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Nonfiction
Playing the Enemy:
Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation
The Rugby World Cup
1 “When the game ended,” Morne Du Plessis said, “I turned and started running towards the tunnel and there was Edward Griffiths, who had invented the ‘One Team, One Country’ slogan, and he said to me, ‘Things are never going to be the same again.’ And I agreed instantly, because I knew right there that the best was behind, that life could offer nothing better. I said to him ‘We’ve seen it all today.’”
2 But Du Plessis was wrong. There was more. There was Mandela going down onto the pitch, with his jersey on, with his cap on his head to hand over the cup to his friend Francois. And there was the crowd again — “Nelson! Nelson! Nelson!” — enraptured, as Mandela appeared at the touchline, smiling from ear to ear, waving to the crowd, as he prepared to walk toward a little podium that had been placed on the field where he would hand the world cup trophy to Francois Pienaar.
***
3 The gods at that moment were Mandela and Pienaar, the old man in green, crowned king of all South Africa, handing the cup to Pienaar, the young man in green, anointed that day as the spiritual head of born-again Afrikanerdom.
4 As the captain held the cup, Mandela put his left hand on his right shoulder, fixed him with a fond gaze, shook his right hand and said, “Francois, thank you very much for what you have done for our country.”
5 Pienaar, meeting Mandela’s eyes, replied, “No, Mr. President. Thank you for what you have done for our country.”
6 Had he been preparing for this moment all his life, he could not have struck a truer chord. As Desmond Tutu said, “That response was made in heaven. We human beings do our best, but those words at that moment, well . . . . . . you couldn’t have scripted it.”
7 Maybe a Hollywood scriptwriter would have had them giving each other
a hug. It was an impulse Pienaar confessed later that he only barely restrained. Instead the two just looked at each other and laughed. Morne du Plessis, standing close by, looked at Mandela and the Afrikaner prodigal together, he saw Pienaar raise the cup high above his shoulders as Mandela, laughing, pumped his fists in the air, and he struggled to believe what his eyes were seeing. “I’ve never seen such complete joy,” Du Plessis said. “He is looking at Francois and just, sort of, keeps laughing ... and Francois is looking at Mandela and ... the bond between them!”
8 It was all too much for the tough-minded Slabbert, hard-nosed veteran of a thousand political battles. “When Francois said that into the microphone, with Mandela there listening, laughing, and waving to the crowd and raising his cap to them, well,” said Slabbert, “everybody was weeping. There wasn’t a dry eye in the house.”
9 There wasn’t a dry eye in the country.
Word CoNNeCTIoNS
Etymology
A trophy is a cup or other object given to winners of a contest. The word has its roots in ancient times, when warriors would take the weapons
of those whom they had conquered as a prize of battle. The word comes to us from the French trophee, which referred to the display of such weapons.
pitch: the playing field
anointed: chosen to lead my Notes
prodigal: someone who has behaved recklessly in the past but has reformed his behavior
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Leveled Differentiated instruction
To support students in film analysis, you may want to have students work with partners or small groups to complete the graphic organizer.
Divide students into groups
of four and have each group member take notes on just one area of the graphic organizer. After watching the film, have students share their notes with the group.
Divide students into pairs.
Have one student in each pair take notes on the images and their effect on the audience and have the other student take notes on the dialogue and its effect on the audience. After watching the film, have students share their notes with their partners.
k Before reading the final excerpt, discuss the effect of the images
and dialogue on the audience and how that effect was created. Have students mark the text of the excerpt for similarities to the film version.
l Discuss possible reasons why the final scene was filmed so similarly to true events when other scenes in the film were altered. You may need to guide students toward an understanding that the Rugby World Cup was televised, so actual documentation exists
of what did and did not happen, while other scenes are more open to interpretation. What implications does this have about films based on historical events that were never filmed or that took place before the invention of film?
Unit 3 • Choices and Consequences 239
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.
© 2017 College Board. All rights reserved.