I love Vuvuzela. The name itself has built-in poesy, which we want the world to get comfortable with. It's a new comfort zone we're offering, and we're willing to compromise.
I've recently (4 to 6 weeks ago) heard the Vuvuzela on the streets of Nairobi -- "my city, my life" -- and was pleased that it was at last here. The Vuvuzela-laden commercial I've seen on TV is heart-warming, and calls to mind the Africanness in all of us Africans. And I have seen and heard, on TV, the Vuvuzela "at full play", most currently at the FIFA Confederations Cup tournament in South Africa.
I haven't been to a live soccer match for decades, though, so I don't know if a multitude of Vuvuzelas in full blast (there is no other kind of blast here) exceeds the tolerable decibel level -- for the scientist and for reasonable men and women (young and old) -- when you are actually in there for over ninety loud and clear minutes. And I don't know what the ardent and not so ardent fan really, really thinks about the incessant bleat that's the hallmark of a jam-packed South African or other stadium. But, clearly, there are concerns being raised in important stake-holder quarters, which call for give-and-take.
Vuvuzela's haunting, primeval, elephantile bleat has something aroused and arousing about it. Something trenchant, even, when you flip the coin. It gets the soul going, but not, I suppose, that of the opponent -- or that of someone more used to a sedate (sedated?) kind of mass gathering and participation.
The question to be answered by FIFA in the not too distant future, well before 2010, is: Is too much of a/an (always good) Vuvuzela -- is making too concentrated a bleat of it -- too much to be any longer good at any one place of fun and merriment? Alternatively, is Vuvuzela a great African contribution to soccer fandom, or a fun but noise polluting and irritating instrument which Sepp Blatter, FIFA's boss, only pretends to love, for now; that is, till he is rid of his current hosts?
I think we can eat our cake and have it, Vuvuzela addicts. Outright ban would be too cruel and unbecoming, appearing as it would to be culturally particularistic. I think the use of Vuvuzela can be allowed on strictly enforced terms. Thus (a) you can choose to allow only a limited number of designated groups of entertainers (or bands)to enter the stadium with an ensemble of Vuvuzelas and other instruments (remember, not every Brazilian soccer fan enters the stadium with a Samba instrument); or, (b) you can permit only a specified percentage of paying fans, say 5-10% -- issued ahead of time with special tickets or tags -- to enter the stadium with Vuvuzelas.
Bottom line: We're going to have Vuvuzela, and we're going to have fun in 2010! And the Great She Elephant, wherever she'll be watching from, will, I believe, approve!
2 comments:
I am from the USA, wathcing the games with the sound of the Vuvuzela is great on tv, almost inspiring, I can only imagine the sound there. Those who complain about the sound need to shut up and enjoy the game and experience the culture.
Sorry to be replying to your comment more than six years late. You won't believe that I have just seen it. I've had that kind of habit.
I'm in complete agreement with what you say.
I did go to the FIFA World Cup 2010 in SA, But when I wrote this piece, almost a year to the World Cup, I had no idea whatsoever that I would be headed to Jo'burg within a year!
Re-reading my post now, I detect no premonition at all of the trip I was destined to make down south. We had lots of fun there, me and my wife, though we watched only one match live -- the Ghana-Uruguay match. You know how that turned out.
As a #meme, Vuvuzela was integral to all the fun we had, though, I can tell you.
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