[Part 1 of a series on the 2010 Football World Cup]

With the ever-increasing quantity and gravity of issues confronting young people today, it may seem irresponsible to concern oneself with the frivolity of sport. Nevertheless, if next year is anything like the past 79, on June 11 fans of all ages from every googleable location on the planet will drop their pens, spades, scalpels, hammers, laptops, and instruments of war to crowd around television screens as witnesses to the most popular sporting event the world has to offer. If the symbol of globalization were a football, its basilica would be the FIFA World Cup.

Though our cherry-faced giddiness may betray our excitement leading up the opening kick-off, many of us are interested in the event for reasons beyond our passion for football.

The Republic of South Africa has been chosen to host the first ever World Cup held on African soil. This has been a development wrought with significant trials in regards to the decision, preparation and potential legacy of this coveted tournament. Obvious to say, these anxieties go far beyond the realm of Christiano Ronaldo and his fellow footballers. The question of what the first World Cup in the continent of Africa may hold for its citizens and the rest of the world is one that should not be overlooked.

Some may already be familiar with the all-but-sound economic implications of hosting such a mega-event and other dubious aftereffects assumed by host countries and host cities. However, there have also been examples of more favorable, though less measurable, transformations such as the national facelift enjoyed by Germany during the summer of 2006.

Nonetheless, we must take into account that 2010 could confound all previous assumptions about World Cups in the past. Next year is different because Africa is different. The difference is most commonly highlighted in economic and political terms, but equally important and often forgotten are the people themselves and their extremely youthful compositions.

Youth in South Africa today are somewhat of a conundrum. Most of them were only small children when the death bells of Apartheid finally rang and have lived most of their lives in the seemingly endless purgatory of  ‘post-Apartheid’. They are aware of the democracy they have inherited and the world into which they are being slowly absorbed, but frustrated with the lead-footed progress and the inheritance of a history that seems both simultaneously archaic and omnipresent.

2010 will be one of the defining moments of their generation. The ways in which the event itself is related to and processed in addition to the inescapable post-game influence will not only affect the economic, political, social, cultural and psychological future of South Africa, but indeed shape the way the world views the country and the continent as a whole.

Over the next year I will be following the road to the 2010 World Cup not with city countdown clocks or qualifying matches, but through the eyes, ears, and minds of those who will be most impacted by this historic event: the South African youth.

I will ask questions about their hopes for the future of their country and their perspective of what it means to be a host to the world. Why is it so important for youth in South Africa to understand the developments relating to the event? How are they attempting to ensure that organizers and the government consider their aspirations as vital stakeholders?

Unfortunately, negative perceptions of Africa as ‘underdeveloped’ currently dominate the way the world understands and interacts with the continent. As the arrival of the FIFA World Cup nears, an unprecedented opportunity has been presented to redefine what it means to be a South African, and an African, in the 21st century. Let’s see what Mzanzi youth have to say about that…

John Samper is the pen name of a development worker in rural Limpopo Province, South Africa. His organization focuses on interventions concerning youth,food access, health and HIV/AIDS.

More Info

Fifa article 

World Cup