Africans in 'arms' always!!!

Take a bow South Africa, take a bow!

We felt it, it was here and now it has left. Months and months of planning came down to just one. One month in which the rest of the world and those of us still sceptical in South Africa, were invited to pull out our deck chairs, stock up on our beverage and foods of choice, choose the best place to sit and watch the greatest sporting event in the world happen right in our backyards; and boy, what a show it was.

I watched the opening concert with a friend the night before the opening game at soccer city, SA vs Mexico. Truth be told that concert had as many bloopers as much as it did great moments, for one thing – who the heck were some those other guys? What, Oliver Mtukuzi was just too busy to come to the party? But I digress.

After the ‘randoms’ had finally left the stage and order restored with the ever amazing Angelic Kidjo, John Legend, Alicia keys etc; we continued to sit in silence and I believe for the first time the both of us finally realising, better yet, FEELING that indeed it Is Here and we were mere hours away from being part history.

After what seemed like ages, in which we both were lost in the greatness of it all, I snap out of it and ask ; “buddy, what happens now, what do we do after this”. Wide eyed and excited as I was, he turned and asked the same question. For us both, this felt like what I could only imagine should feel like once one has accomplished what they were destined to do in life.

The night continued with more performances from all the other acts while outside the sounds of the national horn, the Vuvuzela trumpeted long into the night. It felt as though the country was about to be engulfed in an inferno of spectacular proportions, of insurmountable bliss, one that would be equalled by none for a very long time to come.

At the dawn of the actual day, before even a ball had been kicked many of the daily prophets of doom had long been converted and the small faction left still predicting failure of apocalyptic measures speaking in a hushed voice only audible to the people residing in their heads.

Soccer lover or not, the whole of SA complete in dungarees of a township school, to the tunics of suburbia, the blue overalls of the minimum wage employee to the neatly pressed designer suit of corporate hotshots; none was exempt from the heat wave that was the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa.

During Bafana’s do-or-die match against France, a British commentator (quite probably a former naysayer) noted a verse in the SA national anthem – “sounds the call to come together and united we shall stand”. He went on to say that with all that he had witnessed so far in the tournament, even the outcome of that particular match seemed insignificant when compared to the true winners of the tournament – the people of SA.

The worst kinds of outcomes were predicted for this world cup even before it began, but by the time the first match kicked off, all the critics were silenced. And by the end of the match one could easily conclude that this, the South African world cup would be the most memorable.

Sadly, before even the final whistle was blown and with the taste of FIFA still lingering in our mouths, rumours of xenophobic attacks began to do the rounds. Not more than 48 hours since South Africans stood side by side with their African brothers and sisters cheering on the Ghanaian black stars, were the very same people (it is alleged) pronouncing plans of destruction.
Like a one night stand that had shown promise but turned out a disappointment, the disgruntled patrons warned of pillaging and burning at the stake for anyone who overstayed their welcome. And there, just as I was about to shout at the roof tops for South Africa to take a bow for our achievement, I hung my head in shame. Ashamed of the unceremonious way in which our people chased off other Africans out onto the cold winter nights mere hours after standing as one with them, effectively undoing work that had taken years to accomplish for our people and the people of Africa. Ashamed also of the initial reactions from our leaders, who easily dismissed any such threats and acts which followed as petty crimes unrelated to black on black violence. Saddened also, that what should have been a week of triumphant reflection on a month of bliss for all, was being undone by the acts of few with no respect or care for the effects of their action on others.

We sounded the call to come together and make the World Cup a success, the people of South Africa answered and our goal was achieved. When things went ‘south’ for Bafana, again a call was sounded for us all to rally behind the African teams still competing and without hesitation, gold and green mixed with red and gold sometimes even exchanged entirely for the colours of the black stars. It is time to sound the call again, to stop the violence, the blame game and embrace other Africans the way we did not more than 30 days ago.
Until then, the work we have done, the fruits we should be reaping now will lie in rot; undone by our inability to look at the bigger picture, to look beyond our own needs towards those of our society and the people of Africa.

‘With great power comes great responsibility’, our government may not have shown great examples of taking responsibility. It is therefore up to us the people of South Africa to show our leaders the responsibility we have for other Africans in need.

Then, and only then may South Africa take a bow, for it would have done us proud.