Manuel Antonio Velandia Mora
Political Science University of Alicante
Alicante, May 2010
"Our people have died unnecessarily. We do not want a bloodbath. Because the only blood that will run the black man. "
Rolihalahla
Nelson Mandela
Invictus
Far from the night that covers me
as a well, black polo to pole,
thank god there
for my unconquerable spirit.
Caught in the grip of this situation
did not winced nor cried aloud
Before the stabbing that fate brought me
My head is bloody but not bowed.
Beyond this place of wrath and tears
not looming over the horror of the shade,
But the menace of the years to pass
found me and find me unafraid
It does not matter how narrow is the gate
or how many penalties accumulate.
I am the master of my fate
I am the captain of my soul.
William Ernest Henley (1849-1903)
This discussion is not intended to be a film critic but a reflection on the use of sport as a political tool, the solution of conflicts as a priority in the construction of a nation and especially on how to achieve good social order.
"Invictus" (2009, Clint Eastwood, USA) is based on the life of Nelson Mandela, or more precisely in the history of the book by John Carlin (1) "Playing the Enemy, Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation. " Set during the Rugby World Cup 1995 in South Africa, stars Morgan Freeman in the role of the then South African President Mandela and Matt Damon as Francois Pienaar, captain of South African rugby team.
South African rugby team was excluded from international tournaments for practicing apartheid (2). The 1995 championship was received by South Africa the opportunity to return to international sports fields after the April 27, 1994, held its first multiracial elections. Mandela was elected president but not the apartheid ceased to be one of the main problems that this leader was black.
Brief biography of Mandela
The consent of a statesman Nelson Mandela Rolihalahla meant for it, a long process of personal growth, intellectual and politician who led him to the presidency of South Africa and to be subsequently recognized in the cause of global AIDS; biography which is summarized below (3):
known as Madiba (honorary title adopted by elders of the tribe of his ancestors, Xhosa), some South Africans are also referred to as 'mkhulu' (grandfather). He was born on July 18, 1918 in Qunu, a village of 300 inhabitants near Umtata in the Transkei. He married three times, having 6 children. In his 80 th birthday he married Graça Machel, the widow of Samora Machel, Mozambique's former president and sponsor of the ANC, who died in 1986 in a plane crash. On January 6, 2005 killed the second son of Mandela, Makgatho Mandela, a lawyer and businessman, at the age of 54 years in Johannesburg as a result of AIDS.
1939, after completing school education, own a scion of the nobility xhosa, who appeared headed to become the official and courtier who had been his father, Mandela went to the town of Alice to graduate in law at Fort Hare University College, an academic institution reserved for nonwhite students. There he met Oliver Tambo amongst others, hereinafter close friend and comrade. As a member of the University's student council engaged in an academic dispute about an election result, which earned him the expulsion of the classrooms in the third year running, was forced to finish his undergraduate degree by correspondence in 1942.
1943: at the height of World War II, in which South Africa fought side of the United Kingdom and allies under the leadership of Marshal and Prime Minister Jan Smuts, Mandela joined the African National Congress (ANC), an organization championed black nationalism founded in 1912 and whose leadership at that time boasted Alfred Bithynia Xuma and James Calata.
1948: creation of the South African National Party PAC, based on racial segregation (apartheid).
1949: the year of occurrence of the electoral victory of the National Party (NP) and the formal launch by the white minority Afrikaner lineage system of racial segregation or apartheid, the National Executive Committee (NEC) of the ANC, with James Moroka of Sisulu president and general secretary, agreed to a Programme of Action, according to the thesis of the Youth League ANC + ANCYL, which was developed and its implementation monitored by a subcommittee of six members which included Mandela.
1952: Mandela begins to stand out within the ANC, especially in the civil disobedience campaign.
1955: People's Congress, is written 'Freedom Charter' which becomes the main program in the case against apartheid.
1955-1956: Mandela and his friend, Oliver Tambo, a lawyer, own a law firm that sponsored, low-cost, the defense of many blacks. Mandela is committed to nonviolent methods of resistance, inspired by Mahatma Gandhi.
