“Nelson Mandela is a man of destiny” -F.W. De Klerk (140). How did a man who spent 27 years in prison change the hearts and minds of people who called him “terrorist in chief?” Is it possible for one man’s determination and careful planning change the direction of a country so set on the norm? John Carlin tells the story of Nelson Mandela through the eyes of people close to him as well as through the eyes of his enemies. Both friends and enemies portray just his presence as overwhelming. Invictus tells the story of how Mandela used his overwhelming presence to unite a country through the sport of rugby. The story begins on the morning of the 1995 Rugby World Cup championship game. The rest of the book details how he got to that point. Starting with his time on Robben Island as a prisoner for 18 years, where he was able to think and plan for a South Africa without apartheid. His last few years of prison he is allowed secret conversations with high ranking members of the National Party. In these conversations he uses his overwhelming presence to affect the hearts of powerful South African leaders and he is eventually allowed a visit from the President of South Africa which leads to his release. After his release he begins negotiations to end apartheid which leads to him becoming president. As president he has the daunting task of uniting a divided country. After many years of dealings with the Afrikaners (majority of white population), he decides rugby is how he will unite the country. The rest of the book details the events leading up to the 1995 Rugby World Cup championship game using friends and enemies of Mandela to detail the impact a sport could have on a country. Carlin tells a story of how Nelson Mandela used his overwhelming presence and political savvy to save a divided country from civil war with the game of rugby.…
In the beginning of the film, Clint Eastwood shows how separated black and white people are and how they do not get along, due to the change of the government and the Springboks. Because of the change in government, Nelson Mandela’s staff started to pack their things up as if they were leaving their jobs, but Nelson Mandela stops them and says, ‘The past is the past, we look to the future now.’ Nelson Mandela has noticed the struggle between the two sides of the nation, and is willing to make a change. The nation is very separated at the beginning of the film, and Nelson Mandela thought rugby would be able to bring the two sides back together. To do this, Clint Eastwood made the start of the movie seem as if most South Africans did not like the Springboks and to make it seem like there would be some difficulty in bringing the nation together through the Springboks. Nelson Mandela said that, while he is in prison, he would cheer for any team who were versing the Springboks, encouraging the fact that South Africans did not like them. The Springboks were not liked at the beginning of the film because people thought that they still represented discrimination. An example of this happened during the film when the church is giving out some clothes to children. One child is handed a Springbok jersey but he turns it down and runs away, due to the chance of other children beating him up. After the child is gone, the ladies in the church say,…
I believe that Nelson Mandela’s plan of supporting the springboks in an effort to abolish racial tension was genius. Instead of temporarily fixing small problems in South Africa, he decided to tackle the issue of racism which was dividing the nation in half. I believe Nelson Mandela chose rugby to tackle racism because it was something most South African whites truly cared about. If rugby was taken away it would only have made whites mad, which would then make matters worse regarding racism. Nelson Mandela turned the springboks into the nation’s team. After their victory in 1995 the entire nation celebrated, not just the traditional white fans. I see Nelson Mandela’s effort with the springboks as the first success in uniting South Africa under…
Bibliography: Wilfred Sheed wrote an essay, “Why Sports Matter,” that concentrates on how sports have changed over the past 150 years. Sheed also explains that sports can play an important role in the lives of people by helping them discover who they are and here they want to be. Sports go beyond what goes on in practice or in the game. They help build character and prepare you for many obstacles in life.…
Athletics is ingrained in the human experience and is an integral part of American culture. Because of that, many of my weekends and after school hours have been dedicated to either watching a game or starting one with the kids in the neighborhood. Athletics runs deep in my family. My great uncle was a professional baseball player and my family, including my father, three brothers and a sister, are all very involved with the various team sports. It’s this immersion into various sporting activities that has led me to the understanding that engaging in athletics has a very positive impact in our lives. Additionally, sports are extremely important in building one’s character through hard work, learning to work with others on a team and by learning how to cope with the joy of winning and the inevitability of losing.…
“Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers” (Busbee, 2013). This quote from Nelson Mandela describes one of the key ways he felt he was able to help unify South Africa; he used sport to begin to breakdown the culture of racism and bring his country together. This is just one example of how sports can have a positive impact on an individual, neighborhood, city, state, nation, and even the world. However, sports can also negatively impact the same groups. This can…
