A Game Apart
The Real Story Behind the World Cup in South Africa, 2010
by
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THE Sangoma is there, in the darkest recess of the dressing room. On his haunches. Huge. Silent. Timeless. He’s been there all night, protecting their honour, confirming their luck. Praying to a God which is both Roman and African. Or neither. He stands wordlessly as the team enters, heads bowed, scared to look at “Mad-Eyes” Dlamini, their highly-strung witchdoctor. Dlamini ignores them all. And makes straight for the Englishman. Without a word, he lifts Charlie’s tee-shirt, muttering, nodding, gyrating… no, he’s actually vibrating, and it moves the very air around him. The medicine man takes a long fingernail and slowly draws a line across Charlie’s solar plexus. Charlie nearly giggles. Then he looks down and watches, horrified, as a thin line of blood appears where the nail had passed painlessly across his skin. No sign of a knife or a blade… just that thin red line. Reaching back into his huge dark pot, the Sangoma, clad only in an animal skin skirt and a ludicrously bright feathered head-dress, pulls a long ribbon from the bubbling cauldron and ties it around Charlie’s midriff. On the surface of the cauldron, a lady’s expensive finger, complete with wedding band and bright red fingernail, floats next to a small animal skull and a tightly coiled millipede. The Sangoma takes his forefinger and trails putrid liquid across the weeping line of blood on his stomach. Charlie’s vision begins to fail, his stomach cramps, he is teetering on the edge of a crevasse, he hears bird song. Then the team talk begins…
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About the Book
The greatest football tournament on earth will take place in Africa for the first time next year, with the World Cup kicking off in Johannesburg on June 11. A GAME APART tries to explain just how miraculous that simple fact is. Based largely on what I witnessed myself as a student, footballer and sports journalist, this is an honest - but fictional - account of what it was like to play football in South Africa before democracy came rolling in with Nelson Mandela in 1993. There was trouble on the pitch, trouble on the streets, trouble on the beaches. Apartheid and trouble went hand in hand. A lot of the publicity surrounding the upcoming World Cup has been negative, with the focus on crime and corruption. My perception is very different. I believe the country has changed massively for the better in 16 short years. I’ve waited all that time to let my memories loose, and the World Cup seems an appropriate time to write a novel that, I hope, will help people to remember exactly what the Rainbow Nation has been through. This novel will annoy some, please others. All I ask is that the reader recognizes this is how a young Englishman might have viewed the South Africa I grew up in. A strange but beautiful country riven by cruelty and mistrust and headed for a bloody revolution… until the release of Mandela in 1990. For those who visit the country, for those who view it on a television screen, for those who read about it in the newspapers, I hope to offer some perspective. Apartheid should never be forgotten. Otherwise somebody will repeat the process. And that must never be allowed to happen.
About the Author
NEAL COLLINS is a sport journalist based in London. He makes regular appearances as a football and sports analyst on Channel 5 and Sky News. Born in Plymouth (01/03/1961) but raised in Lee on Solent, Hampshire, Collins spent his formative years in South Africa, after emigrating with his parents in 1970. He won a series of essay awards at Lyttelton Manor High School in Centurion, Collins won a scholarship to and then graduated from Rhodes University with a Bachelor of Journalism degree. He also majored in sociology and worked during his vacations at the Rand Daily Mail. Collins played football for Durban City, South African champions in 1981 and 1982 but never graduated beyond the reserves after being coached by current Fulham manager Roy Hodgson at Berea Park in Pretoria. Though chiefly a sports journalist, Collins frequently wrote articles which upset the Apartheid Government in the early 1980s while working for the Natal Mercury and Daily News newspapers in Durban and, when he received a hand-written call-up for two years of National Service despite his English passport in 1985, he returned to England. After a year on the Buckinghamshire Advertiser when he was commended in the Sports Council's annual journalism awards, he joined the Today newspaper in 1986. In 1990 he moved to the Sunday Mirror as Assistant Sports Editor. He joined the Daily Mail in 2000 after attending the Sydney Olympics. Collins then joined the Sunday People in 2002, covering rugby and cricket. He followed the build-up and eventual triumph of the England rugby team in Sydney in 2003. He joined the Evening Standard in 2005 and was appointed London Lite Sports Editor in 2006. He lives in Chalfont St Giles, Buckinghamshire with his wife Tracy and four children.