1956: Mandela and 150 militants were arrested on 5 December. The leaders released, Albert Luthuli, Oliver Tambo and Walter Sisulu, ANC members began the "Project Rainbow sociopolitical" reinforce their position through alliances with smaller political parties representing different ethnic, building beyond the scope of the Africanists. The CNA is infiltrated by the PAC, was created Pan-African Congress (PAC), under the leadership of Robert Sobukwe and Potlako Leballo.
1960 March slaughter of the followers of the CAP in Sharpeville, the organization that went into armed resistance.
1961: Mandela and his colleagues are sentenced to prison arrest. Mandela made a dramatic call to arms. In the Pan-African Conference all parties decide a common strategy: they announce the formation of the command 'Umkhonto we Sizwe "(Spear of the Nation) copied model of Jewish guerrilla movements (Irgun), receives support from Jewish activists Denis Goldberg, Lionel Bernstein and Harold Wolpe.
1969: British plan to rescue Mandela: South African supported thought shot during the escape attempt. Everything was foiled by British intelligence. In jail, Mandela is committed to the study, done by correspondence. Received from the University of London his law degree.
1979: Mandela spent 18 years spent on Robben Island, subjected to forced labor in the quarries of lime and inhabiting a cell of 4 square meters. His reputation grows and becomes known as the most important black leader in South Africa. The racist government rejects all demands for freedom. Is secreted along with other prisoners by race, like other black prisoners receive fewer food rations. As a political prisoner is separated from common criminals but they receive fewer privileges. Can only receive a visitor and a letter every six months.
1982: March was transferred, along with other senior ANC leaders (Walter Sisulu, Andrew Mlangeni, Ahmed Kathrada and Raymond Mhlaba) to Pollsmoor prison. It is speculated that Pollsmoor were beginning to discreet contacts between some sectors of the ruling party and the ANC.
1985: February, then-president PW Botha offered la liberación de Mandela a cambio de que el CNA renuncie a la lucha armada. En noviembre, en Volks Hospital en Ciudad del Cabo, Mandela recibe una cirugía de próstata, allí ocurre la primera reunión con el Partido Nacional. Mandela rechaza la oferta, se niega a comprometer a su organización a cambio de la libertad personal. Por medio de su hija menor, Zindzi, revela un comunicado en el que cuestiona “¿Qué libertad se me ofrece, mientras sigue prohibida la organización de la gente? Sólo los hombres libres pueden negociar. Un preso no puede firmar contratos.”
1985-1989: ocurren varias reuniones para sentar las bases de negociaciones futuras, pero no hubo avances reales, el apartheid agonizaba and Mandela was aware of it.
1988: Mandela is transferred to Victor Verster prison, where he remained until his release. His condition improved and some friends can visit as Harry Schwarz. Increase international pressure to free Mandela.
1989: President Botha suffered a stroke and Fallesen, is replaced by Frederik Willem de Klerk, who announced the release of Mandela in February 1990.
1990-1991: Mandela visited Algeria and other countries, and discover the depth of support it receives in Pan-African Congress: get firsthand information that confirms the belief that the ANC was a small association Xhosa tribal manipulated by white Communists. Mandela returned to South Africa to reorganize the ANC.
1991: Before the end of the year, the Government de Klerk, in a spectacular demonstration of solvency, dismantling the apartheid legal framework providing for the forfeiture or repeal of the Law of Separation in Public Places (1953), Suppression Act Communism (1950), the Terrorism Act (1950), the Law on Population Register (1950), which classified South Africans by race, Areas Act group (1950), which assigned to different racial residential in cities, and the oldest of all, the Native Land Act (1913), drastically limiting the land that the black majority could own. September 14: 26 parties and organizations signed a National Peace Accord, which promised to promote "peace, harmony and prosperity" in the transit time of the promulgation of a new constitution and holding democratic elections pluralistic.
1992: March 17, a referendum last visit "whites only", passed with 68.7% of the vote the reform process initiated by de Klerk.
1993: receives the Nobel Peace Prize.
1994: April 27, "Freedom Day", South Africa holds its first multiracial elections.
1995 Rugby World Cup (May 25 to June 24), received by South Africa's chance to return to international sports fields. Which tells the story takes the film. The final is contested between New Zealand and South Africa. July 26, Mandela, for the sake of national unity and historical reparation, by executive order calls for a Commission of Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC) to elucidate the massive human rights violations committed during apartheid, but its no conclusions could result in a binding legal consequences.
