Vuvuzela

The Vuvuzela is a South African wind instrument, it represents the South African football tradition. Vuvuzelas can make 120, up to 131 dB(A). One Vuvuzela alone sounds like an elefant, many Vuvuzelas together sound like a hornet swarm. It's not known, why the Vuvuzela is named Vuvuzela. One possible reason can be, that Vuvuzela means in the south african language isiZulu "make noise".
The Vuvuzela was famous in Europe because of the world championship for football in South Africa 2010. Until June 2010, 800,000 Vuvuzelas were sold in South Africa and 1.5 million in Europe. Originally, the Vuvuzela cost ~ 30 Rand, about 3 Euros, but after the world championship in South Africa, the price of one Vuvuzela went up to 100-200 rand, nearly 10-20 Euros.



Hear an example of the Vuvuzela sound:
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b9/Vuvuzela_single_note.ogg

The South African church "Nazareth Baptist Church" claims, that the Vuvuzela is based up on their Rites. After the world championship for football in South Africa 2010, the Vuvuzela was used as a famous instrument for demonstrations. A french labour union bought 3000 Vuvuzelas for their demonstrations. At the german demonstration against the new central station in Stuttgart, "Stuttgart 21", the Vuvuzela was used, too.
In stadiums of some clubs in the german main football league, the Vuvuzela is forbidden. The On flights of the South African airline "South African Airways", the Vuvuzela is also forbidden.
© Kilian & Maurizio