The Royal Wedding frenzy and the way in which it got the whole world excited (well most of the world) made me think about how it felt when South Africa hosted the World Cup last year. I truly miss that feeling of unity my country shared. I guess that’s why I’m not rolling my eyes at the Brits ‘cause I know how it feels to be part of something which the whole nation can be excited about.
Since the announcement went out that South Africa was going to be hosting the 2010 Soccer World Cup my grade in high school called ourselves the 2010 Matrics. It was like 2010 hadn’t truly started until kick-off of the first game on the 11th of June. The build up to the opening was the most rousing part. My whole school even got time off so that someone could teach us how to do the diski, which was labelled the official dance of the World Cup.
Before the opening game my sister and I walked around our neighbourhood blowing our vuvuzelas and waving our South African flags wildly. The whole family and a group of our friends gathered around the TV and waited what felt like an hour (probably was an hour) for the celebrations to be our so that the game and thus the tournament could officially start. I remember jumping up and down as South Africa scored the first goal of the tournament and laughing as our team danced on the side-lines to celebrate. During the following days I ended almost every day by settling down in front of the TV with a blanket and a cup of tea watching the games with my various family members and groups of friends. For one whole month we all forgot about the problems that our country faced and we all teamed together to support our team Bafana Banfana! Sure, we didn’t have high hopes for the team in the beginning, but for that whole month it felt like we were unified by one event.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I don’t blame to the British nation for making such a fuss about the Royal Wedding. In today’s world, and I’ve mentioned this before, there is so much negativity, that each nations needs something to lift the nation’s spirits. Things like that, national events, brings a nation together. I know it’s idealistic to think like this, but one event can solve all the country’s problems, but that’s not what I’m saying. Events like World Cup or the Royal Wedding make us forget about the problems and give us hope that for one moment things can be prefect….
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