Can you imagine that a sport can unite a nation?
The other day, I wrote about some quotes of Nelson Mandela, ex-South African president who passed away recently. To be honest, however, I had little knowledge about him so I started to search materials on him. Voilà! I found a movie called “Invictus”.
Having see the cover image of the film (above), I was not interested in this assuming that it was just a sport movie. However, it turned out to be a great film of Clint Eastwood based on the real story depicting Nelson Mandela.
In summary, Nelson Mandela, becoming a president of South Africa after his 27 years stay in jail for fighting apartheid, he needed to unite black majority and white minority who occupied the economy of the country. Then he chose to support the national team of Rugby, a sport which was believed to be for white people.
I liked the concept of this sport because unlike American Football, players play both offense and defense and they cannot throw a ball forward so that the entire team has to run forward to win, just like members of a nation have to move together to develop itself.
This movie is great in that it shows many profound things such as : history of discrimination, teamwork of sports, leadership and union of a nation and people.
Invictus Trailer
The title “Invictus” is derived from the poem that inspired Mandela during his prison life.
Poem that inspires a nation.
The more I learn about him, the more I wonder what I can do in my life.