A spirit that never dies!

Only babes in the woods would suggest that politics and sport are not mixed. ‘Invictus’ is one flick of the genre which reinforces that they are. South African sport, went through a roller coaster ride, from 1970, when they refused to play an English cricket team, which had a former South African, who was not white, to winning the Rugby World Cup in 1995. Refusal to play the English team resulted in South Africa being shunned by all sporting nations and they were the skunks of sport.
In 1995 South Africa hosted the Rugby World Cup. Their team known as the Springboks (“Antelopes”) was made up of white players and one colored. Many black South Africans saw the team as a product of the apartheid era and wanted it dismantled and replaced, possibly with black players. Mandela disagreed and saw the situation as a means of bringing about greater unity among his people. He called for the captain of the team, Francois Pienaar, encouraging him to reach out to the community in a bid to gain support for the coming competitions. The team responded by going to the slums and teaching black boys how to play the game.
As South Africa prepared for the World Cup, the Minister of Sports told Mandela: “According to the experts, we will reach the quarterfinals, and no further.” Mandela replied: “According to the experts, you and I should still be in jail.” Just before the start of the games, he gave to team captain Pienaar a copy of the poem “Invictus.”

The last stanza reads:

It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul………………………

In the finals, South Africa went on to defeat the heavily favored and marauding New Zealand All-Blacks in overtime, with their captain Francois Pienaar, leading from the front, cheered on by their president Nelson Mandela & a frenzied but united black & white crowd. The one event helped unite a nation, divided by suspicion, fear and acrimony!

“Invictus” was written in 1875 by English poet William Ernest Henley from a hospital bed after undergoing amputation of a leg due to tuberculosis of the bone. It originally bore no title, being part of a series of poems, but a few years later Arthur Quiller-Couch added the title “Invictus” (Latin for “unconquered”). Apparently it was Nelson Mandela’s favorite poem and helped him through the twenty seven years that he was imprisoned on ‘Robin Island’. The win by a South Africa reeling under a divided population, where hate was the predominant emotion must go down as the triumph of spirit over all odds!
Two disparate people inspired a nation, one an aging legend, Mandela and the other a determined sportsman Pienaar.Both men lead from the front. For me the book and movie are classics and show how the spirit of the soul can get you across all odds……………and it once gain underlines the importance of sport in our lives and campuses. Sport exposes one to diverse management concepts from leadership, to team work & teaches one to accept both defeat and victory with grace, including an ability to stand up and be counted when the chips are down! Even if it a game like rugby, which is said to be a hooligan's game played by gentleman.

It is sad to see sport disappearing from campuses........................

Did I play Rugby? It is one sport that I hated, but after Invictus, have developed a modicum of respect, for the rough & tumble!