FOOTBALL FIESTA...SOUTH AFRICAN STYLE

I am not much of a soccer fan by any stretch, but I am looking forward to next year's Fifa World Cup, which will be kicking off June 11th in South Africa. The World Cup trophy arrived in SA on Tuesday. I am looking forward to the tournament because of what the tournament means to the country. It will transform lives of its people. To be sure, it will not eradicate townships, put an end to HIV/Aids, or stop the violent crime. But the tournament means a great deal to the people. It's more symbolic than anything else--a symbol of hope. Having been a student of South African History in grad school, I learned about the terror apartheid reigned upon its black South Africans at the hands of Afrikaners. South African President Zuma said in an interview (Mail & Guardian Online): "All of us who were in that struggle [against apartheid] said: 'One day we are going to be a democratic South Africa, one day we are going to be a member of Fifa, one day we are going to host this World Cup'." Apartheid collapsed only 15 years ago. South Africa, a country of 49-million souls and 11 official languages, can already claim to have had one unifying moment through sport, with the 1995 Rugby World Cup win on home turf, which was deployed by Mandela to narrow the gulf between white Afrikaner culture and that of the newly emancipated black majority. And, opening on December 11th, will be the Clint Eastwood film--INVICTUS--starring Morgan Freeman as Nelson Mandela, and I can't wait! The rugby victory had its own symbolism--the unification of a country that had been violently divided because of apartheid. The 2010 Fifa World Cup is the next stage on from racial rapprochement. I just hope that South Africa, with 450,000 foreigners coming in for 64 matches, will be able to contain the excitement that comes from these matches. The sport is taken very seriously on this side of the hemisphere!