Freddie Marquet

So the word makarapa actually means scrapers.

And scrapers is a reference to the migrant workers who used to move into cities like Johannesburg to work in the mines.

People would say they scrape for a living.

And so the story goes that a Carter Chiefs fan, not Saddam this time, went to a particularly rowdy game back in the 70s where he saw someone get hit in the head with a bottle.

So naturally for the next game, he thought, you know, I just... He was like, well, I should wear that helmet.

Yeah, exactly.

Yeah, so this fan started painting these helmets in the team's colours and selling them at games, and it became a thing.

But this isn't the only connection between the minds of South Africa and noise-making in the stadiums.

Duane Jethro told me there's also this sound.

Exactly, yeah.

And these alarms used to have this very specific use.

It was the sound miners would hear for their shift change at work.

So fans would, you know, bring these handheld sirens to make noise at the games and they were pretty popular in the 90s.

Yeah, they're picking up their helmets and these alarms and sort of repurposing them to reflect their lives as miners in the culture of South African football.

Oh, I love that.

I love that.

Yeah.

And one of my favorite examples of this is that they repurposed a work song they would sing in the mines that fans would then sing, you know, loudly at games.

And it's called Shosha Loza.

So Shoshaloza, this traditional minor song, actually became quite popular in the 90s.