From Robben Island to the 2010 World Cup, football was a constant theme in Nelson Mandela’s life. Here’s how the beautiful game helped shape the Rainbow Nation.
“Sport has the power to change the world…it has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does. It speaks to youth in a language they understand. Sport can create hope where once there was only despair. It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers” – Nelson Mandela
Football on Robben Island
In 1961, the South African government began to hold political prisoners on former leper colony, Robben Island. With little nourishment, backbreaking work in the quarry, and rough treatment from wardens, it would have been easy for prisoners to lose hope.
But rather than just accept the island as some sort of Purgatory, the prisoners lobbied hard to be allowed one simple pleasure: football.
Every week for over three years, inmates made the request to the wardens, a different prisoner each time as punishment could be isolation without food. Eventually, the guards gave in, presuming it would just lead to some light recreation.
But what started off as a ball of rags on a small, dusty space gradually blossomed into something much more than just football.
Using a FIFA rule book found by an inmate, prisoners set up the Makana Football Association. In the documentary More than just a Game, former inmate Tony Suze says:
“suddenly soccer was a passion. It was all we could think about – it was all we wanted to do.”
By 1969 they moved to a bigger field allowing them to comply with FIFA regulations. Eight teams played across three divisions; each side boasting a plethora of fans and its own jersey, bringing color and identity back into to their lives.
The tedium of activities such as mid-week disciplinary hearings, fixture schedules, and devising tactics gave prisoners a purpose and kept morale high. In a deeper sense they felt that if they could successfully run a league in such adverse circumstances then maybe someday they could run a country.
However, not all inmates were directly involved. Prisoner number 46664, Nelson Mandela, was held on the isolation wing. He secretly followed games from his cell until they built a wall to block his view. But the sound of every kick and cheer that reached him still managed to keep his spirit up.
Inside the barbwire fences on Robben Island football was renewing hope during times of hardship. Several miles away on the mainland, in the midst of apratheid, the game was battling to do the same.
documentary%c2%a0More than just a Game,</em> former inmate Tony Suze says:</p>
<blockquote><p>“suddenly soccer was a passion. It was all we could think about – it was all we wanted to do.”</p></blockquote>
<p>By 1969 they moved to a bigger field allowing them to comply with FIFA regulations. Eight teams played across three divisions; each side boasting a plethora of fans and its own jersey, bringing color and identity back into to their lives.</p>
<p>The tedium of activities such as mid-week disciplinary hearings, fixture schedules, and devising tactics gave prisoners a purpose and kept morale high. In a deeper sense they felt that if they could successfully run a league in such adverse circumstances then maybe someday they could run a country.</p>
<p>However, not all inmates were directly involved. Prisoner number 46664, Nelson Mandela, was held on the isolation wing. He secretly followed games from his cell until they built a wall to block his view. But the sound of every kick and cheer that reached him still managed to keep his spirit up.</p>
<p>Inside the barbwire fences on Robben Island football was renewing hope during times of hardship. Several miles away on the mainland, in the midst of apratheid, the game was battling to do the same.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #0" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://playingfor90.com/2018/07/18/nelson-mandela-day-beautiful-game-shaped-rainbow-nation/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> Football and apartheid </a>
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<h3 style="">Apartheid and FIFA ban
</h3><p>
</p><p>The same year that Robben Island opened as a prison, FIFA suspended South Africa for racist policies.</p>
<p>By that time a ‘white only’ league, the National Football League (NFL), had been in practice for over a decade. The league attracted big crowds and turned professional in the late 50’s.</p>
<p>The division prospered to such an extent that English World Cup winners Bobby Moore, Booby Charlton, and Geoff Hurst all had stints with NFL side Hellenic.</p>
<p>The largest organisation for black players was the National African Soccer League (NASL). The division was also hugely popular within its section of society but, compared to the NFL, had many challenges to overcome such as restrictions on land ownership and access to public facilities.</p>
<p>Without democracy in the state, many NASL players supported the segregation of the leagues, preaching the slogan ‘no normal sports in abnormal society.’</p>
<p>However, still not everybody fitted neatly into the NFL or NASL and seperate divisions catered for colored and Indian races.</p>
<p>The only time they mixed was during the Kajee Cup; a tournament where ‘international’ fixtures were held between black, Indian, and colored XIs. The NFL did not enter a team as black and white players on the same pitch would not be tolerated.</p>
<p>Progress was finally made in ’76 when the dark skinned Vincent Julius featured for the Arcadia Sheperds in the NFL. Fans vehemently opposed his presence, but the government and NFL allowed it instead of having to deal with the backlash from increasing global scrutiny.</p>
