Tweeps in South Africa have woken up to see their Twitter timelines littered with Vaal appreciation posts.
Often considered too ghetto for the progressive Gauteng state, Vaal is actually an important area in South Africa’s economy. The Vaal Triangle, formed by Vereeniging, Vanderbijlpark and Sasolburg, is the heartbeat of South Africa’s industrial economy.
However, the area has also been targeted by environmentalists as a danger zone to our climate.
Of course, though, this was not the topic of discussion around Vaal. In fact, Twitter users took the opportunity to kick off the new week with a strategy to make the area trend for all the right reasons.
Vaal locals come out in numbers to shine light on the town
In social discourse, Vaal residents are considered to be misfits in the cultural ways of urbanised environments. If someone on social media does something outlandishly ghetto, they must be from Vaal — even if they aren’t.
Well, someone with enough social currency to drive engagement thought it was necessary to change this narrative and shine a positive light on an area that has, for a longer time, been dragged on social media.
Tweeps have since joined forces and launched a new online community within the social media platform known as #VaalTwitter.
If anything, this trend is a very cool way to learn about the norms of residents from the Vaal Triangle. We did not know that they had their very own soccer ‘world cup’.
What does the area have to do with the Italian flag?
More interestingly, though, is the association between Vaal and Italy’s national flag. We have dug deep into the trenches of the trend and still could not find a legitimate explanation for the association.
This is the only cryptic answer one Twitter user gave when they were asked about it:
How bittersweet of a moment it was to realise that for once, we were the outsiders trying to get in on this inside joke.
Alas, these are some of the tweets we pulled from this trending topic.
