Invictus

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This historically accurate film, directed by Clint Eastwood, is a film about Nelson Mandela using the sport of rugby to unify the newly free nation of South Africa. Remaining throughout the movie, Nelson Mandela, played by Morgan Freeman, talks to Springbok team captain François Pienaar, subtly informing him of the importance of this World Cup.  The movie continues to show how as the Springboks continually exceed expectations, the country slowly becomes racially mixed.  One scene illustrates this perfectly.  As the final of the World Cup is going on, the film occasionally cuts to two white policemen in their car listening in on the game.  As they listen, a poor black child approaches the car to pick up something from the ground, and the police begin to get angry.  As the game continues, the boy moves slowly closer to the car, and the men do not prevent him from doing so.  When the game ends with a Springbok victory, all three of them join in celebration together, and the policemen even pick up the child out of sheer happiness.  This scene was used to illustrate the success of Nelson Mandela’s idea to unify the country through a common sport: rugby.

This film also demonstrates the slow evolution from a government rule based on apartheid to a unified South Africa. In the beginning of the film, Mandela is elected president. This results in the white majority leaving South Africa fearful of Mandela's desired revenge that the whites thought he had. Mandela's main objective throughout the film is to unify South Africa with passive resistance, and patience. Mandela recognizes unity will not occur instantly over time. He hopes to lead South Africa into an antiapartheid based government, however statistics such as crime and unemployment rate initially both increase significantly. Thoughout the movie Mandela has to deal with a very segregated and hostile environment, but rugby is his key to unity. Mandela turns to Francois Pienaar, the white captain of the South African national rugby team to lead his team to victory, while simultaneously leading South Africa into a more unified nation.

 The film is also able to give an idea of the personality of Nelson Mandela at the time of his election.  Morgan Freeman portrays him as a man who forgives easily, acknowledges everybody, and never loses his focus.  Even after his 27 years on Robin Island, he was able to remain positive the entire time, partially with the help of the poem the film is named after: Invictus. 

Nelson Mandela read this poem while he was stuck in his prison, and it was this poem that allowed him to stay hopeful. 

African National Congress (ANC)

Currently the leading party within South Africa, this political party formed back in the year 1911.  Pixley ka Isaka Seme was quoted as saying “We are one people. These divisions, these jealousies, are the cause of all our woes today.”  It was this quote that set off the events, which would lead off to the creation of the African National Congress, whose main goal is to eliminate racial inequalities and unify Africa in to a united people and defend the rights and freedoms of the people.  The official formation of the ANC occurred in January 8th 1912, occurred when many prominent figures, such as chiefs and representatives of churches and people’s organizations, gathered in Bloemfontein to created the ANC.  In 1944, the ANC youth league was formed, of which Nelson Mandela was a member. 

This youth group came up with a Program of Action, which called for defiance, strikes, and boycotts of the government systems.  This program was later adopted by the ANC in 1949, and began the Defiance Campaign in 1950.  This campaign had people acting against the segregation by doing acts such as blatantly walking into “Europeans Only” zones and demanding to be serviced at locations specified as “Whites Only.”  Following the Sharpville massacre on March 30^th 1960, the ANC was banned.  This does not mean that they gave up here though.  In 1961, they began to take up arms against the government. Umkhonto we Sizwe (MK) was formed under the ANC to "hit back by all means within our power in defence of our people, our future and our freedom."  In only 18 months, the MK managed to commit 200 separate acts of sabotage, but this was still not enough against the government, who just reacted with even harsher methods of repression.  In 1963, the secret headquarters of the MK was raided, where the leaders were arrested.  At the Rivonia Trial, these leaders were then charged with attempting to cause a violent revolution.  By February 1990, the government was forced to unban the ANC as well as other organizations, which showed that they may finally be willing to try and peacefully solve the issues in South Africa through negotiations.  Nelson Mandela was elected President of the National Congress of the ANC in 1991, and eventually president of the country in the first free elections in the country in 1994.  The ANC remains the leading political party in South Africa.  But the ANC is still not a perfect group, as issues still exist within the country.  One of these being the “No land, no house, no vote” policy.  This policy prohibits anybody who does not own land from voting in the free elections, under the pretense that they must not be educated enough to do so.  Many of the homeless of South Africa rally against this policy, but to no avail.  So while they may lead the country, there is always work to do.

