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2010 Characters and Caravans

South Africa’s 2010 Zakumi!
16 June 1994 gave birth to the end of apartheid and the birth of our now mascot for 2010 – Zakumi. Kumi means 10 (for 2010) and the first Za is short for South Afrika – meaning 2010 in South Africa. Additionally it is a term used for an invitation in Southern African languages and represents the friendly people and spirit of our country.

Zakumi is a friendly green-haired leopard with lots of presence. His first appearance in Rwanda was for the kick-off of the Peace World Cup Caravan.

The National Department of Sport and Recreation of South Africa has joined forces wit the Youth Development through Football (from Pretoria) and other NGO’s to form the Peace Caravan – a project that will be titled Caravanamani, the Swahili word for peace caravan. It will cover the Great Lakes of Africa during March ’09, travelling from Kigali in Rwanda, 320km to Bujumbura in Burundi. After 3 weeks of covering Burundi, Uganda, Kenya and Tanzania the caravan will head back to Rwanda.

This exercise will hopefully unite nations through sport and friendship and build African pride. The fans will be spoilt with appearances from football greats like Mark Fish and Phil Masinga. Great attention will be paid to training seminars, workshops and presentations, stand-up comedy and music, dance and marching bands, sketches and street style football plus much more.

The project will hopefully be repeated if this leg is a success.

The Travel-Informed Team

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