The intersection between globalisation and local culture continues to produce weird results. Case in point: the suggestion that FIFA ban the vuvuzela at the World Cup in deference to the sensibilities of foreign visitors, which has outraged local football fans.

SA Football Fans blog weighs in the side of the vuvuzela:

International viewers have been complaining about the noise that these Vuvuzela’s make at the games and have started calling on World Football governing body, Fifa to ban them. I think this will be a HUGE mistake from Fifa, as the Vuvuzela is part of our local soccer culture. If you have ever watched or attended a local soccer match you will have seen the infamous Vuvuzela in action. Critics are saying they are too noisy. I say so what? That is the purpose of the Vuvuzela after all. It is there to get the atmosphere buzzzzing. This is Africa and we are renowned for dancing and singing and generally creating a great vibe at our football matches.

It’s all part of the uniquely South African experience and I’m certain that if our foreign visitors attend the games and experience the electrifying atmosphere they will fall in love with the Vuvuzela. To me asking the local supporters to leave their Vuvuzela’s at home would be like asking the Liverpool fans not to sing You Will Never Walk Alone, or asking the Brazilian fans not to create the Samba atmosphere at their matches. The World Cup will be held in South Africa so surely people will want to get the South African experience?

Andrew at Blatant disagrees:

Those arguing for the vuvuzela maintain that it is part of the great South African soccer culture and that not allowing it would truly be an injustice. Bullshit. They’ve been around less than ten years. It was only when some bastard called “Neil van Schalkwyk, the co-owner of Masincedane Sport, which manufactures the plastic vuvuzela, won the SAB KickStart Award in 2001, which is an SAB-run project that assists entrepreneurs by providing grants and mentorship during the start-up phase of business” that the vuvuzela really started making an impact.

But I digress. I know I sound like an old man complaining about the youth and their music, but by thunder I hate that sound. I hate it so much. I was sitting just in front of two young white whipper-snappers, who had obviously never been to a South African PSL match in their lives. Well, technically Kyle was just in front of them, but I was right next to Kyle. These children were blowing their little lungs out right into Kyle’s left ear. In what other venue on this planet could you blow an air-horn at over 120 decibels directly into a man’s ear without feeling the sharp crack as your jaw shatters on the pavement? It is insane to allow them into stadia.

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One of the great ironies of the whole debate that has flared up over the proposed banning of the vuvuzela is that it is seen as a racist attack on a black South-African institution. This, when the entire vuvuzela empire is in the hands of a white Afrikaans man and a guy called Beville Bachman, need I say more.

I think Andrew mostly gets the better of this debate. “Exposing foreign visitors to the vibrancy of South African culture” sounds like a good idea in theory, but the harsh reality of what this actually entails - paying R973 for a World Cup ticket only to have someone blow an air horn into your ear for 90 minutes - would seem to trump this argument.

Incidentally, considering the ostensible racial undertones to this debate, it’s interesting to note that Jon Qwelane has placed himself firmly in the anti-vuvuzela camp.