May 12, 2010

Ballad of a South African Football Fan: 16 years after the end of apartheid in South Africa and one month before the first ever World Cup to be held in Africa begins, Raymond Whitaker writes about his memories of football (not rugby) in South Africa in the 60s and 70s. As a young white who yearned for the barriers of apartheid to be demolished, I was overwhelmed. For the first time in my life in South Africa, white and black people were hoarse with mutual joy, chanting "Jo-mo! Jo-mo!" All the restrictions and suspicions of South African life were forgotten for a couple of hours; instead we saw what was possible when everybody had a common purpose. But look at that date again. It was exactly three months before June 16th 1976, when police opened fire on black students in Soweto -- another event I witnessed -- and an uprising began that did not cease until Nelson Mandela was free. Clint Eastwood's recent film "Invictus" suggests that the 1995 rugby World Cup final was the game that united black and white South Africans, but at the Rand Stadium on that March night we glimpsed what took the best part of two more decades to come to pass. Never was a game more beautiful: it still chokes me up to think of it (via MetaFilter).

posted by rcade to soccer at 08:46 AM - 1 comment