South Africa savors transformative World Cup moment
Rising into the predawn African sky, long before the sun on Friday morning, came the sound of the vuvuzelas.
They signaled the beginning of a historic day, the day when much of the sporting world’s attention — even in the U.S. — was focused not on the NBA Finals, not on baseball’s pennant races and not on the Chicago Blackhawks’ ongoing celebrations.
Instead, eyes were turned to a soccer game being played in Johannesburg, and not just any game but the first World Cup match to be played on African soil.
South Africa and Mexico were the protagonists, but it was really the home team’s special occasion. The beehive buzz of the vuvuzelas — the ubiquitous plastic horns — was not so much a joyous celebration of a sporting event but the sound of a nation coming together.
“It’s more than soccer,” Matshela Koko, the 42-year-old head of engineering at Eskom, South Africa’s power company, said as he approached Soccer City stadium, site of the 32-nation tournament’s opening ceremony and opening game.
“I’ve never seen South Africa like this. The last time I saw it was when Nelson Mandela was released. This day for me is the same. It’s a good feeling. It’s like when I voted for the first time.
“It’s [a] once-in-a-lifetime experience. It will never happen again. So I had to be here.”
The sentiment was echoed time and again by fans of all hues as they arrived for the afternoon match.
“This is the culmination of about four or five years of South African energy coming together, and it’s just fantastic,” said Keith Warren, 40, the Africa representative of an American fast-food company.
“It’s unifying the country; it’s symbolic of what it has meant to be a South African for the last 20 years. It’s just an incredible experience for us. It’s amazing for Africa.
“Everyone’s on fire. Everyone’s loving it. Everyone’s proud of being South African. Everyone’s proud of being African. I travel a lot, and Africa sees this as its World Cup, so it’s very, very special.”
Mandela himself could not be at the game. Frail health and the tragic death of his 13-year-old great-granddaughter, Zenani Mandela, in a car accident the night before kept the 91-year-old former South African president and Nobel Prize winner at home.
Jacob Zuma, South Africa’s current president, addressed fans before the match and passed along a message from Mandela.
“He said the game must go on, you must enjoy the game,” Zuma said. “The time for Africa has come. It has arrived.”
That was the feeling coursing through fans in the crowd of 84,490.
“I can’t explain it in words, but I can tell you one thing: This is the best country in Africa to do what we’re doing today,” said Tyrne Jacobs, 37, the director of a steel company.
“I’m English, she’s Afrikaans,” he said, gesturing toward his companion, “and that’s two different cultures in South Africa. Perhaps 94,000 people are going to watch this live, and we’re two of them.”
His companion, Leeann Strydom, 27, of Johannesburg, said she was a rugby fan first and foremost but that the World Cup had captured her attention.
“I’m learning to love both,” she said.
Ludwig May, a 33-year-old auditor, traveled north from Cape Town to attend the match.
“I think this World Cup means a lot to South Africa because what it’s going to mean is that we get united again,” he said. “We feel the spirit in South Africa … and we have a massive party.”
Inside Soccer City stadium, the party was in full swing, with all the music, dancing and pageantry of such events. But it was the sociopolitical implications of the World Cup that were foremost in fans’ minds.
“It’s really brought the country together,” said Adelle Govener, a therapist from Durban. “Everywhere you go, whichever city you got to, you can just see people coming together. It’s unified us.”
Will it last?
“We won’t know [until later],” said Govener’s companion, Taireshan Phillips, 28, a computer technician from Johannesburg. “It depends on the leaders as well. If they can learn from it, then we all can.”
And then it was time for the game. The 2010 World Cup, a potentially nation-changing event, was ready to begin.
