Posted on June 21, 2010
But dig a little deeper and you'll find that it's probably not just support for the national soccer team that lies behind this colourful show. It feels as if a new wave of patriotism is surging through the country and, for many, flying the flag is a way of affirming a precarious identity; for saying, somewhat tentatively, that 'for once, we're all in this together, we're all South Africans'. We certainly haven't seen such a public display of the flag since bundles of them were handed out in 1994. As Pippa Green observes, there's a difference between then and now, because 'for the first time since 1994, flying the flag is not a political statement. It's just a statement of belonging. People are flying the flag just because they're happy and possibly even proud.'
And I wonder who 'we' and 'us' are, what the mass display of flags means, and why sport is deemed to unite us.
It's coincidentally a century since the formation of the Union of South Africa. A hundred years since all the people, a mixed bag of ethnic, cultural and religious groups, living within a particular area, were declared to be South Africans, under a common flag. It took eighteen years to negotiate a new flag that acknowledged the separate histories of the independent Boer republics and the British colonies. But, it was never a flag that enjoyed popular support. For thirty years tensions simmered between those who supported and those who opposed the colonial power because the South African flag was always flown in a subordinate position to the Union Jack. And, for many South Africans, black and white, it came to symbolise the oppressive racism of the apartheid regime; and there are still those who call for it to be banned, or say that the only place for it is in a museum. It's been a tumultuous hundred years, in which there was always and'us' and a'them', but never a 'we'; a time during which some South Africans were denied citizenship and all the rights and responsibilities associated with it while others claimed power and privilege on the grounds of skin colour alone. But now we're all South Africans, for better or for worse - or until some of us try to secede.
But what do we share? What binds us together? How do we reconcile the haunting inequities of the past ?
In 1995 South Africa hosted another great sporting event, the Rugby World Cup. Nelson Mandela, our then newly elected president, seized this as an opportunity to deepen reconciliation. Throwing his weight behind the national rugby team, he exhorted the country to support them, saying, 'the Boks belong to all of us now'. Mandela persevered, in the face of resistance from those who considered rugby to be the sport of the oppressor and despite the fact that Black supporters made a point of cheering vociferously for any team that opposed the national side. The South African Rugby Union did their bit too, picking up on the message of reconciliation with the slogan, 'One Team, One Country'and drilled the Boks till their rendition of the new national anthem was word perfect. Who can forget the image of Mandela, striding out onto the field wearing the green Springbok shirt, a gesture signalling reconciliation to South Africans, black and white? South Africa went on to win the World Cup against tough odds and, when he handed over the trophy to the Springboks, Mandela thanked the captain for what he had done for the country. 'No', replied Francoise Pienaar, 'Mr President, 'thank you for what you have done.' Journalists claim there wasn't a dry eye in the house after that exchange, and the moment has gone down in our history as a landmark on the road to reconciliation - and on cinema screens internationally.
A year later, Mandela was on hand once more to present the African Cup of Nations trophy to Bafana Bafana. In his speech following the win, Mandela praised the team, saying that 'Our sportspeople are truly amongst the pioneers of the new South Africa, nation builders and promoters of reconciliation par excellence,' adding that 'sport has the power to overcome old divisions and create the bond of common aspirations,' and thanking the team 'for your contribution to the New Patriotism that is bearing our country towards its goal of being a truly non-racial democracy'.
Now in 2010, we celebrate another World Cup, the largest media event in the world, and the second largest sporting event after the Olympic Games.
But the landscape is not as it was in the 1990s. For one thing, while much mention has been made of a united front the reconciliation agenda has been underplayed. We've all been urged to support Bafana Bafana, not because it will bring us together, but because that's what citizens do; they support the teams that carry the hopes of the nation. For another, while the message of the 1990s was that the world welcomed South Africa; in 2010 we're welcoming the world and every citizen has been tasked with being a host and given a proactive role to play in the event.
Everyone's complimenting everyone else on the supreme effort that's been made to put our house in order for this event. There's a sense that if we have pulled this off, we may be equal to the enormous challenges we face in respect of housing, health and poverty eradication. It's beginning to feel as if we, as a nation, have regained a degree of hope in being able to realise the vision of a 'rainbow nation, at peace with itself', that for once we're imagining what could be.
Looking at the crowds, there's a strong sense of who we want to be, who we have become. There's very little that supports the perception of Africa as a dark and primitive continent, wracked by poverty and disease and violence. Indeed its refreshing to see that there's something very contemporary, rather cosmopolitan about the people filling the stadiums and thronging the fanparks. Look at way in which the extraordinary costumes, the songs and dances - even our newest national icon, the ubiquitous plastic vuvuzela - give tradition a contemporary cosmopolitan twist. We're re-imagining oursleves in the here and now, shedding our identities as slaves to a tortured history and moving forward; finding a place in a cosmopolitan world. We're carrying the past with us, but creatively so. We're even taking the strike by security guards, which could have been seen as a public relations disaster for our country, in our stride. Not quite shrugging our collective shoulders, but acknowledging and managing the exercise of the constitutional rights we fought so hard to win. That's an important part of our heritage and of our national psyche too.
An aside here: paging through a book of 1980s struggle photographs yesterday I was seized by the energy of people singing, toyi-toying and marching with placards spelling out unquivocal allegiances or demands. Maybe what the World Cup has done is given people a chance to act out a vision for the future in a very public space; hold their heads high and proclaim a their identity as South Africans. Not the victims, not the pole-cats, not passive subjects but citizens with the power to exercise their free-will.
It's easy, in the euphoria of the moment, to gloss over the past, the inequities of the present and imagine the future. But where will that leave us once the parade has moved on? As Deputy President Kgalema Motlanthe noted in his address to parliament on the anniversary of Union, that we shouldn't' ignore the country's painful past by focusing on 'feel-good' moments, or fall for the temptation to 'wipe the slate clean' indeed, he continued, 'If we are to address the challenges besetting us in contemporary South Africa, challenges of poverty and inequality, social cohesion and the use of racism and sexism, we can only do so guided by a clearer comprehension of this collective past of which none of us can escape.' We have to deal with our past or it will trip us up.
The World Cup has created an opportunity for us to remake ourselves, to reposition our country and continent on the world stage, looking outward and towards the future. Hopefully it's also allowed us to see that the complicated multi-layered archive of our life as a country has value, both in elucidating the past and imagining the future not as a nation that's the same, or divided, but as citizens with work to do; rights and responsibilities to exercise.