Definitions

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License.

  • proper noun the men's national association football (soccer) representative team of South Africa

Etymologies

from Wiktionary, Creative Commons Attribution/Share-Alike License

From bafana (boys), plural of the Zulu umfana. Apparently first used by journalists in Soweto in the early 1990s.

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Examples

  • Grillhouse, but would never use the term Bafana Bafana for my personal gain or to get people interested in what I do for a living.

    IOL: News 2010

  • In South Africa, host of this year's World Cup soccer tournament, the national men's soccer team is called Bafana Bafana, which means "boys boys" in Zulu.

    Story Pick: Grannies playing soccer in S. Africa 2010

  • For the South African team, known as Bafana Bafana, it's something of a warm-up for the 2010 World Cup, which their country will host.

    CNN Transcript Jan 26, 2008 2008

  • Expectation will reach fever pitch tonight (2am NZ time) when South Africa - known to everyone here by its nickname Bafana Bafana - kicks off the tournament when it plays Mexico in the opening game at Soccer City, the new 94,500-capacity ground built in Soweto, the political and cultural centre of the fight against apartheid.

    Stuff.co.nz - Stuff 2010

  • It means the Bafana Bafana are the first host nation to be knocked out in

    WN.com - Business News 2010

  • The early exit of the national team, affectionately called the Bafana Bafana (my boys, my boys), didn't dent the spirits of the South Africans as the whole of Africa united to celebrate sport's greatest draw that was being staged for the first time in the continent, largely due to the pull of South Africa's icon and former president, the 92-year-old Nelson

    Gaea Times (by Simple Thoughts) Breaking News and incisive views 24/7 2010

  • It will almost certainly be beyond South Africa, affectionately known as Bafana Bafana, to match that achievement with a place in the second round the realistic target for a team ranked

    IOL: News 2009

  • That its national side, known as Bafana Bafana, has only won one match in the last six months and is the lowest-ranked team - currently 86th in the Fifa table - ever to host the event, may partly explain why 2010 organisers are struggling to whip up much local enthusiasm.

    Telegraph.co.uk: news, business, sport, the Daily Telegraph newspaper, Sunday Telegraph 2009

  • Iraq opens the tournament today against South Africa, which had its own moment of soccer-inspired unity when the team known as Bafana Bafana won the 1996 African Cup of Nations.

    The Seattle Times 2009

  • It will almost certainly be beyond South Africa, affectionately known as Bafana Bafana, to match that achievement with a place in the second round the realistic target for a team ranked

    IOL: News 2009

Comments

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  • A nickname for the South African national football (soccer) team.

    June 15, 2010