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egarding the youth. Dolby argues that among the youth, music tend to take
on racial characteristics 652 . As far as sport is concerned, soccer appears to
be very popular among the youth. Today, it is no longer the boys who play
this game, also the girls play it in the Makgabeng area, and this is obviously
an influence derived from national level where there is the South African
women soccer team, Banyana Banyana, which is a counterpart to the male
national team, Bafana Bafana. In all the Makgabeng villages, there is a
dusty soccer field in which the youth run after the soccer ball almost every
day.
Soccer was long introduced in the Makgabeng area, and according to Agym
Ramotsepane, it was already played in that area in the early 1950s 653 .
Apparently, it was exported to the Makgabeng area by those farm
purchasers from the east – discussed in the chapter on land - as well as the
migrant labourers from the cities. Today, soccer teams visit and play against
one another throughout the Makgabeng villages, and beyond. It is a
common sight on Sundays to see tractor and truck loads of boys and girls
who flock to different dusty fields to compete. In the absence of other
recreation facilities in rural villages of Makgabeng, soccer has been a
distinct and popular aspect of the youth in the Makgabeng area. There are
very few other sporting codes, and the girls in some villages tried netball,
652 N. Dolby, Youth and the Global Popular: The Politics of Practices and Race in South Africa”.
European Journal of Cultural Studies, 2(3), p. 11.
653 Interview, Agym Ramotsepane, Kgatu village, 10 June 2002.
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