The realization, in the South Africa, from one of the most important events in the world – the Soccer World Cup –, in 2010, can be considered a historical fact for the country and for the world. In addition to being the first African country to host this impactful sporting event, the South Africans showed the world that they managed to overcome the historic episode of the apartheid experienced by its population.
O apartheid can be understood as a policy that legalized or made official the racism in South Africa between the years 1948 and 1994. In this regime, the white minority began to enjoy all social privileges, such as voting and having access to various places, of way to socially and geographically segregate the black population, in one of the most regrettable historical events of the humanity.
The institutionalization of apartheid occurred with the arrival of the National Reunited Party in 1948, which fought for the imposition of the segregationist vision of the Afrikaners, which were justified by similar traditions of their ancestors, the
Boers. With this, in addition to the restriction on suffrage, blacks became isolated in specific settlements (called “bantustão”), prevented from acquiring land and marrying white people.With that, in addition to the established social humiliation, blacks began to rely on degrading public services and to suffer from a greater degradation of their living conditions, in addition to the intensification of the repressive action by the government. Even so, protests against the apartheid regime were intensified under the leadership of the African National Congress (ANC), a party that was banned in the 1960s. Among the ANC leaders was Nelson Mandela (1918 – 2013), who was arrested and kept that way for 27 years.
In this context, international pressure against the apartheid regime in South Africa has become quite intense, with several international sanctions and a consequent political isolation in the face of the inflexibility of the government.
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In 1989, however, after elections were held, the Afrikaners were defeated and the new president, Frederik Willem Klerk, implemented measures to end apartheid, restoring legality to the ANC and repealing the arrest of activists fighting against the regime (including Mandela). Nelson Mandela, in 1994, was elected in democratic and multiracial elections, becoming the first black president in the history of South Africa, responsible for putting a definitive end to the existing racial regime.
However, the legacy of apartheid is still deeply felt in South Africa, which also began to suffer from serious economic problems, which are gradually being overcome. Today, the country is considered an emerging economy and is one of the main countries on the African continent in political and economic terms. As of 2011, the South Africans started to compose the summit of the BRICS, alongside Brazil, Russia, India and China, who are seen today as the main representatives of developing countries in the world.
In this context, the bid to host the 2010 World Cup in South Africa – remembering that, by FIFA's decision, the event should necessarily take place in a country of Africa - was considered as a symbolic act of demonstration of the evolution of the country and also a clear demonstration that, at least in the political aspect, apartheid was overcome.
Although the local team did not even make it past the first stages of the tournament, it was considered that the event went very well. carried out, culminating in a wider and wider dissemination of the country's social conditions and also of its potential tourist. Unlike what happened in times of racial repression, today South Africa is seen with different eyes by the international community.
By Me. Rodolfo Alves Pena
