Oral

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the South Africa’s rugby team, was composed of almost only Afrikaans players and supported only by white population. The team’s captain was Francois Pienaar played by Matt Damon. Mandela influences the leader to unite his team and lead the nation by example through volunteering in the poor neighborhoods of the country, hosting the World Cup of Rugby in 1995 and giving them the poem « Invictus ». This poem written by William Ernest Henley was an inspiration for Mandela during his years spent in prison. First, this way of uniting the nation was not well taken by the Sprinboks, Mandela’s security team, or the inhabitants. But as the movie progresses and the team achieves and become a role model for the nation, the differences between blacks and whites slowly disappear and they begin to fight for the same cause : rugby. Through spirit of competition and sports, Mandela reunify South Africa. A new country emerged when the low-ranked Springbok team won the World Cup in 1995.

For me this film illustrates the notion Idea of progress because through sports, a nation that was divided 5 years earlier was born again after the victory of South Africa’s rugby team.

To finish, even if Mandela has changed the living conditions in South Africa, there’s still a lack of equality in the country today. The article from Sudarsan Raghavan which was published in 2013 in the Washington Post, tells about white-only enclaves in South Africa. Kleinfontain is an example of these. These are created because whites want to protect themselves from high crimes rates that they blame on blacks and to save their Dutch or Afrikaaner identity. But they don’t consider themselves as racists because they don’t accept Jews, Catholics, or English speakers. They don’t put only blacks apart. To live in Kleinfontain people have to speak Afrikaan, to be protestant and to be descendants of Dutch ancestors. Kleinfontein wants to be an autonomous form of organization. They want to build their own houses and roads, they buy electricity and water from the government : they want their own distribution. They have different celebrations as the rest of South Africa which are Afrikaan’s celebration. But Kleinfontain isn’t the only-white only enclave. Orania is an other example of these enclaves the « city » is quite independent : it has its own flag and its own currency. Mandela paid a visit to these enclaves but there’s still racial tensions : they prevented black officers from entering.

For black people this is a reminder of the Apartheid and a negation of progress. Kleinfontain respects the constitution of South Africa because they are allowed to self determination for communities, but they shouldn’t exclude some of them.

According to black leaders, these places should disappear because they’re raced-based systems. However, this can’t disappear because if the government destroy it, it will increase racial tensions again.

Conclusion :

To conclude, the end of Apartheid is a very big progress for South Africa’s society. The election of Mandela, the first black president, and his inaugural speech gave hope to black inhabitants and faith in the unification of the nation. Sports events like the victory of World Cup of Rugby were also a very good way to unify the country through spirit of competition and with the inspiration of a famous poem « Invictus ». But even if the nation was united more than it was during the era of Apartheid, there’s still racial tensions in the only-whites enclaves. Nowadays the living condition are much better but Mandela didn’t have the time to unify the entire Rainbow Nation. But for me the society has made a huge progress during these years, it’s not totally enough but the country isn’t like it was 40 years ago anymore.