The World Cup, Vuvuzelas, Flag-Waving Patriots and the Burden of Building South Africa

The recent hosting of the World Cup by South Africa invoked what Michael Billig has termed ‘banal nationalism’, manifesting itself through blowing of ‘Vuvuzelas’, waving and displaying of the national flag on vehicles, as well as the wearing of sports regalia (Football Friday) by the people across racial, ethnic and class divisions. The support for the national team—‘Bafana Bafana’ occupied the national centre stage and became the main symbol around which national pride and unity crystallised. How long will this national unity survive the event? Is South Africa experiencing one month of fake nationhood? Is this national unity a sign of triumphalism over divisive nationalisms of the past? This article deploys a combination of Billig's concept of banal nationalism, Foucaldian discourse analysis and a historical approach to examine how South African nationalists used the World Cup to enhance the project of nation building. The article analyses the various debates about the nation provoked by the hosting of the World Cup, particularly how the mega-event spawned a strong spirit of national unity on the one hand, while simultaneously bringing into sharp focus glaring class divisions and threats of xenophobia, on the other. It brings together the views of left-leaning dissenters, Afro-pessimists and nationalist optimists on the impact and meaning of the World Cup for South Africa. Its key hypothesis is that these competing perspectives cannot be understood without acknowledging the local context of a society emerging from apartheid oppression and racism, existing within a global terrain that is provoking contradictory notions of belonging and being an aspirant nation with a weak sense of nationhood.