ABSTRACT
This chapter looks at the vuvuzela and the contested claims made about the binding power of its sound and its cultural heritage significance during the FIFA 2010 World Cup. It adds to literature that unpacks the broader resonances of the social history of football and popular culture were also explored in independently organized heritage projects and publications. The chapter discusses that the vuvuzela provides a useful material and symbolic entry point into the branding of the FIFA 2010 World Cup as African, South African cultural event, practices of heritage formation, nation-building and sonic sensibilities because of the vigorous contestation it elicited during the tournament. It briefly looks at the transactions in national and continental imagery developed around South Africa’s bid for the World Cup tournament, and pays special attention to the ways in which President Thabo Mbeki’s Pan-African vision of an African Renaissance was worked through and framed in South Africa’s official tender for the 2010 tournament.
