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Description
I'll be honest with you - this one was rushed. But I have a good reason - I was trying to get it done today. Let me explain...

June 16th is Zakumi's birthday, by pure coincidence Bafana Bafana and Uruguay played on the 16th as well. (Uruguay won 3-0)
However, more importantly he also shares his birthday with South Africa's National Youth Day. This marks the anniversary of the march that schoolchildren took to take a simple petition to the authorities about having to be taught in Afrikaans instead of English. The police however saw it as more than a peaceful march and eventually ended up opening fire on the protesters. Official government figures said there were 23 fatalities but the unofficial number is about 500. This marked the start of the Soweto Uprising against the Aparteid regime.

So an important day in South African history - remembering the events of 1976 but I guess also remembering the election of 1994 which brought Aparteid to an end. Without which the World Cup would surely never be held in South Africa.

For the record - Ayoba is a South African word describing something that is great or spectacular. It's been seen at the World Cup a few times now.

--
Zakumi © FIFA

Description
I'll be honest with you - this one was rushed. But I have a good reason - I was trying to get it done today. Let me explain...

June 16th is Zakumi's birthday, by pure coincidence Bafana Bafana and Uruguay played on the 16th as well. (Uruguay won 3-0)
However, more importantly he also shares his birthday with South Africa's National Youth Day. This marks the anniversary of the march that schoolchildren took to take a simple petition to the authorities about having to be taught in Afrikaans instead of English. The police however saw it as more than a peaceful march and eventually ended up opening fire on the protesters. Official government figures said there were 23 fatalities but the unofficial number is about 500. This marked the start of the Soweto Uprising against the Aparteid regime.

So an important day in South African history - remembering the events of 1976 but I guess also remembering the election of 1994 which brought Aparteid to an end. Without which the World Cup would surely never be held in South Africa.

For the record - Ayoba is a South African word describing something that is great or spectacular. It's been seen at the World Cup a few times now.

--
Zakumi © FIFA