Mandela and Pienaar [image]. Encyclopædia Britannica. Retrieved 17 January 2023, from https://school.eb.com.au/levels/high/assembly/view/142642#
Quotes referenced in the Movie. Click on image above to access.
The system of apartheid in South Africa existed in the field of sport as in all other walks of life. No ‘mixed’ sport was permitted by the official organisations which selected teams for international competitions. There were no open trials and competition was limited to whites only. As spectators, Africans, Coloureds and Indians were subjected to rigid racial segregation. Sports arenas had separate entrances, seating enclosures and toilet facilities for non-whites. At some arenas, non-whites were banned altogether.
The international sports boycott of South Africa played a major role in bringing an end to apartheid:
“We understood, as South Africans, the significance of sport for white South Africa. It was like a religion. And if you hit them hard, then you were really getting the message across that they were not welcome in the world as long as they practiced racism in sport.” Abdul Minty, South African exile, British Anti-Apartheid Movement 1959 – 1994
The anti-apartheid movements in Australia and Aotearoa/New Zealand
Written by Peter Limb from "The Road to Democracy in South Africa", Volume 3, International Solidarity, Part II
Australia and the issue of apartheid in sport – Fact sheet 255
From the National Archives of Australia, an overview of Australia's response to the issue of Apartheid.
Materials on this page have been sourced from other LibGuides. Of particular mention St Albans Secondary College.
The leadership of two men is central in this film. Both leaders are shown to inspire their people; to have the physical, emotional and spiritual strength for winning as well as for resisting anyone who tries to divert them from their course; to be capable of hard work and of embracing change; in short, to be a hero. The idea of family (individual and national) is extended and challenged, and the definition of what it is to be a man and to be a leader is constantly examined. We see people learning the rules of the rugby game and people learning the new rules of politics after apartheid; and at the World Cup, we see that rugby, like public life, is a type of battle. The possibility for change, forgiveness and unity are central ideas explored through the film.
From VATE Inside texts 2017, Part 2, Marion White [ed.], Faye Crossman [teaching notes], Victorian Association for the teaching of English, 2016, p.13
Leadership:
Leadership forms a major theme of the film. In meeting with Francois, Mandela asks him how a leader can inspire those he leads to greatness, to be better than they think they can be. Leaders appeal to “the better angels of our nature,” encouraging the best in us and more both by their actions and example. Mandela exemplifies this principle when he encourages one of his black bodyguards to forgive the white bodyguards with whom he is assigned to work. Forgiveness, he argues, is a liberation of the soul. Hate itself is a form of slavery, an oppression that continues long after the physical manifestations of subservience are lifted. Mandela’s forgiveness in the face of nearly three decades of imprisonment exemplifies what the nation needs. It calls them to do what many think themselves incapable of doing.
Sport as Symbol:
Invictus highlights the power of the symbol in the face of ethnic conflicts and class hierarchy present in South Africa. In many scenes, hostilities related to political breakdowns, which certainly compromise the functions and perpetuation of the social and political system in South Africa, are exposed: segregationist behaviour, intolerance, mutual hostilities, conflicts and social tensions, cultural discrimination, historical grievances and collective constraints.
Sports, Nationalism and Symbolic Efficiency: The Film Invictus
This article discusses how the film "Invictus" presents Mandela in a Herculean effort to drive the integrative functions of sports against disunity between blacks and whites.
The film portrays the idea of sport as a healing force rather than a divisive one; it shows how radical social change can be brought about if the leaders never resile from belief in their own capacity to inspire others to exceed their expectations of what can be achieved.
In the video below, Matt Dawson talks to Matt Damon and Francois Pienaar, the 1995 World Cup-winning Springboks captain.
The action of Invictus is set in Cape Town, Pretoria, Durban and Johannesburg in the immediate post-apartheid period in the early 1990s. The opening montage shows F W de Klerk announcing the release of Nelson Mandela from prison in 1990 and the newly-enfranchised non-white majority voting in 1994. The context for Invictus is South Africa between 1990 and 1995. Mandela had been imprisoned in 1963 when the country was ruled by an Afrikaner-dominated white-minority government. As leader of the African National Congress (ANC), he was a figurehead for liberation movements and for an international campaign against apartheid that involved trade sanctions and sporting bans. After years of being a pariah nation on the world stage, South Africa’s President F W de Klerk announced the dismantling of apartheid in 1990, released Mandela from prison and worked with him to bring about a peaceful transition to majority rule. Many people expected South Africa to descend into civil war, but instead, it instituted the Truth and Reconciliation Commission. The previously disenfranchised population voted the ANC into office in 1994, thus voting for Mandela as President. Mandela had always espoused the idea that in a multi-racial society, all groups should work together for the common good; now as President, he had to show how this could be done. Mandela wore the Springboks jersey and watched the team defeat the All-Blacks in 1995.
The documentary showcases the South African "Springbok" National Rugby Team and its impact on South Africa's transition from segregation to integration. It involves interviews with players and political activists along with original video footage.
