Invictus By Andrew Benoiton Explain why the Springbok team’s performance affected the whole country during and after the world cup. (400 words +) Refer to: Leadership influences from both Mandela and Francois How were the team players inspired- how did they change, give examples The ultimate aim of the film was to show how people could be brought together through sport (National sport for the white people) Invictus’ the movie defined by IMDB is when Nelson Mandela, in his first course as the South African President, begins a unique venture to unite the apartheid-torn land: enlist the national rugby team on a mission to win the 1995 Rugby World Cup. This movie is filled with up’s and down showing bad and good moments of that time. Nelson Mandela wanted to bring the people together as one but he couldn’t do this through politics, he had to do it through the sport of Rugby. Francois was invited to a meeting with Mandela and they discussed the future of South Africa. One of the things that Francois and Mandela was ‘Tell me Francois.
What is your philosophy on leadership? How do you inspire your team to do their best? ’ Francois replied ‘I’ve always thought to lead by example’ by doing this Francois taught he’s players to love and embrace the game not just because of the sport but the people they were playing for. When Francois gave the team the new song, they all threw it away saying it was foreign. But when Francois told them what “Nkosi Sikelel” which means God Bless Africa, all of their attitudes changed. If they did sing the song, would the attitudes of the white people change to respect the black people?
When they went on the bus trip to the poor part of Africa and taught the people to play rugby all of the sport reporters were on the case basically saying ‘Why? , why would they do such a thing? ’ They did this because they cared and as soon as the players got more into it, they started to realise how they were the same but they were just unlucky to be in that position. Nelson Mandela was very into the game by hiring a specialist/consultant to teach about the Springboks, the players and statistics about other teams. One day when visiting the Springboks when they were training he knew everyone of the player’s names.
The Springboks thought ‘hey he is alright’ this showed that Mandela did care about uniting Africa as one. When it came to the World Cup and they sung ‘Nkosi Sikelel’. The white people of South Africa started to realise that the rugby team (who were majority white) were singing a song that would bring the people together. During the ceremony and plane past, not a plane of South Africa but on the bottom it said ‘Go Springboks’. Did this show that everybody, not just Mandela wanted Africa to become as one? During the game people were coming closer and closer together just to watch or hear a good game of rugby.
But when that final siren went the people of Africa were so proud to finally see their country win. The white people started to realise that they were the same. ‘Invictus’ teaches us about racial harmony, which means making friends with different races of people. So two very important people in South Africa history changed on how people think of somebody of a different race. They taught the people of South Africa how to love and respect each other. Why can’t all countries be like this? Why does it take 5 years to change people’s perspective on people’s race? But the real question is can this be accomplished in the near future?
