Why is the south african team called Bafana Bafana?
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Literal trasnlation is "The Boys". The origin is that the Sowetan newspaper journalists coined the name for the team after re-admittance, and it comes out of the fact that prior to re-admittance in the townships the teams were owned/managed by older men and the younger men played in the team. It was common for the older men to say "abafana bam ba dlala kahle" which means "my boys are playing well". In some cultures calling a young man, especially a black man, a boy is seen as wrong - however in this case it is seen as term of endearment. |
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The nickname 'Bafana Bafana' was originated by a group of journalists - no-one has ever been able to verify their personal claim to this - and it was in 1992 after SA was readmitted into FIFA. Our National team had already played 6 games, winning 1, drawing 1 and losing 4. The excuse made for this poor start was that we were still 'young' in International football and still learning the game at this level, and so it also played a part in the nickname, because the 'young boys' were still learning. |
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I'm going to resist the effort to wiki this and just answer off the top of my head. I believe Bafana translates to "the boys" in ama-zulu (Zulu). So the literal translation is "the boys, the boys". anyone have a different answer? Perhaps the origins of the name would be interesting. JK |
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