South Africa

Dave Zirin of The Nation has a fascinating take on the intersections of xenophobia, violence, ubuntu, and sport in South Africa today. Here is a taste:

Criticism has been widespread about the lack of response by South African, not to mention Western, leaders. But there is an important, overlooked and–we can only pray–decisive tide of condemnation coming from that most global of sports, soccer. Soccer players in the African leagues often move from country to country in search of new challenges and better salaries. They are heroes on the continent, and many aren’t willing to be silent.

Gilbert Mushangazike, a star striker from Zimbabwe who plays for South Africa’s Orlando Pirates, said recently, “We are heroes when we score goals but we are people’s enemies on the streets. Although I’m here legally, I’m so scared that I’m even afraid to walk on the streets or go visit my friends. This whole thing has affected me and many of my teammates. We are simply not taking this whole thing very well. We are all human beings and people must treat [us] with respect and dignity. There are many white foreigners out there but they are not attacked. It’s a good thing that I’m flying out to Zimbabwe for national team duty because I don’t know how I would survive, because I’m even scared to go shopping.”

Although I believe that Zirin, who writes about the intersections of sport and society, is fundamentally right, the problem with asking athletes to speak up is that when we ask them to do so, the implicit message is that we want to hear them when they agree with us. Otherwise, we want them to remain silent. The same can be said of Hollywood stars and other famous folks. Generally speaking, I do not care what an athlete or an actor or a rock star thinks about politics unless it is clear that they have done their homework and really know what they are talking about. Still, in this case, if African soccer stars can speak up and make a difference, I hope that they will do so.

This entry was posted on Wednesday, June 11th, 2008 at 4:58 pm and is filed under Politics, Sports, Soccer, Immigration, Violence. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.