1999: June 16, ends his presidency.
2000: July, XIII International AIDS Conference in Durban. Moves away from the unscientific, and universally censored-stance of Mbeki and several members of his Government, which refused to distribute the expensive antiretroviral (ARV) among the five million South Africans infected with HIV because they "believed that AIDS was not a source virus. "
2003: Paris, II International Conference of the International AIDS Society (IAS, as its acronym in English). Only 5% of those infected in the world receive adequate attention. At the opening, Nelson Mandela called for drugs at "reasonable prices."
2004: June Mandela announced his retirement from public life with the words: "Do not call me, I call." Bangkok, July 15, XV International AIDS Conference. The South African leader Nelson Mandela urged world leaders to put more money into the fight against HIV / AIDS and tuberculosis specialist at the global meeting held in the capital of Thailand, introduced the 46664 Campaign, which focuses on creating international awareness about the disease, and defend jobs and work with care, treatment and prevention, as well as collecting much needed funds for this purpose. Remember your ID number on Robben Island prison. Mandela suffered tuberculosis in prison.
Relationship between sport and politics: its use in dictatorships and democracy
Whether football, rugby, motor racing or tennis, sports have a strong link with politics. Sports create a space for social and political exchange that serves as a channel for the expression of the people and at the same time provides for the operation of the authorities, who recognize its social potential.
In Chile, the relationship between football and politics, but there was always a thousand ways, became more apparent during and after the dictatorship of Augusto Pinochet (1973-1989). The years of repression of the dictatorship of Chilean football history influence and this influence on football manifested itself in several ways. First, the treatment of the dictatorship affected the symbolic value of belonging to clubs in Santiago and in part caused the formation of hooligans as they are known today. Second, the regime restructured and transformed qualitatively the old association between social class and "belonging" to a club. Third, new forms of cultural expression appeared under Pinochet and continued to express in the years after the dictatorship. Fourth, the repressive dictatorship caused problems on the line between speech and social control. Finally, the Pinochet dictatorship substantially changed the settings and the image of national identity. In these five themes, football affects politics while politics affects football (4).
In Chile, the dictatorship imposed a new way of living, and many people fled the country to escape the danger of dictatorship. At the time of Pinochet, "The anti-Marxist fervor ravaged Friendships and family relations; Marriages Were Collapsed and disinherited sons ... More than seven Thousand Civilians Were herded Into the National Stadium, where ', as many detainees Later described, in They Were Brutally interrogate rooms beneath the bleachers. Some survivors watched fellow Prisoners Being leave out of sight, Then bursts of heavy Gunfire Heard nearby, and never saw the men again. "(5) Miguel Zúñiga cited by Poolman says that in the weeks after the coup, the dictatorship used the National Stadium for a short time because Pinochet dictatorship would not affect the playoffs with a bad image of the country. Dr. Helmut Kaser, FIFA's general secretary, visited Santiago in September Had to Assess the situation. Having Been entertained and chauffeured by Representatives of the Pinochet Regime for two days, Kaser Declared That He Had seen nothing untoward and the match That Could Go ahead as planned. On visiting the stadium, where, So Many Had come to an untimely end, I Had commented on how events nice the flowers look. (6)
Peronism in Argentina had a strong tendency to emphasize nationalist attitudes in all aspects of social life and to promote more effective participation of popular sectors (to whom it was directed primarily policy government) in the national life. And this was reflected, inter alia, on the sports field where he also verified there is greater popular participation achieved a string of hits that helped to consolidate a positive image of Argentine sports both within our borders and without. (7) Eugenia Scarzanella describes how the Peronist government contributed to the expansion of sport: "... Car Brokers, marathon runners, boxers and footballers are decorations and favors. Is building new courts and sports facilities. For boys are distributed free tickets for matches and special tournaments are organized ..."( 8)
"You could say that football takes the place vacated by symbolic politics or major religions?" Manuel Vazquez Montalban said, "There has been no major sporting event of humanity that has not had their political advantage," agrees Julián García Candau (9).
