FIFA World Cup 2010's Greatest Scandal

Fifteen years ago, Neil van Schalkwyk from Cape Town, scored an equaliser for his local team. Amid the celebrations, he saw someone blowing a long , homemade tin trumpet and voila, the idea of the vuvuzela was born. While working in a plastic factory, he tried to figure out a way to produce a similar –sounding trumpet in plastic. In 2001, he sold 500 and after a year, a corporate company bought 20 000 as a promotion. Neil got his breakthrough and is now officially credited as the inventor of the instrument that has been causing such a brouhaha. The name “vuvuzela” appropriately means “to sprinkle you” and “to shower you with noise”.

The vuvuzela has been the 2010 World Cup’s “greatest scandal” thus far according to Shine 2010, a South African website. Many players and broadcasters have been complaining about the noise produced during games and players saying that it affected their game. However, Sepp BlatterSepp Blatter gave it his blessing, calling it “essentially African” and the rest, as they say, is history. As with most controversial matters, it has it’s advocates and it’s opponents.

Africans have claimed that the vuvuzela is related to the curved kudu horn blown by African tribes while some Englishmen have claimed that it is a direct descendant of the English post horn which was originally made in a mixture of copper and brass. The vuvuzela also has cousins, the kuduzela, the momozela and the vuthela, which vary in size and sound.

Wimbledon and other British sporting events have banned the vuvuzela however Sainsbury, the grocery supermarket chain, sold about 40,000 in the first few days. A German club Werder Bremen announced that the vuvuzela would be banned from home matches however in Miami, a baseball team handed out free vuvuzelas to the first 15 000 fans who came through the gate for their game. The players were not impressed. About 1000 vuvuzelas a day are being given away free in Milan and manufacturers in China are struggling to keep up with the worldwide demand.

A French channel is offering vuvuzela free broadcasts by digitally tuning them out and a Czech public television network CT has installed an audio filter... which to a great degree reduces out the incessant drone of vuvuzelas. An American in Bavaria got so fed up with the droning from his neighbours' vuvuzela that he threatened to kill them with an axe. Earplugs are being sold wherever vuvuzelas are used.

Medical risks of the vuvuzela are that it can cause germs to spread when shared and that it can damage hearing. One woman blew so hard at a vuvuzela blowing competition that she ruptured part of her throat. Vuvuzelas, when blown properly, have been said to reach levels of up to 127 decibels, enough to cause permanent hearing impairment after prolonged exposure, according to a publication by Hear the World, an NGO that tested the plastic horn in a soundproof studio late last month.

In other vuvuzela news, Prince William only managed a tiny squeak when given a vuvuzela by an 11-year old and asked to blow. Meanwhile, Neil van Schalkwyk is smiling all the way to the bank as the vuvuzela is set to become one of South Africa’s biggest exports even as tens of thousands of fans are returning home from South Africa with a couple in their bags.