[imagesource:andrewdeacon/flickr]

South Africans love their nicknames, especially when it comes to sports. Bafana Bafana does after all chant much better than The South African National Soccer Team. Our national hockey team’s new nickname is however not going over very well with some people, regardless of its chantability rating.

South African social media users have urged the public to stop referring to South Africa’s women’s hockey squad as “amaStokoStoko.”

Proud Of South Africans congratulated the hockey team on Facebook, writing, “Proud of our amaStokoStoko women for qualifying for the Olympics, waiting for the Men’s results…”

Its not even a very creative nickname, and merely took the most obvious things about hockey and slapped a prefix before it. Similarly, ‘amaRaquetRaquet’ could work for our tennis team, or ‘amaSpeedoSpeedo’ for our swimmers. But it doesn’t.

Opposition to the nickname was quick and fierce, with some calling it “degrading” and “disrespectful”.

“Stokostoko? Whoever came up with that name doesn’t respect our Ladies… shame on that person.”

One insightful Facebook user, Esethu Esto Komeni, even highlighted the lack of common sense behind another one of our national nicknames.

“I’m still trynna recover from the person who sat there and thought ‘AmaKhrokoKhroko’ is a perfect name for our disabled Paralympic team. Now y’all just pulled another moment of madness by naming a National team: IStoko! “AmaStokoStoko” Ama what? Do y’all have any idea what this perpetuates? A whole national referred to as IStoko. This is beyond wild,” said Esethu Esto Komeni.

AmaNiceBurn. From Cyril the Squirrel to Ou Kortbroek and Tolla, sometimes a nickname does work. But the ‘amaStokoStoko’ moniker just doesn’t feel right. My mate who grew up being called Ballas would agree.

[source:jacarandafm]