How Nelson Mandela Uses Rugby to Unite South Africa

Invictus Leadership Analysis

1

Invictus is a film that follows Mandela’s release from prison and his role as president of South Africa. The theme of the film is how to inspire the men and women of the nation to put aside their differences and come together as one community so that they can heal from their past wounds. To help the nation heal, Mandela realizes the country needs something to believe in, something to be inspired by. He turns to the rugby team, because the country is hosting the World Cup that year. He reaches out to the captain of the team, Pinaar, and gives him the idea that if the team can win the World Cup it will help the people of South Africa to believe in themselves and to put aside their grudges and prejudices that they have nursed toward one another for so many years.

The film shows that in the beginning some of the South Africans root against their own team because they see the team as being part of the apartheid past and they hate it for that. Yet as the team begins to win and beats all expectations the people of the nation cannot help but join in the fun and begin to root for their home team after all. Mandela helps to unite the team to the country by ordering the team to go out and hold clinics for the youth, and this helps them all bond and it creates a good spirit in the team and in the community.

The captain of the rugby team and Mandela have a special bond, too, for they both have a vision of uniting the nation—a vision of being part of something that is bigger than them. They are both selfless as they submit to this vision and give it everything they have. They do nothing for their own glory but rather everything for the glory of the people. In the end, the team wins the World Cup, as underdogs, and the people of South Africa come together as one nation to celebrate this great victory. Mandela sees it as a symbolic victory, a moment of pride and joy and innocence that he hopes will enable his people to lift up their heads and be the captains of their own souls once more instead of being captives to hate and division.

2

One of the behaviors of Mandela that is most effective for him as a leader is that he challenges people not to fight but to forgive. He sees how angry, suspicious and bitter the people are toward one another. Each side views the other with deep antipathy. First, he challenges the people in his administration and security detail to work together without prejudice. He tells them that if they want to quit because they don’t believe in the government, fine; but if they want to quit because they think they or someone else has the wrong color skin, that is not fine. He wants people to see past their prejudices and accept one another as human beings. He challenges his daughter to do the same, to see the white man not as an enemy but rather as a friend. He tells he this after she complains about the picture in the newspaper in which he is shown shaking the hands of a white man. She sees only skin color and addresses the anger in her own heat—so he tells her. But he as a leader has to address a nation and put aside his own feelings. His aim throughout all this is to get people to see the community first and not their own bitterness and resentment.

The second behavior of Mandela that is effective is that he recognizes to be strong one needs inspiration, and so he looks around for inspiration that could be used to bring the nation together. For him the inspiration he found in prison was a poem, “Invictus.” But for the nation, he needs something grander, more spectacular. And that is when he settles on the idea that rugby and the South African team specifically could be just the thing. He invites the captain, Pinaar, in for a chat, and communicates to Pinaar the idea that it would be great for the nation, inspiring for all South Africans, if the team won the World Cup. In other words, he enlists Pinaar to the cause of uniting post-apartheid rugby—not through politics or speeches but simply by doing the best job on the field he could possibly do as a rugby player. He also does not tell Pinaar directly that he wants the team to win the World Cup; instead, he plants the idea like a seed in Pinaar’s mind, asking him about how one can inspire others. He lets Pinaar arrive at the conclusion all on his own.

The third thing he does that is effective is that he realizes that it is not just about winning a rugby tournament; it is about bringing the sport and the spirit it represents to the community. For that reason, he orders the rugby team to put on a clinic for the youth of the community. The team feels this is just one more headache that they have to deal with, but Mandela has a vision: he wants the team to realize its importance to the nation. He wants the team to realize how they inspire others. He wants the team to come together as a team just as the nation needs to come together as a nation, just like his government needs to come together as one government. That is why there is a sign on the field at the clinic that reads, “One team, one nation.” Mandela is about uniting people, not driving them apart. He is about forgiving in order to heal wounds. He is about finding the peace, love, joy, and integrity that makes people proud, that makes them captains of their souls. He sees in Pinaar a captain of a rugby team, who can help the nation become captain of itself instead of divided by a spirit of hate and anger and jealousy. His goal is to inspire, and he sees the sport of the nation as a way to help bring about that inspiration so that the country as a whole can lift its head high.

3

Francois Pinaar tells Mandela that he leads by example. Mandela agrees that is good but then he asks how you inspire someone to be better than the person thinks he can be. Mandela explains that it is by using the work of others. “I found inspiration in a poem,” he says to illustrate his point. Pinaar understands what Mandela is telling him and agrees, saying that before a big match the team is silent on the bus but then Pinaar tells the bus driver to play a song that they all know and the team listens to the words of the song and it helps to prepare them for the match. Thus, one example of how Pinaar leads is that he brings his men together and has them listen to a rousing song that inspires and motivates them to do their best.

Another behavior of Pinaar that is most effective in the film is that he takes the team to Robben Island where Mandela spent the first 18 years of his imprisonment, and there they see the cell Mandela occupied. Pinaar has the great insight into the character of the man Mandela when he notes how amazing it is that Mandela could come out of such a small cell ready to forgive the people who put him there.