SUNDAY, JUNE 6, 2010
KLMNO South Africa welcomes the World Cup world cup from A14
ensure that we never lose the ability to have our announcers heard clearly and distinctly.” Nonetheless, Drake said, ESPN
didn’t lobby against the instru- ment. “We recognize that it’s a part of South African culture,” Drake said. “We’re not in a position to say that we want to alter that cul- ture. We realize that it’s there, and we’re going to capture its sound — if it doesn’t capture us first.” The history of the vuvuzela is in dispute. Some sources trace it to religious rituals of the early 1900s. Others say it derives from the kudu horn once used to sum- mon tribesmen to meetings. Saddam Maake, 55, claims he
invented the first vuvuzela in 1965, fashioning his bugle from a bicycle horn stripped of its rub- ber bladder.
According to Maake, he asked an industrialist friend in 1989 to make him a significantly longer vuvuzela from plastic so it would be louder and less threatening to carry around. And a phenom- enon was born, with brightly col- ored vuvuzelas soon as ubiqui- tous among South African soccer stands as foam-rubber Cheese- heads at Green Bay Packers games. To Maake, the vuvuzela ex- presses a range of positive emo- tions. “It is freedom! Independence!”
Maake says. “It encourages the soccer player and celebrates when he scores.” Asked if there were inappro-
priate occasions for blowing a vuvuzela, Maake cited three: During a national anthem, dur- ing a moment of silence for a fall- en player or official, and anytime
S
The World A15
ALEXANDER JOE/AGENCE FRANCE-PRESSE VIA GETTY IMAGES South African children play soccer in the mountains of Eastern Cape, near Port St Johns. South Africa will be hosting the 2010 World Cup beginning Friday.
in someone’s ear. “It’s bad for the ears,” he con-
ceded. That said, Maake vowed to be
the first among 48 million South Africans carted to jail in protest if FIFA banned the vuvuzela from the World Cup. “This is South Africa!” Maake
said. “We are host. So we have to show the people what we are, how we use the vuvuzela, how we enjoy it, how we are united.” But to Mondli Makhanya, for- mer editor-in-chief of the (Jo- hannesburg) Sunday Times, it is cause for lament, drowning out the songs that were sung at soc-
on
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World Cup explorer — Interactive map with news, schedules, rosters and standings for all 32 teams.
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cer matches throughout his childhood in Durban. Makhanya recently wrote a column express- ing his dismay, likening the vuvu- zela’s sound to that of a goat be- ing led to slaughter. He was deluged with phone calls and letters from a deeply di- vided readership — cheered for his stance by some, castigated for turning his back on South Afri- can culture by others. “Balderdash,” Makhanya says of the suggestion that the vuvu- zela is part of his nation’s culture. “You cannot describe it as cul- ture.
“I don’t want to be sentimen-
tal,” Makhanya continued. “But singing is very much a part of South African culture. During apartheid, we sung in the worst of times. When people were pro- testing, we sang. When people
were being shot, we sang. We sing vociferously in funerals; we sing vociferously at weddings. What this instrument has done is to take something away from the football culture. And I think that, rather than celebrating it, we should actually be mourning the death of song.” Renowned ethnomusicologist
Andrew Tracey finds the vuvuze- la a source of fascination and frustration. What struck him upon first hearing it was that ev- ery vuvuzela has the same pitch. B flat, to be precise. What addles Tracey, recently
retired from South Africa’s Rhodes University, is that he sees a potential for music in the in- strument. But it involves varying the length to create different pitches or blowing it in rhythmic patterns. And to date, his efforts
to promote such variations have fallen largely on dear ears. “It certainly is loud and mo- notonous,” Tracey said with re- gret. “And it doesn’t have to be.” But to D.C. United’s Thabiso “Boyzzz” Khumalo, who was born in Johannesburg’s Soweto township, that sound is a power- ful source of inspiration. Khuma- lo learned to play soccer as a child on the dirt fields of Soweto, using trashcans or rocks to mark off goals at each end of the make- shift pitch. Later, as a promising teenage player, he was lifted by the vuvuzelas’ blare.
“Growing up in South Africa, it gives you that extra feeling,” Khumalo said. “You feel like you can play the whole game — the whole day — as long as the vuvu- zela is playing.”
clarkel@washpost.com
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