National Party

The National Party of South Africa had been the standing political party in South Africa soon after its foundation in 1914 up until the rise of the ANC and eventual dominance of it in 1994.  General JBM Hertzog founded it in the Afrikaner heartlands of Bloemfontein.  Known as the party that started apartheid, they originally believed very strongly in white superiority.  The 1922 Rand Rebellion was a large turning point for this group, as it was this rebellion caused by labor unrest that resulted in the pact between the national party and the labour party.  Both parties joined the pact with the goal of protecting white labor.  It was this pact that allowed the national party to defeat the South African Party on June 27^th, 1924.  This victory also resulted in Afrikaans becoming the official language as well as a new country flag. 
 It was the election of May 26^th, 1948 that finally resulted in the institution of Apartheid.  D.F. Malan's National Party, in alliance with N.C. Havenga's Afrikaner Party, won the election, and following the election, Malan is quoted as saying, “Today South Africa belongs to us once more. South Africa is our own for the first time since Union, and may God grant that it will always remain our own.”  The new ruling party was essentially comprised of two groups; those who wanted white supremacy, introduced apartheid, and worked to secure white political dominance, and those who wished to establish a sense of common history through all of South Africa.  
In the time between the 1948 election and 1957, all signs of British citizenship were removed from South Africa, increasing their view of themselves as their own nation.  J.G. Strijdom succeeded Malan as prime minister in 1954, and in 1958 the National Party won 103 seats while the competing United Party only had 53, completing the National Party’s dominance over the country.  This dominance was used to consolidate all power in Whites, as well as to institute racial classification and racial sex laws.  This large-scale power was finally eroded with the institution of Nelson Mandela as president in 1994.

That was not the end of the National Party though, as they have begun to reemerge now with a new focus as they campaign for the 2014 election.  They promise to reject apartheid and any racial segregation, and according to party spokesman Juan-Duval Uys, “We want to move on and embrace every race in South Africa.”  Mr. Uys is also quoted as saying,  "Our figures show that 85 per cent of those wanting to join are black. They're fed up of corruption and the lack of support from the ANC and want to join us in a non-racial party which represents everyone, not the few."  This quote shows their determination to no longer be a racially segregated party, and instead have entirely new views to try and counter the now allegedly corrupt ANC government.  Some views of the new “21^st-century National Party” include strong views on the death penalty, where violent crimes such as rape, drug dealing, and murder will all be put to the death penalty without question if convicted.  It will now be left up to the people to decide whether or not they can trust the party that started apartheid to now run their country again.

The 1960 Sharpville Massacre

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Sharpville, a small town in the north east of South Africa was the setting of a devastating act of police against black protestors in the early 1960’s. The Pan-African Congress (PAC), a branch off of the African National Congress (ANC), arranged this particular gathering in an attempt to abolish South Africa’s Pass Laws. The South African Pass Laws dictated that the blacks in South Africa were required to carry a passbook at all times when visiting out of their designated home area. When the act commenced 5,000 to 7,000 protestors marched to a nearby Sharpville police station and non-violently began protesting. The protestors were inviting arrest in an attempt to grab the attention of the white minority rule. As the number of people significantly rose to 20,000 people the riot began to intensify. The number of police slowly increased as well. Then, the protestors started to throw stones to gain more attention. Unfortunately, the stones hit three police officers, which caused an inexperienced officer to open fire on these protestors causing a chain reaction of gunfire directed against these protestors. With the protestors holding nothing more harmful than stones the Sharpville police opened fire, and killing 69 people, harming 180 with some victims being women and children. Following the shooting, over 11000 protestors were detained and placed under arrest.

Nelson Mandela- Presidency

 

As the newly elected South American president, Mandela sought reconciliation among the African American people and the more powerful white minority. Mandela constructed the Government of National Unity (GNU) which consisted of himself, F.W de Klerk and Thabo Mebki from the ANC. In 1995 he established the Truth and Reconciliation Commission (TRC), which investigated human rights violations under apartheid, and he introduced housing, education, and economic development initiatives designed to improve the living standards of the country’s black population.

During 1995, South Africa’s unemployment rate skyrocketed because of whites fearful of the future. The powerful white population took their wealth with them to places such as Australia or England. Due to the unemployment, the level of crime increased dramatically with reports of carjacking, rape and murder. Mandela as well as the GNU faced much criticism, but they knew that the reconstruction of South Africa would be a long process. In response, Mandela set up the Reconstruction and Development Plan (RDP) in an attempt for the country to recover economically. The RDP would grant the construction of millions of homes and education for all.

Even with the RDP South Africa became one of the most dangerous places for both blacks and whites. During his reign another problem that troubled South Africa was the HIV (aids) epidemic, which devastated many communities. The Department of Health in 1998 estimated that about ten percent of the population was infected with the virus. The newly formed government did not know how to control this epidemic.

Even though the ANC suffered many tragedies such as the HIV epidemic, optimism struck Mandela once South Africa hosted the 1995 Rugby Union World Cup. When South Africa won this championship Mandela happily presented the trophy to their white team captain Francois Piennar. This symbolic event took a major step in the reconciliation of blacks and whites.

Although problems of crime, unemployment, and HIV were not completely fixed during the reign of Nelson Mandela, he laid down a clear path to South Africa’s evolving democracy.