Vuvuzela South Africa

The vuvuzela is making a noise again in South Africa – well people are making a noise about the vuvuzela, notably the Shembe’s or The Nazareth Baptist Church in KwaZulu-Natal.

Never a quite instrument, the vuvuzela or stadium horn has elicited a lot of noise, mostly from European journalists during and after the Confederations Cup. Then the Vuvuzela was banned in Austria from their stadiums and after playing here the Japanese became unhappy… well the saga goes on and on. But we love Sepp Blatter and Sepp loves South African soccer!

South African Soccer Supporters

And its a weird thing – or maybe not, but the only South Africans I’ve heard who don’t like the Vuvuzela, happen to be white. Damn, (Eish!) we still have these racial and cultural divides in South Africa… but as most of the soccer supporters in South Africa are black, the power of the vuvu lies with them, the supporters who blow their teams to glory week after week.

The fact remains – South African soccer fans and players love their vuvuzelas. This is the way we communicate our joy and passion for the beautiful game.

Vuvuzela and 2010 World Cup

And as football 365.com columnist, Richard Ferraris remarks about the 2010 World Cup and the Vuvuzela, “…the instrument will be one of the last vestiges of South Africaness at the showpiece, a tournament that very much belongs to FIFA-fo-fum and its not-so-friendly giant corporate mates.

Members of the Shembe faith (Nazareth Baptist Church) blow their trumpets

Shembe Trumpet – izimbomu

Now for the Shembe’s – well they tried in 2006 already, I believe to pull a law suite on Masincedane Sport who holds the patens and mass produces plastic vuvus. Personally, I do not think he has much to worry about because the Shembe trumpet izimbomu is not that much like a Vuvuzela and anyway, the Nazareth Baptist Church factions are usually too busy fighting among themselves to fight against anyone else.

Prophet Isaiah Shembe

Shembe – spokesperson Enoch Mthembu said that the horn was first used by Prophet Isaiah Shembe in 1910 and since then church members had been using it when they danced during worshipping.

The horn, called the imbomu, was originally made from cowhide but was now created out of corrugated iron, he said. It was used by members at the Shembe church’s original Ekuthakameni headquarters in Inanda, where the prophet was buried.

Supporters of the former AmaZulu football club, now the Zulu Royals, started using the horn at matches in about 1992, said Mthembu.

A man demonstrates sounding a shofar at a synagogue in Minnesota.

But Mthembe may not know that the Vuvuzela also closely resembles the kelp horn that fishermen blow and the kudu horn that Shangaans blow on traditional occasions. In the Jewish faith a shofar – a ram horn is blown.

I think the patent belongs to whoever designed the present form of the stadium horn and manufactured it.

Shembe Greed ?

It is also pretty disingenuous of the Shembe’s to jump in now, before the 2010 World Cup, just when there is money to be made – makes one a bit queasy about religion, doesn’t it?

Prices of Vuvuzelas in South Africa

Note: I have seven vuvuzelas, bought six of them at Makro for under R30 each. Yesterday say the official FIFA Vuvuzela (exactly the same, just with a sticker on) for almost R80!

Images:

Shofar by Jonathunder

Shembe Members blowing their trumpets

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