South Africa is an amalgamation of a vast collection of ethic groups, each diverse in its own way. The Rainbow Nation has 11 official languages, but in this World Cup there has only been one voice for the country — the din of the vuvuzela.
According to the man who created the plastic trumpet, the flat drone of the horn is the only ‘language’ that cuts across all ethnic groups and barriers and produces something uniquely South African.
“South Africa is very diverse nation — we have 11 official languages and a host of other unofficial ones. The fans at the stadium need something to bring them together. Since there are so many different languages we can’t sing songs in the stadium — like they do in Europe. So, the vuvuzela is the only language that everyone understands,” said Neil van Schalkwyk, the creator of the plastic trumpet.
How was the deafening trumpet born? It happened 15 years ago, playing for Santos Cape Town van Schalkwyk scored an equaliser at a home match. The delighted fans started celebrating, and somewhere in the crowd van Schalkwyk’s eye chanced upon a man blowing on a homemade tin trumpet and “that’s how the idea of the vuvuzela was born.”
With only semi-professional football at the time, van Schalkwyk worked in a plastic factory to make ends meet. It was there that he spent many nights perfecting the design.
“I lost a lot of sleep making the vuvuzela,” said the man whose creation would give sleepless nights to many. Van Schalkwyk patented the product in 2001, and in its first year sold 500 trumpets. A year later a big company came and bought 20,000, since then there has been no looking back.
Buyers from Brazil, Japan and Europe came knocking on the door of van Schalkwyk’s company — Masincedane Sport.
The company has racked a turnover of over Rand 7.5 million over the past decade, with more than half of it in the past 12 months. However, for van Schalkwyk this is just the beginning.
As record sales of the product in British supermarket chain Sainsbury prove, it is more than just a passing fancy. Get your vuvuplugs ready folks; the vuvuzela is here to stay.