Sport is a way to gain respect as an athlete or whether using these intermediaries. Tony Mason describe la importancia de la relación entre el fútbol y los políticos específicamente en América Latina: “When reigning monarchs and republican presidents patronize football they are both acknowledging its cultural importance in their society and adding to it. They are both offering support to football and displaying their own authority as they present the cup to the winning team… But in South America the relationship between politicians and football has often been much stronger than that. Military governments in particular have employed a well-tried mixture of repression, bread and circuses in order to control their peoples, and football has played a leading role in the circus”.(10)
Tiene razón Mason to say that sport is a way to earn the respect that some people find difficult in other areas. Cameroon In 1990, Roger Milla, the star of the Argentina team, said the picture he most treasured was that of Paul Biya, President of Cameroon, shaking hands with other heads of government after the victory in Argentina. More recently in Argentina, the president of a football club wanted to use his position to launch a political career. "The French government, meanwhile, used the image of the national team in 1998 to try to unite the races in France. President Jacques Chirac was multiracial selecting a good representation of country to combat the popularity of a political rival of the ultra-right and anti-immigration, led by the National Front LePen. (11)
Politicians know the importance of the sports fan, this tells it very well Eduardo Galeano: "The fan reaches the stage wrapped in the flag of the club, her face painted with the colors of the beloved shirt, bristling with strident and blunt objects, and because the road is putting together a lot of noise and a lot of trouble. Never comes alone. Tucked in the barra brava, dangerous centipede, is humiliated humiliating and frightening the timid. The omnipotence of Sunday conjures the life of obedience from the rest of the week, the bed without desire, employment without any employment or vocation, freed for a day, the fan has much to avenge. "(12)
The fan also plays a game with the opposing team and fans of the opposing team. "Do not exist, the battle cry that accompanies endurance, is one of the brands that we should settle in the military dictatorship. Denying the existence of the other, away from the contract tolerant of a democratic society means accepting that the other can just disappear, deleted, or worse, to be suppressed. This, of course, is contrary to a basic fact of football culture, which requires another constantly, when the other team is going to decline, Fans celebrate, but also eager to return, because their presence is a guarantee of identity. But in addition, that "do not exist" is so widely accepted and practiced without any criticism or self-criticism, tells of a context where the other's death is legitimate. If the other does not exist, do exist to stop once and for all is not so bad. "(13)
Sport and politics require strategy. I have the conviction that if he were alive Max Horkheimer wrote a "Critique of strategic reason," said presidential candidate and former Bogota mayor Antanas Mockus former university rector. According to this mathematical and political philosopher, "strategic rationality seeks to reign in the market economy and political competition among individuals and organizations, and in the struggle and cooperation between states. Strategic rationality can exacerbate the process of manipulation, he favors the ethics of the results, promote the imperatives of effectiveness and efficiency, but additionally supported by an intelligent and dynamic knowledge of the other and thus seeks to adjust the calculation of their own moves to the other possible moves. Also exacerbates the opposition and naturalizes them / us (the naturalization because the operationalization, mainly via game theory, the incorporation premise and becomes routine.) Strategic rationality almost inevitably exacerbates the perception of risks, mobilize and rationalize the fear, and requires almost inevitably (and especially the most powerful) to act proactively considering the worst case scenario or (which is almost always the same) stage that the "other" or "others" are peores2. One of the expressions of the hegemony of strategic rationality is the preemptive strike. Obviously there is a painful symmetry (mutual justification and practical overlap) between those who are willing to do everything to gain and who are willing to lose everything to prevent another win. "(14)
Mandela, the solution of conflicts and sport
For use sport as a strategy Mandela had already been realized in the prison of the importance it has: "Sport has the power to inspire, unite people like few other things ... Has more capacity than the governments of breaking down racial barriers. " Mandela knows it has done everything possible for the rugby play this role. It was not an easy task, because in South Africa during the apartheid years, rugby was the redoubt of the white Afrikaner sport. His strategy was to attract whites to the reunion and it was necessary to make the team Springboks, the national rugby team, the symbol of the country.
Mandela in 1995 took place in South Africa Rugby World Cup and the presence of the best teams as an opportunity to launch a campaign to support your selection, coined the slogan "One Team, One Country" - slogan that was fast becoming the new social reality of South Africa, thus avoiding the predictable civil war.
