is because we often hear that after the World Cup, the Xenophobia disease would arrive (fighting). But yesterday, everyone was feeling it. Everyone supported the team on the fields, the fans were yelling cheers at them or blowing vuvuzelas.
I also noticed that after Ghana lost, the streets were quiet, and there were no longer vuvuzelas. Everyone was upset because Ghana didn’t make it. They had the bad feeling that we lost. Even in the stadium, I noticed on TV the people’s expressions – there was no longer that vibe of happiness.
All I can say is that football is a body language which allows an amazing communication of joy and happiness throughout the world. My message is that if we all can work together to beat racism, crime, Xenophobia and stop killing each other, the world will be clean and the Creator of the world will stay happy. Working together, with each other, we can make it happen.
By Lindeka Qampi for Yenza (Copyright Yenza 2010)
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