South Africa: Between World Cups

As a white American male playing rugby in post-apartheid South Africa, I experienced first hand the politics of race and sport. I played on a club team in Durban, a city of three and a half million people situated along the eastern coast. My team consisted of South Africans from all races—Afrikaners, Coloureds, English, Xhosa, and Zulu. In the 1990s, sport helped unite the country, but today the politics of race and sport remain divisive.Many people credit the victory of South Africa’s national rugby team, the Springboks, for uniting the country, a transformative moment depicted in Clint Eastwood’s movie Invictus. For one month in 1995, South Africans of all races and ethnicities put aside their differences to follow a dream: watching the national team win rugby’s most prestigious prize, the Webb Ellis Cup.Post-apartheid South Africa got off to a rocky start. On the bright, sunny day in 1990 when Nelson Mandela walked out of prison a free man, arm extended high in the air with a clenched fist, many white South Africans packed their bags and left their homeland for Great Britain. Most Afrikaners – the Dutch descendents who ruled the country for 85 years – abandoned politics. They saw the transition to black rule as an end to their way of life and an end to South Africa.In the process, Afrikaners turned inward. They held on to the one thing in their culture that entertained them: rugby. Traditionally, blacks did not play rugby; it was the sport of the whites. In the lead up to the 1995 Rugby World Cup, South Africa was almost torn apart. Zulus and Xhosas – the main ethnic groups – protested the tournament and called for the new president, Nelson Mandela, to boycott the games.But when the Springboks beat New Zealand in the finals, Mandela, dressed in rugby gear, hoisted the trophy high for the world to see. South Africans of all colors came together in cheers of triumph. As a sport, rugby requires camaraderie to be successful. Watching the national team win the world cup made comrades out of Afrikaners and their countrymen.As far as this nation has come, there is still even further to go. Tensions on the rugby field were still high ten years after the Springboks won the world cup. When my Afrikaner coach addressed the team, he spoke in his native language – the language of apartheid. Neither my black teammates nor I understood him; he seemed like a master addressing his servants. During the games, he sidelined black players or overlooked them for their white counterparts. It did not matter if they had far superior skills, speed, and stamina: they were black.After the games, I drank pints of beer with my teammates. We would tell stories about our experiences, talk about different sports teams, and discuss politics. My black friends taught me about the independence movement and post-apartheid politics. Each one of them could remember precisely where they were and what they were doing the day Mandela was released from prison. My Afrikaner friends questioned me about America and talked rugby. They wanted to escape the modern political realities in South Africa.It was clear then, and it is clear now, this country remains divided.Now, more than five billion people cast their eyes on this southern African nation. Many people, including the country’s president Jacob Zuma, have pegged the World Cup as the litmus test for twenty years of reconstruction, redevelopment, and reunification.Yet soccer suffers from the same racial divisions as rugby did. Historically, it is the sport of Africans. Many white South Africans do not know how to play; it is “the black sport.” In the months leading up to the games, some people circulated hate videos on YouTube as an attempt to scare international visitors away.As I was sitting in a café watching the United States play Italy to a tie in the 2006 World Cup, I remember an Afrikaner friend asking me: “Why is soccer so popular?” and I told him: “Because it’s a sport that everyone in the world can come together and play.”In 1995, Nelson Mandela said to his country before the Rugby World Cup finals: “We know our boys have the ability, strength and determination to be victorious because we are a winning nation.” South Africa’s Bafana Bafana may not be victorious on the soccer field, but the real challenge will be whether the team changes the hearts and minds of the nation. The country has come a long way, from one world cup to another. Yet, fifteen years after the Springboks won the Webb Ellis Cup, race and ethnicity are still politicized in South Africa.James Turitto has a masters degree in international affairs from George Washington University and was formerly the editor-in-chief of this website.The photo in this article is being used under licensing by Google Images. The original source can be found here.