Mandela was clearly important to have an icon, I knew that it was necessary for his own personal history as reaffirmed in the idea that society needs symbols, myths, feats of heroes and dreams. His grand strategy was not aimed at black and white moderates as these already had a clear need to achieve social peace, the strategy was aimed at militant groups from both sides, willing to allow non-violence and peacemaking strategy. Started by the remote places in small towns, getting the fervor of children by a team that managed to reach the final, and won in an epic match against which until then was known as the best team in the world, feared All Blacks of New Zealand. "Mandela had managed the most difficult: to unite in the same illusion to two seemingly irreconcilable parts." (15)
Mandela was a visionary to understand the importance of rugby to make black and white forget grudges and build a national mystique. The South African rugby was a sport for white, blacks there playing football. Although by its terms, nor highlighted in white and blacks in rugby football.
himself in the prison experience and his illness became a symbol of the human ability to see beyond their own suffering. But he also acknowledged the importance of reconciliation, reaching out to who is presented as the enemy, in this case the white minority that had imprisoned. Albertina Sisulu told Alejandra Martins, the BBC, referring to Mandela: "When he left the jail and talked about reconciliation we thought: This is crazy. We can not reconcile with criminals who killed our children, who killed prisoners in the jails ... Mandela convened a meeting in which we clearly said: 'Our people have died unnecessarily. do not want a bloodbath. Because the only blood that will run the black man'. It was then we understood he wanted mean reconciliation, "she said.
According to historian Anthony Sampson, Mandela's biographer, "whites were terrified that once released from prison, Mandela called the black majority to march to Pretoria and forcibly dismantle white rule. But as they began to have contact with him, they realized that it was an incredible human being, open to dialogue, which basically are extending a hand. "Mandela had always made it clear that the enemy was the white supremacy, no whites. In a move again surprised the South Africans, Mandela decided to organize a meeting and physically reach out to Betsie Verwoerd, widow of Hendrik Verwoerd, the architect of apartheid. The former president himself W. Pik Botha, one of responsible for the long imprisonment of Mandela, he realized that Mandela represented the only hope for a peaceful transition. Botha told him: "My first meeting with Mandela's release was awesome and never forget his words. They had no bitterness or revenge, not a shadow of hate. At no time during his speech, tried to exploit or mention the that had been 27 years in prison "(16). This was the preamble to what could be achieved with the support of the rugby team.
The only license that gave the director making the film is related to the title that names the same. It is a fact that kept Mandela during his stay in jail poem William Ernest Hensley entitled "Invictus," which appears on the headstock of this text, but it is true that in reality it has delivered to the team captain before the kick in the final against New Zealand. The reality is that Mandela gave the player a speech by Theodore Roosevelt. He used it as a support for the athlete could realize what was his mission and join him on his own mission: to ensure good social order. Not all politicians know to realize this mission. Mandela knew how to win the South African rugby, starting with the captain, as part of its strategy was to memorize the faces and names of team players, using the same tactics used before the battles Napoleon, which was to learn the names and family circumstances of some soldiers and then, when parades, was waving, thus creating the concept that "the Emperor knew them all." (17)
This contact "personal" is part of Mandela's risky bet: to support it with all his moral strength to the national team and that all Africans do, aware that Springbroks, symbol of the Afrikaner and of apartheid, and to gain the trust of whites is time to forget wrongs and support a team that should be for all without distinction of color.
The viewer leaves the room as convinced as Matt Damon, captain of rugby team the Springboks, the veracity of the verses of the poem that the title of the film: "I am the master of my fate, I'm the captain of my soul." However that is not only a political speech at Mandela is its ability to convey hope to the difference and pain.
I had the opportunity to hear Mandela in Paris, in 2003, at the Second International Conference of the International AIDS Society, managed to transmit to all the listeners their solidarity, respect, her words of support and interest and struggle a more just society. He dared to talk about their child living with AIDS, this has not yet died-and once again demonstrated its commitment to respect fundamental rights, a commitment that also was evident in the moments that are told in "Invictus", a commitment of solidarity with those who like him were or are "Caught between clutches of their circumstances "because even though" My head is bloody, is not inclined ... It does not matter how narrow is the gate and few penalties accumulate "because" I am the captain of my soul. "
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