Book review — Invictus: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation

In 1988, 31 years after I first arrived in the Cape, I left the coun­try in order to join my part­ner in the act­ive man­age­ment of a small busi­ness I had acquired in the American Mid-West.

For years  there­after I was unable to fol­low events in South Africa, partly because my new enter­prise encountered more than the expec­ted share of start-up prob­lems and thus absorbed all my energy and then some and more import­antly because the American media pay scant or no atten­tion to events out­side the coun­try that lack head-line grabbing drama or scan­dal.  Thus many of the decis­ive events pre­ced­ing and fol­low­ing Nelson Mandela’s elec­tion to the pres­id­ency passed me by ...

With my little com­pany at long last on a secure path I could again travel for per­sonal reas­ons – to visit my daugh­ter and grand­daugh­ter both born and bred in this coun­try as well as friends and former asso­ci­ates in the local com­munity.  When I arrived for a year end vaca­tion my daugh­ter presen­ted me with o copy of John Carlin’s  “Invictus” which – though not a rugby fan myself -  nev­er­the­less fas­cin­ated me from cover to cover.

It filled in all the gaps in my know­ledge of South African his­tory and more import­antly my appre­ci­ation of the man’s achieve­ments.  That he had unique cha­risma was obvi­ous even from afar.  That com­bined with superb polit­ical savvy and unfail­ing instinct explains to me how he was able to trans­form South Africa to the mir­acle it is today.

Next time I visit Cape Town I would like to land at Nelson Mandela International Airport!

Invictus: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation (Paperback)
After being released from prison and win­ning South Africa's first free elec­tion, Nelson Mandela presided over a coun­try still deeply divided by fifty years of apartheid. His plan was ambi­tious if not far-fetched: Use the national rugby team, the Springboks-long an embod­i­ment of white suprem­acist rule-to embody and engage a new South Africa as they pre­pared to host the 1995 World Cup. The string of wins that fol­lowed not only defied the odds, but capped Mandela's mira­cu­lous effort to bring South Africans together in a hard-won, endur­ing bond.

About the Author
John Carlin is senior inter­na­tional writer for El País, the world's lead­ing Spanish lan­guage news­pa­per, and was pre­vi­ously the U.S. bur­eau chief for The Independent on Sunday. His writ­ing has appeared in The New York Times, The New Republic, Wired, Spin, and Condé Nast Traveler.

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Invictus: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation

Useful Links:
Nelson Mandela — A Tribute
South Africa Travel
South Africa 2010 World Cup
South Africa 2010 Host Cities