Thierry Henry, Nelson Mandela, Ras Dumisani and U2 (or: ‘What a wonderful world’ it ain’t)
(Singing, ‘Fuck you, I can do what I want to’ or something…)
In the aftermath of what should now, I suppose, be officially called Thierry Henrygate, we can only hope that the two countries involved can get over themselves.
Maybe some sort of Truth & Reconciliation Commission is in order – under the benevolent eye of Sepp Blatter and Nelson Mandela, perhaps. (Well, we know that at least the latter of those two actually cares about football…)
Not that everything is now a Disneyfied fairytale in South Africa.
This became most painfully clear, last Friday, at a rugby union international in Toulouse. Yes, France was again involved in an unholy sporting row, be it in a less hands-on capacity.
When the South African reggae singer Ras Dumisani stepped up to the microphone to sing his country’s national anthem, his performance showed that here was at least one black voice that was more than willing to tell the world that it was far from reconciled with any past injustices.
As the following clip proves beyond any doubt:
(All I’m saying, Don’t ask U2 to do the French anthem for the next fifty years or so…)
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