<p>The same year a multi-raced team played a friendly against a visiting Argentinean side, although the crowd was still divided by race.</p>
<p>South Africa won 5-0 thanks to a hat-rick from Jomo Sono, a South African legend who went on to play alongside Pele and Beckenbauer at the New York Cosmos.</p>
<p>Colors finally coerced in ’78 as the National Professional Soccer League discarded color regulations.</p>
<p>But a united front on the football field was not mirrored by society. Chaos continued on the streets with a young knife carrying Lucas Radebe among those caught up in the violence.</p>
<p>Future Champions League winner Benni McCarthy witnessed a stray bullet take the life of a friend and, in Ian Hawkey’s <em>Feet of the Chameleon,</em> he talks of how was a bloodshed was a part of daily life:</p>
<blockquote><p>“We would wait behind at the school most days because there was some sort of commotion going on outside, gangs, shootings. You’d hear gunshot everyday.”</p></blockquote>
<h3 style="">After apartheid
</h3><p>
</p><p>In June 1992, two years after Mandela’s release from prison, FIFA lifted the 30 year ban on South Africa from international competitions.</p>
<p>The country’s first game was against Cameroon in front of a crowd of mixed ethnicity. Kaiser Chiefs star ‘Doctor’ Khumalo got the only goal of the game to give South Africa a historic win.</p>
<p>In May of ’94 Nelson Mandela was sworn in as the first black head of state. Later that evening he excused himself from guests as esteemed as the Clintons, Muammar Gaddafi, and Fidel Castro to go and watch his country play Zambia.</p>
<p>The score was level when he arrived at halftime but a visit to the changing room inspired the side to a 2-0 win.</p>
<p>Less than two years later, Nelson Mandela celebrated on the pitch in Soweto after his country was crowned champions of Africa.</p>
<div class="next-slide slider"> <a class="next-slide-btn" style="background: #0" data-track="shortcode" data-track-action="next-slide-shortcode" href=https://playingfor90.com/2018/07/18/nelson-mandela-day-beautiful-game-shaped-rainbow-nation/"#"> <span class="title">Next:</span> 2010 World Cup and FIFA recognition </a>
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<p class="wp-caption-text" style="width:590px;">JOHANNESBURG, SOUTH AFRICA – JULY 11: Former South Africa President Nelson Mandela and wife Graca Machel wave to the crowds prior to the 2010 FIFA World Cup South Africa Final match between Netherlands and Spain at Soccer City Stadium on July 11, 2010 in Johannesburg, South Africa. (Photo by Clive Mason/Getty Images)</p>
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<h3 style="">2010 World Cup
</h3><p>
</p><p>In 2004, Nelson Mandela travelled to Zürich to address a FIFA congress who would vote on the hosts of the 2010 World Cup.</p>
<p>Mandela thanked FIFA for throwing South Africa out for racist practices during apartheid. He went on to tell of how ‘football was the only joyful release for the prisoners’ on Robben Island.</p>
<p>The following day, 40 years after expulsion from the organization, South Africa was awarded hosting rights for the game’s most illustrious showpiece.</p>
<p>In relation to the victory, head of the World Cup committee <a href=https://playingfor90.com/2018/07/18/nelson-mandela-day-beautiful-game-shaped-rainbow-nation/"https://www.bbc.com/sport/25262862">Danny Jordaan called Mandela</a> the ‘difference maker:’</p>
<blockquote><p>“Any country can put together a programme of stadiums and airports and roads but we had Nelson Mandela. Other countries used to complain that it wasn’t equal.”</p></blockquote>
<p>Five new stadiums were built for the tournament including Nelson Mandela Bay Stadium in Port Elizabeth, and Cape Town Stadium – just a few miles from Robben Island.</p>
<p>Mandela had fallen ill by the time the World Cup came around, but did manage to make an emotive appearance during the final in Johannesburg.</p>
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<blockquote><p>“Looking at it now, it was his last big public appearance,” commented Jordaan. “The last time the cameras were around him – and it was so appropriate that it was at a World Cup final he had worked so hard to bring to the country.”</p></blockquote>
<h3 style="">Football appreciates Nelson Mandela
</h3><p>
</p><p>Mandela rubs shoulders with the likes of Pele and Johan Cruyff after he was awarded the <a href=https://playingfor90.com/2018/07/18/nelson-mandela-day-beautiful-game-shaped-rainbow-nation/"https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/FIFA_Order_of_Merit">FIFA Order of Merit,</a> the highest honor awarded by FIFA, for bringing international football back to South Africa.</p>
<p>The ex-president has long inspired players around the globe. <a href=https://playingfor90.com/2018/07/18/nelson-mandela-day-beautiful-game-shaped-rainbow-nation/"https://www.fifa.com/news/y=2013/m=12/news=quotes-mandela-and-football-2239872.html">Pele called him</a> his ‘hero’; while, David Beckham said meeting him was ‘the highlight of [his] career.’</p>
<p>Likewise, the beautiful game gave back to Mandela. From the solace it offered him while in isolation, to dancing on the pitch after AFCON glory in ’96, to feeling ‘like a young man of 15’ after being awarded the World Cup hosting rights, football was a constant positive force in his life.</p>
<p>The same could be said for those involved with Makana F.A. (the organization given honorary membership to FIFA in 2007). These men, including three future presidents, went on to shape the country that is now referred to as the Rainbow Nation.</p>
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