Lucky by Chance

Mandela

Nelson Mandela was a civil rights leader in South Africa. He fought against apartheid, a system where non-white citizens were segregated from whites and did not have equal rights. He served a good portion of his life in prison for his protests, but became a symbol for his people, and Mandela later became the president of South Africa. 

In the film Invictus, The South African national rugby team, the Springboks, are on a quest to win the rugby World Cup. The story takes place just after Nelson Mandela became President of South Africa. Mandela knows that the country is extremely divided along racially. Whites fear the new government in the hands of the Black majority, and blacks want revenge for the suffering and pain they lived during when the white minority ruled and discriminated black people. Mandela understood that for the country to succeed, there must be a reunification. 

While incarcerated on Robben Island prison, Nelson Mandela recited the poem to other prisoners and was empowered by its message of self-mastery. Mandela gives the captain of the national South African rugby team the poem to inspire him to lead his team to a Rugby World Cup win, telling him how it inspired him in prison. By shared that poem with Pienaar. The idea of being the master of one's fate, and captain of one's soul, was a powerful concept for Mandela through his years of imprisonment. It fits well with a team the team going into the final game. Mandela new that a nation that must overcome its internal struggles to find its way to peace.
South Africa went on to become a model for overcoming much of the hatred and fear of its past, especially through the work of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, lead by Bishop Desmond Tutu. But a small bit of the foundation for reconciliation was based on the nation finding something to hold in common. That turned out to be a rugby team.
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