In this essay I will discuss two different Interpretations of why apartheid ended. The first I will discuss them. The role of Nelson Mandela, with his leadership of the ANC, the 27 years imprisonment in Robben Island. And finally Mandela becoming the first black president of South Africa. The second interpretation is a contrast which challenges the view that it was just Mandela, it says there are other factors such as a political leader Lilian Nyogi, and FW De Klerk who played a very crucial role. There is also the pressure of economic sanctions and the political pressure from neighbouring countries. And a final factor being the international sporting boycott which was a hard decisive blow to the apartheid era.…
The movie invictus portrays a very controversial issue that has been presented throughout history in many ethnic groups and is seen in societies up to these days. The apartheid is clearly pictured in the movie through many of the attitudes and actions that people take towards the other race they live in their day by day. What is more, Mandela constitutes one of the most important figures in South Africa, especially for the black race as he liberated them from the apartheid. From those days Mandela has been recognized worldwide as a major symbol of the rainbow nation; a reality of distinction between the black and the white people and its establishing differe nces.…
I believe that sports bring young people together in competition which is also a value lesson in life. The lesson the competition brings is that some people win in life and some people lose in life. With sports you eventually taste defeat and don’t want that taste again so you thrive to be a winner in life. I agree that sports help to maintain people’s physical well-being. By playing sports people get in great shape and don’t become fat and lazy. When you become fat and lazy your physical well-being tends to decline because you don’t feel like doing anything strenuous. Then by becoming fat and lazy your organs start to shut down slowly. Then the individual will start to get diabetes and other health concerns that will eventually lead to death. I do believe sports bring people together to bring a sense of pride to the group. I tend to watch the Olympics every time there is an event on TV. I always root for team USA and cheer them on and when I go to work the next day that’s wall we talk about.…
As time progresses, we become more aware of what is going on around us. The film Invictus demonstrates that over time a nation can come together and unite under the one flag despite how they have felt about coming together in the past. In the beginning of ‘Invictus’ the contrast is displayed through the white men playing rugby on one side of the fence which is clean and they are all in the same uniform, while a road divides them between black children playing rugby in the dirt, bare footed and with barely any clothes on. This road divides two different cultures apart from each other which symbolises that the country itself is not united. It is also seen in the first rugby match that the majority of people in the stadium is waving the old South African flag which contradicts with the end scene where everyone has come together as they are waving the new South African flag and cheering for the Springboks. Nelson Mandela says ‘ I want to thank you most sincerely for what you have done to our country” to Francois which demonstrates that even when the country had previously divided into blacks and white that they are still able to come together. That is when Nelson Mandela stood up for what he believed in, in order for the country to realise that the country doesn't need to be against each other. By accomplishing this he was able to use the help of the Springboks rugby team to prove that if…
In South Africa while Nelson Mandela was growing stronger and wiser and learning of nationalism the nation was deteriorating and the idea of nationalism was more of a mockery than a tenet. Nelson Mandela is an example of how nationalism affects the people of impoverished nations more dramatically than nations that are considered wealthy. Mandela’s story is on that is not only inspiring, but also fascinating because of the many changes in South Africa that changed his perspective.…
During Apartheid, Rugby symbolized the divide between white and black South Africans. The South African Springbocks was a team made up of only white Afrikaners, and its fans were also white Afrikaners. Black South Africans would go to the Springbock games and cheer for the opponents. It would give the blacks satisfaction seeing the whites, who harshly mistreated them, get beaten. After apartheid, Nelson Mandela changed the symbol of Rugby from separation to unification. A black player was added to the team, and Mandela encouraged black South Africans to support the team they once booed. He had his country host the Rugby World Cup which unified South Africa because the Afrikaners and Black South Africans came together with a common goal, to win the World Cup.…
Compared to that, what really does it matter that an underdog Springbok team, all white with one exception, won the World Cup in rugby in the first year of Mandela's rule? I understand that in a nation where all the races are unusually obsessed by sport, the World Cup was an electrifying moment when the pariah…
I have chosen this topic because I find apartheid really interesting and I want to dig deeper in what apartheid is and what it did for sports and the difference Nelson Mandela made.…
Although the event has been effective in increasing student's awareness on the importance of sport in instilling…