Only one more day and Holland will meet Cameroon for its final group match of the World Cup in Cape Town. The Dutch have already secured their ticket among the last 16 teams. But before passing over to the next round, the Dutch selection will have an encounter of a magical kind on Thursday – one with African football heroism, voodoo and the enduring blowing of vuvuzelas.

Dutch anthropologist Wouter van Beek is an out-an-out supporter of the Cameroonian team. He knows the country through his work since 1972. Africa, Cameroon and African football were love at first sight for the staunch Cameroon supporter.

Football warriors
In a culture where tribal roots define the man, national identity is very relative. In Cameroon alone, some 200 different languages are spoken. And football stars have replaced the traditional warrior – the only heroes that young Africans have in hand, says Van Beek.

“That means that African football is actually the ‘football of heroes’ where the individual players are paramount. It’s never about the team, never about tactics, never about strategy and positions. What matters are the footballers themselves. I think if Cameroon was a real team, they could win the World Cup.”

And “Oranje” or Orange – as the Dutch national team is known as at home – shouldn’t start cheering too soon. By-passing the primitive power of African magic just wouldn’t be lucky. Superstition plays a role amongst sportsmen in every corner of the world – whether it’s which shoelaces are tied first, wearing a jersey with a religious image underneath the official jersey, making the sign of the cross before the game, kissing the goalpost or packing the sports bag in a certain way…these rituals are universal and serve the one purpose of influencing the result.

Goalpost
But in African football – the football of individual heroes – magic has an extra dimension moving beyond superstition to the supernatural. It only applies to the individual footballer and is centred around the opponent, Van Beek explains.

“It’s not primarily about playing better, but ensuring that your opponent plays worse. The goal of the rituals is clearly to obstruct the adversary. The players expect that their rituals will work on other African teams, but that European countries are sort of immune from the effects. They think that Western teams also have their own spiritual advisers, and that their powers are probably stronger.”

But what can a stark, level-headed Dutch coach, a technical assistant or physiotherapist do to match an African shaman or mystical marabout? What weapon can they use against magical incantations around the goalpost or the ritual preparation of the water that the players will drink?

Never silent
And even if African magic is no match for Dutch sober-mindedness, then the African fans still have one powerful weapon: the resounding, unrelenting African sound of the vuvuzelas…that goes on and on.

“Africans turn every football match into a party. No matter which game. In Dutch football, if a team plays badly, the spectators go all quiet. But in South Africa, that just won’t happen. And I wonder if the referee’s whistle will be drowned out by the high-level intensity of noise.”

So, while Cameroon has been sent packing and Holland is sure of its ticket to the next round, the Orange team had still better prepare itself, says van Beek.