The movie Invictus portrays Nelson Mandela in his role as a transformational leader, who undertakes a delicate and sensitive act of political engineering in his nation, South Africa, torn apart by fratricidal race war. South Africa at the time lacked national identity, while politicizing sports emerged as an excellent nation building strategy to unite the nation and build the national identity. The core strategy underpinning Mandela’s approach to nation building was “No Losers Strategy”, a win-win approach to national reconstruction, nation building and national identity.
Politicization of Sports: Politicization of sports can have both positive and negative outcomes. When a sport is used to promote national pride, politicization of sports can have positive outcome. Although the focus of the movie is the rugby game that has been used as an example to politicize sports in the goal of creation of a unified national identity, the backdrop is the initial years of Mandela’s presidency. Having spent 27 years in jail, Nelson Mandela is released on February 11, 1990 from Victor Verster Prison and is eventually elected as the first black South African President, four years later. He is confronted with a number of challenges as President of South Africa including crime, poverty and radical racial scars threatening the eruption of fresh violence. The racial disharmony and distrust is apparent across institutions and society down to the President’s security paraphernalia.
Mandela notices to his disappointment, when attending a game between the national rugby union team the Springboks and England that blacks in the stadium are cheering up England. He doesn’t find it surprising for the mostly white Springboks symbolize the atrocious era of apartheid, the blacks can scarcely forget. Mandela sets about the task of political engineering based on “No Losers Strategy” that will eventually accomplish reconciliation and heal the racial scars. The same strategy when applied to the sporting arena implies the national support to the Springboks, a year later in the 1995 Rugby World Cup.
The Springboks victory was most likely to inspire the nation in reconciliation efforts. However, there was much ground work to be done. The overwhelmingly black South African Sports Committee, for instance, needed to be persuaded to give their whole hearted support to the Springboks. The rugby team captain was needed to be motivated to play for the nation and in the interest of the nation. If the team won, the nation won. In other words, the sports was politicized to attain the goal of national identity of a strong and united nation where the color of the skin did not matter.
No Losers Strategy: In a conflict resolution, ‘No Losers Strategy’ is a win-win solution with no losers. The “No Losers Strategy” of Mandela was successfully applied in social and political arena, while its micro-exemplification in the national sports was an example of the successful politicization of sports to forge the national identity. This task was not going to be easy. As in social and political reconciliation, so in sports, building a consensus needed the leadership skills like political engineering that only a leader of the stature of Nelson Mandela could achieve.
Those who are aware with the society and politics of South Africa know the level of race antagonism in South Africa prevalent at the time that made all efforts at the task of harmony and reconciliation nearly impossible. Yet, in the absence of this approach, the nation was poised to be sucked into a vortex of endless violence that might have torn the nation asunder.
After the apartheid in South Africa came to an end, the most prominent issue to be addressed was the way to deal with the apartheid crimes. Tempers were running high as many political leaders would not agree with anything less than “a South African equivalent of Nuremberg trials”. However, Nelson Mandela and some other leaders could see the inherent dangers involved in the creation of a national identity with this approach, while they thought that the foundations of lasting peace and justice within a democratic framework could be built on “No Losers Strategy”.
Political Engineering: Nelson Mandela wanted to build political institutions using the methods of political engineering. The 1995 World Cup rugby offered an excellent opportunity for Nelson Mandela to put his political engineering philosophy of “No Losers Strategy” into practice. With this strategy, the nation along with its black and white populations could win. In other words, competitive sport usually unites a nation when the frenzied crowds cheer their nation. However, up until that point, South Africa was different. Two nations – black and white - existed within a nation. They did not see eye to eye. The scarred black population, feeling utterly victimized under apartheid not only hated the sight of white whether in sports or in any other public arena had been baying for revenge. They would have felt immensely gratified at the sight of the losing majority white Springbok.
It was this attitude that Nelson Mandela set about to change. He concurred with Boraine’s view, “The only solution, it seemed to me at the time, was that the fire of raci'sm had to be countered and overcome with another fire – a blazing love which had at its heart justice and reconciliation.”
While Nelson Mandela remained committed to his philosophy and belief, many South Africans did not believe that rugby could unite a nation ruptured beyond repair after centuries of apartheid. The radicals among the black South African were impossible. They did not see how the Springboks, representative of the white supremacy could ever represent the nation that was theirs or how could they identify with the team that in their opinion represented not the nation but the white supremacy.
However, like Mandela, Springbok team captain Pienaar is optimistic and firm in his belief that the game had the power to make the nation rally in unison. Mandela and Pienaar share the same vision of national identity and national unity and they hold firm to their belief in the power of the game to unite South Africa.
National Identity: Nelson Mandela wanted to build a cohesive sense of nation or national identity, for which the positive belief and commitment can be a contagious force powerful enough to bring about changes in the desired direction. Mandela motivates and inspires the black dominated management team of South African Sports to support the national team, the Springboks in national interest. Mandela also inspires Francois Pienaar of the importance of winning the rugby world cup tournament for the national identity of South Africa to be attained only when the nation remained united. He also remembers the poem “Invictus” that inspired him during his imprisonment days and shares his thoughts with Pienaar.
Things begin to change and look different from now on. The rugby team is inspired with a missionary zeal to attract and relate to South African fans as their number begins to grow. The fantastic support from every section of the South African population including the blacks became evident from the opening games itself, while the level of support went on ever increasing from thereon. Eventually, the entire nation of South Africa united together in support of the Springboks and vindicated Mandela’s belief, while the level of unity representing the national identity was incredibly remarkable. Mandela’s security team also came together forgetting earlier differences.
The process of reconciliation and unification is now well set in motion. It is now only a matter of time when racially torn South Africa would overcome its strife ridden past magically under the leadership of Nelson Mandela who believes in the Christian dictum of forgiveness. The experiment being conducted in the sporting arena is a lesson that the strategy can successfully worker in the larger task of political engineering, if the “No Loser Strategy” is applied. This strategy fuels on love, not hatred, forgiveness, not revenge and cooperation, not dissension.
Not surprising, the radicals among blacks too gave in under the miraculous and compelling force of love and kindness. These positive traits are pillars on which a strong nation can be founded. Perhaps, for the first time in the long history of the Springboks, the team was beginning to enjoy the unanimous support of every South African signalling the message that a national identity was beginning to be built on the foundation of national unity. The differences between blacks and whites were gradually mellowing down even as the Springboks went ahead on a winning spree to be pitched finally against the South Africa’s arch-rivals, The All Blacks.
This was the team that had traditionally rivalled the South Africa and was bound to raise the national frenzy as the two teams came closer to the finals. An emotional moment in the film is the episode when the Springbok team went visiting the Robben Island before the game. This place, symbolic of Mandela’s incarceration for the first 18 years also inspires the team and its captain, Piennar when the true meaning of “Invictus” emerges. It is indeed amazing that an innocent man suffered 27 years of his precious life in imprisonment simply because of his skin color, yet his soul was not scarred for he is kind enough to forgive those very people who shackled his life. Springbok eventually win the match and so does Nelson Mandela’s political engineering experiment of “No Losers Strategy” applied in the sporting arena.
In conclusion, it is difficult to not agree that the fate of South Africa, post-apartheid might have been very different without the vision of Nelson Mandela with his compelling belief in the power of forgiveness. It was on the strength of this belief that he successfully strategized “No Losers Strategy” to build the foundation of a strong and united national identity.
Bibliography
Boraine, Alex. A Country Unmasked, Oxford University Press, 2001
Invictus. Eastwood, Clint (2009, Warner Bros. Pictures), Film
