Why Bafana Bafana?

The 1992 origin story

When South Africa returned to international football in 1992, the new national side needed an identity that fans could rally behind. According to SAnews, journalists from the Sowetan newspaper began referring to the team as "Bafana" that year, and the nickname soon became synonymous with the side. Reuters has likewise reported that the name was coined by a newspaper reporter in 1992.

The exact first headline and the name of the individual journalist are not firmly established in the public record, and different accounts circulate. What is clear is that the phrase came from the press and the terraces rather than from the football association, and that fans took to it immediately. By the mid-1990s, and certainly by the time South Africa hosted and won the 1996 Africa Cup of Nations, "Bafana Bafana" was used far more often than the team's official name.

The trademark fight

The nickname's popularity turned it into a valuable brand, and the South African Football Association (SAFA) had not secured it at the start. In 1994, Kappa Holdings Ltd filed trade mark applications for "Bafana" and "Bafana Bafana". SAFA later discovered that the name had already been registered by a private business, and a long legal dispute followed.

The case went as far as the Supreme Court of Appeal, in South African Football Association v Stanton Woodrush, which dealt with the rights to the "Bafana" marks. According to Reuters, SAFA eventually paid R5 million to Stanton Woodrush for the rights to the "Bafana Bafana" name. The episode is often cited as a lesson in how a fan-created nickname can become a commercial asset worth fighting over.

The other national team names

The same naming pattern spread to other South African teams, and today the nicknames appear on official SAFA communications, broadcasts and merchandise. The women's national team is known as Banyana Banyana, "the girls, the girls", and the name has become just as familiar since the team's rise to continental champions. Youth sides have their own nicknames too, with "Amajita" commonly used for a national junior team.

For visitors hearing the chant at a stadium, the short answer is that Bafana Bafana simply means "the boys", and the name belongs to the fans who adopted it in 1992 as much as to the association that now owns it.