What's plastic, a metre long, brightly coloured and sounds like an
elephant? It's the vuvuzela, the noise-making trumpet of South African
football fans, and it's come to symbolise the sport in the country.
It's an instrument, but not always a musical one. Describing the
atmosphere in a stadium packed with thousands of fans blowing their
vuvuzelas is difficult. Up close it's an elephant, sure, but en masse
the sound is more like a massive swarm of very angry bees.
And when there's action near the goal mouth, those bees go really
crazy.
To get that sound out requires lip flexibility and lung strength - in
short, a fair amount of technique. So be sure to get in some practice
before attending a South African football match, or you the sound you
produce may cause some amusement in the seats around you!
Vuvuzela supplier Boogieblast offers this advice: "Put your lips
inside the mouthpiece and almost make a 'farting' sound. Relax your
cheeks and let your lips vibrate inside the mouthpiece. As soon as you
get that trumpeting sound, blow harder until you reach a ridiculously
loud 'boogying blast'.
Descendant of the kudu horn?
The ancestor of the vuvuzela is said to be the kudu horn - ixilongo
in isiXhosa, mhalamhala in Tshivenda - blown to summon African
villagers to meetings. Later versions were made of tin.
The trumpet became so popular at football matches in the late 1990s
that a company, Masincedane Sport, was formed in 2001 to mass-produce
it. Made of plastic, they come in a variety of colours - black or white
for fans of Orlando Pirates,
yellow for Kaizer Chiefs, and so on - with little drawings on the side
warning against blowing in the ear!
There's uncertainty on the origin of the word "vuvuzela". Some say it
comes from the isiZulu for - wait for it - "making noise". Others say
it's from township slang related to the word "shower", because it
"showers people with music" - or, more prosaically, looks a little like a
shower head.
The announcement, on 15 May 2004, that South Africa would host the
2010 Fifa World Cup gave the vuvuzela a huge boost, to say the least -
some 20000 were sold on the day by enterprising street vendors.
It's a noisy thing, so there's no surprise some don't like it.
Journalist Jon Qwelane once quipped that he had taken to watching
football matches at home - with the volume turned low - because of what
he described as "an instrument of hell".
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