The Kelefors

At times, a tie can feel like a win. And so it was for us walking out of the Royal Bafokeng stadium in Rustenburg after the US held off England’s late barrage and secured a 1-1 draw in its opening match of the World Cup. For me, it was far and away the best World Cup match I have ever attended. We sat amidst chanting and cheering American fans. Across the stadium, a banner said, simply, “1776, 1812, 1950, 2010.” 1950 was the last time the US beat England in a World Cup match; the other dates you’ll have to figure out for yourself. We may have been outnumbered by English flags, but we felt mighty.

Then the players arrived on the field. For England, a veritable all-star team. Rooney. Lampard. Gerrard. Cole. Stars for their respective top flight teams. For Dylan and me, having watched them on TV week in, week out, it was daunting to see them next to the US players. Donovan. Dempsey. Altidore. Howard. No slouches, to be sure. But could they keep up with the top players in the game?

The match started brightly and when England opened up the American defense for an early goal right in front of us, it looked to be a long night. But the defense tightened up, the offense got dangerous, and England’s keeper made a horror show of a Clint Dempsey shot; the ball squeaked under him and rolled quietly across the goal line. The Joburg paper called it a “galactic clanger.” 1-1, in any case. All square.

The second half brought more chances for England than for the U.S. but we held our breath as Jozy Altidore muscled off England defender Jamie Carragher and rifled a shot off the keeper’s hand and the crossbar. A collective groan went up from our section, quickly followed by cheers of anticipation and appreciation. Most among the American faithful were begging for a win, expecting nothing less. But I knew what a draw would mean – a valuable point toward the second round and bragging rights against one of the top teams in the world – and was quietly hoping for the clock to reach 90 minutes. As the end neared, I found myself screaming at the referee to blow his whistle. When he finally did, my cheer was the loudest. And even with the weight of a tired girl on my back, the long walk back to the car felt like floating on air. ¡Olé!

When Jeannette and I traveled to Cuba, we left with the distinct impression that things are much more complex than they might originally appear. I now think that this is just an axiom of travel, indeed of life. Case in point: Cape Town. On our last day in the Mother City, we visited the District Six Museum, a memorial to a neighborhood that thrived as a cultural melting pot until the Apartheid government declared it a “Whites only” area. In the late ’60s and early ’70s, the neighborhood was bulldozed and residents evicted and separated by race. Since the return of democracy in 1994, the new government has offered restitution to over 70,000 former residents, with the choice of cash or land. One of the 15,000 or so people who have chosen to return and rebuild is Noor Ephraim, an Indian-born Muslim who regales visitors to the museum with personal tales of District Six’s golden age. Much of what Noor told us was inspirational and unsurprising, but one thing struck me. When talk turned to the World Cup, as it inevitably does, he said, “I cannot support the Bafana,” referring to the South African team. The reason? According to Noor, the black sporting leadership has excluded non-black players, re-creating the kind of separation that dominated under Apartheid. He ticked off several qualified White and “colored” players, and concluded, “I will support the Bafana when they choose players on merit.” And this from someone who also expressed a profound ability to follow Mandela’s example and forgive those who had taken his home from him. A younger museum colleague, Clayton, expressed his support for Bafana and suggested a generational divide at work. Perhaps. But, to me, it was a reminder of the complex social system that exists in South Africa and has been made ever more complex by the coming of democracy.

“They promised a boost in business, but I haven’t seen it.” Those were the words of a craft merchant in the heart of Cape Town, looking around a near-empty mall just a stone’s throw from Green Point stadium four days before the kick-off of the 2010 World Cup. Amidst all of the fanfare – the soccer ball water fountains, the stores filled with vuvuzelas, the ubiquitous Adidas billboards – and all of pomp about what an African World Cup might mean, this simple, poignant statement left us with a sinking feeling. Will the World Cup do right by South Africa?

In the lead-up to the 2010 Cup, the flip-side question has been the obsession of the Western media. Is South Africa up to the task of preparing for an international sporting event of the magnitude of the World Cup? Will the stadiums be built on time? Will fans be able to get to and from the venues? Will there be enough hotel rooms for everyone who will come? And above all, will it be safe enough for tourists toting cameras and cash?

But enough ink has been spilled on these topics and too much of it has been laced with the racism that permeates criticism of the African tournament organizers. We have found it more compelling to consider how Africans will benefit from the Cup. On this front, there are some ominous signs.

We were shocked to learn that the Ministry of Education added two weeks to the winter vacation for schools in order to be sure that schools would be closed during the Cup. Two extra weeks? And the reasons given . . . to prevent against absenteeism by students and adults and to alleviate congestion on the public transportation systems. Seriously? You put millions of families in the position of scrambling for child care or leaving children at home unattended because you suspect some of them might play hooky to watch the games or take up a seat on a bus? Truly unbelievable when you consider the connections between instructional time, student achievement, educational attainment and, ultimately, economic and social well-being.

With more unsupervised time, South African children are vulnerable in so many ways. One child advocacy organization pointed out that, with the influx of a large number of men (95% of guests to the World Cup are expected to be men), there’s an increased risk of children being victims to sex trafficking. You won’t find that eventuality on the FIFA website.

On another note, a much higher percentage of match tickets have been bought by foreigners than at any World Cup in recent memory. It was illuminating to learn that, in addition to the often prohibitive cost of tickets, local sales were dampened by the fact that all transactions were done online despite limited internet access in many South African communities.

Finally, there’s the question of jobs. We asked the leader of a refugee support organization, Whole World Women Association, what she thought the benefits and challenges of hosting the World Cup to be. Her answer: “Jobs were added, but many livelihoods were lost.” Operating in the shadows of the informal economy, many refugees and other low-income South Africans have found themselves swept away from the city center “fan zones.” Some people able to swap their previous informal services and goods to selling World Cup flags may be weathering the transition, but that is cold comfort. So, while the Cup has undoubtedly created jobs and opportunities for local entrepreneurs to cash in on an influx of visitors, the net effect of the Cup on jobs seems up in the air.

Amidst all of these worries, there’s Nelson Mandela. On our second day in Cape Town, we visited Robben Island where a former political prisoner walked us around the barren cell blocks and gave us a lesson in redemption. It was inspiring to hear from a veteran of the struggle and to see the very place where Mandela – one of the world’s truly great heroes – endured for two decades before emerging victorious and on his own terms.

Coming away from that experience, we were reminded that Mandela is a big booster of the World Cup and has used sport in the past to unite his nation (he famously donned the jersey of the rugby national team captain and embraced that white-dominated sport’s World Cup as a way to demonstrate that he was a leader of all South Africans). Mandela, at 91, is slated to attend the opening match of the Bafana Bafana on Friday. We know that his presence will legitimate the World Cup to many of its supporters and we hope that his confidence will be borne out in long-lasting benefit to the people of South Africa.