IT is a sunny Sunday morning in the heart of Broadhurst, a suburb in Gaborone, Botswana’s capital, where about 1Â 000 worshippers at a local mega-church are serenely listening to the pastor’s sermon.
As the servant of God continues eloquently, visibly enchanting the congregation before her, the sound of a familiar horn breaks out somewhere at the back of the auditorium.
The vuvuzela (also known as lepatata in Setswana) — a conspicuous blaring horn associated with football lovers — lets out a 10-second blast, shattering the tranquil mood and throwing worshippers into a frenzy as they stand, clap and begin to praise God.
The vuvuzela is common in Botswana, though largely still confined to the soccer pitch. Seeing it gracing holy gatherings such as these demonstrates that it is fast becoming many things to many people. From being used in worship and political campaigns by party supporters to garner support during last year’s elections, the vuvuzela is finding a new lease on life.
For the majority of the congregants here, using the vuvuzela as an instrument of praise is not unusual, with one church member, Jacqueline Chireshe, explaining: “The vuvuzela is a biblical instrument; it is a trumpet and God expects us to blow the trumpet in offering praise to Him.”
Another member of the church, Thuso Mhlaalore, noted: “It’s a great instrument here at church. We look at it as totally African and an original way of expressing ourselves in worship.”
Although anyone can blow the vuvuzela in church, it is the congregation’s more youthful members who know how to put the vuvuzela to great use. One cannot help but wonder whether this is because of the additional breath that they have in their bodies or due to some unseen forces influencing them.
Armed with a Bible in one hand and a vuvuzela in the other, young people blow the vuvuzela and still have breath left to shout out in between “God is good all the time!” from the youth section, where they sit together. It is quite a Sunday spectacle.
Outside church the vuvuzela was quite a hit among electioneering politicians as they prepared for the October 16 general election last year. Used alongside megaphones, the vuvuzela graced party rallies and was a common sight in the city as party Âsupporters seated atop pick-up trucks weaved through the Âtraffic, blowing in support of their candidates.
Heads turned wherever these party motorcades went, serving as a loud reminder to people to go and cast their vote and make themselves heard”.
The term itself, vuvuzela, is a Zulu word that describes the action of showering something all over. Very similar to how one “showers” salt or spices over ones meal to make it tasty, the vuvuzela is nothing short of being a shower of sorts — in this case, noise.
Time magazine recently reported that pastors in Texas, United States, are starting to encourage their congregations to use Twitter in church so as to reflect quietly on their relationship with God. One gets the feeling that if these same congregants were to come to Botswana, they might be surprised at our own much noisier way of reflecting on spiritual matters in the house of God.
I can’t help wondering whether God himself would prefer to receive celestial tweets or happy horns.
Ray Ndlovu is a freelance journalist based in Gaborone, Botswana, where he writes for the Botswana Guardian and Sunday Standard newspapers