World Cup: More about the horn of Africa

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Everywhere else in the world they call them plastic horns. In South Africa, they’re called vuvuzelas. And they’re omnipresent -- and omni annoying -- even through the World Cup hasn’t started yet.

The country even celebrated its first official Day of the Vuvuzela on Wednesday, with everyone from shopkeepers to restaurant patrons to taxi drivers pausing at noon to toot their own horn for about 10 minutes.

The horns sound like a swarm of angry bees when several are played together -- and like a very big, deafness-inducing swarm of angry bees when 90,000 are played together, as they will be in Soccer City Stadium when South Africa opens the tournament against Mexico on Friday.

To learn more about vuvuzelas go here:

To hear the vuvuzelas in full throat during a game go here:

To listen to Pedro Espi-Sanchis’ vuvuzeals orchestra go here:

Kevin Baxter in Johannesburg