St Denis, France was the site of the 2007 Rugby World Cup Finals this year but you would never know it wasn't Cape Town! Cars were tearing around the city with flags (and passengers!) hanging out the windows, blaring horns every moment between shifting gears.
It was another big moment for South African sport however nothing will ever top their crowning achievement in rugby - winning the World Cup in 1995 after recently being invited back into world competition upon ending years of Apartheid. That year South Africa hosted the World Cup, Nelson Mandela, newly freed, was in the crowd, and the Boks beat the always powerful All Blacks in the final minutes of the match. It was a momentous occasion for the "new South Africa".
It also fanned the fire of a bizarre debate. Since the walls of Apartheid came down in the beginning of the '90's, many parts of "old South Africa" were done away with: the portraits of apartheid-era leaders in the halls of Parliament were taken down, the African national anthem, "Nkosi Sikeleli' Afrika" ("God Save Africa"), was conjoined to the old national anthem "Die Stem" ("The Call") and all the other sports teams changed their Springbok mascot. However, as SA was going to be hosting the World Cup, they claimed they had already ordered so much paraphernalia emblazoned with boks for the games, they requested they be allowed to keep the name for the tournament. Of course when they won, they were ever more reluctant to part with the name when the crowd for weeks afterward would cheer "Amabokoboko!" (our boks) through the streets. But truly, the rugby players felt they had united a nation... anyway, how could a deer-like creature ever instill feelings of hatred?
It split the National Sports Council along racial lines. One group failed to see how it could be offensive and the other remembers that white politicians once said "no black would ever be a Springbok". Some even remember the doors of their houses being kicked in by infantrymen who had a springbok on their badges. Obviously something they'd rather forget.
Some saw keeping it as a conciliatory gesture to Afrikaners, a small token they could keep since the amount of Afrikaans spoken on television has been cut sharply and Afrikaans schools are under pressure to include more black students and instruction in English.
It's all a very similar argument to that of the American First Nation people and the Atlanta Braves. I guess it just comes down to how seriously you link sport and the symbols representing it. If you really wanted to properly illustrate rugby, something should be chosen that portrays the broken bones, blood and concussions rather than the grace of a gazelle bounding across the open plain.
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