Blowing our Vuvuzelas loud and proud

The 2010 FIFA World Cup is finally here and it’s all ‘lights, camera and action’ for the continent of Africa. The fact that we can have the word light and Africa in the same sentence is a sign that this is time for an African renaissance as Thabo Mbeki the former South African leader would say. The amazing announcement was made way back in 2004 that the 2010 edition of the prestigious tournament would be hosted on the African continent for the first time in its history. It was indeed a dream come true for two men in particular. The FIFA president Sepp Blatter had unambiguously vowed years before that he would do everything possible to see the tournament coming to Africa. Another man who did all in his might to see that the World Cup came to Africa was the world’s only living legend, Nelson Mandela a.k.a Madiba. With his global appeal, he pushed all his weight behind this project and it is simply awesome that he is alive to witness this dream come true. It is only fair for the man who epitomises South Africa’s historical struggles to have been a part of this historical moment. From the time it was announced that Africa was to host the tournament, many people on the continent considered it an opportunity for the continent to showcase its best for the rest of the world to see. Unfortunately this was not to be. The western domination of global media has instead used it as an opportunity to bring out the worst in South Africa. “Stay away from poor neighbourhoods in South Africa…don’t sleep with the women they are all sick of HIV…” That was the travel ‘advice’ from Peter Ryan to European fans. Others have gone on and on about crime statistics, poverty, HIV and have enjoyed to do their coverage with the slums instead of the stadiums in the background. There have been reports of how many condoms South Africa will need and how Britain had donated condoms to the ‘HIV plagued’ South Africa. Then we were told of the branded anti-stab jackets! Even Zuma’s polygamous lifestyle has had more coverage than the progress of the home team. African journalists have to heed the message from the Al Jazeera journalist Rageh Omaar who told Namibia’s New Era newspaper that African journalists have a duty to protect the image of the World Cup by jealously guarding the tournament through objective reporting. The beauty of things really is that the overwhelmingly negative western media coverage has not succeeded in its primary goal of arm-twisting FIFA to change the host nation. At one point there was so much noise about how the stadiums would not be completed by the time the tournament kicked off, ostensibly due to the Western created credit crunch. To be sincere, wading off the negative media coverage of the tournament has proven a much harder task than campaigning to have the tournament in the first place. In January, FIFA General Secretary, Jerome Valcke cited media in England and Germany, as being behind a wave of negative publicity ahead of the World Cup in South Africa. Like the biblical log in one’s eye, the English and Germans who are hell bent on portraying South Africa as a very dangerous place to be, are only using selective amnesia since the Berlin Olympic Games are mainly remembered for the incidence of terrorists kidnapping athletes. Meanwhile London that will host the 2012 Olympic Games has in the recent past been a victim of a deadly terrorist attack when bombs exploded in several buses. Even today, a European capital is more likely to have a terrorist attack than any sub-Saharan capital. Ironically, available statistics from FIFA still show that the biggest group of fans coming for the World Cup are from the United Sates. UK, Germany, Australia, Mexico and Canada follow in that in order. Is this not a sign that the negative media is of no serious consequence? This is because all the bad things that are being said about South Africa have been said for the last 30 years or so and in numerous Western media houses this is not likely to change in the near future. There is just nothing new here. ‘It’s up to Africa and its media to blow its own trumpet to suppress such negative reporting,” says Omaar. The good thing is that Africa has something bigger than a trumpet. The Vuvuzela which is credited with ‘irritating’ European coaches and players during football games should be blown in the faces of those journalists who are in South Africa to cover crime instead of the beautiful game. Blow it loud and proud as you enjoy a truly African experience. ssenyonga@gmail.com