Soccer and the soul

June 14, 2010

South Africa already was at fever pitch when I visited 10 days ago, more than a week before the 2010 World Cup began. It reminded me of the extraordinary spirit of South Africa in June 1995 when the Springboks won the rugby World Cup and the country went wild. The tension leading up to the match and the outburst of excitement when their team won against all odds were unforgettable.

So it's not surprising that Clint Eastwood's 2009 film "Invictus, about Nelson Mandela and that great rugby victory, is playing on airplanes going in many directions. It is an inspiring story of powerful leadership, both Mandela's and Francois Pienaar's, the Springbok captain. The real history and the film highlight the power of determination and inspiration, and how South Africa's national success in sports helped to overcome huge barriers among South Africans, almost in an instant. It is a real story of hope.

Invictus is a Latin word meaning 'unconquered.' The film's title is taken from a Victorian poem by William Ernest Henley. Mandela tells Pienaar that the poem gave him courage to persist in the toughest times, during his long years in prison on Robben Island. Pienaar in turn takes inspiration from Mandela's message.

The message that Mandela takes from the poem is that no matter how dark the pit, the soul is unconquerable. "My head is bloody but unbowed . . . The menace of the years finds, and shall find, me unafraid . . . I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul."

The message that "I am the master of my fate" has a strong echo in Michelle Obama's graduation speech in Washington last week, as she urged the graduates not to let fatalism grip them: master your own life.

Mandela is one of our era's most inspirational figures, a person tested beyond our imagination, an living example of courage, persistence and belief in the unconquerable power of the spirit.

Comparisons between religion and sports are generally made in a frivolous tone, or in a vein that denigrates the passions and convictions of both. But inspiration and leadership are at the heart of the best in both sports and religion.

In the film, Mandela asks the captain, how can you lead in ways that make your team more than they believe they can be? His question for himself is how he can inspire the people of his divided nation to see themselves both as one and as masters of their fate.

That's the central question we face in our country too, and we would do well to follow Mandela's wise example and his counsel.

About the Author

Katherine Marshall

Katherine Marshall, a senior fellow at Georgetown University’s Berkley Center for Religion, Peace, and World Affairs, leads the center’s work on religion and global development. She is also a professor of the practice of development, conflict, and religion in the Walsh School of Foreign Service, teaching diverse courses on the ethics of development work and mentoring students at many levels. She helped to create and now serves as the executive director of the World Faiths Development Dialogue, an NGO that works to enhance bridges between different sectors and institutions. In September 2022, she was appointed as a member of the Advisory Committee on Voluntary Foreign Aid at the U.S. Agency for International Development. Marshall has five decades of experience on a variety of development issues in Africa, Latin America, East Asia, and the Middle East, particularly those facing the world’s poorest countries. She was a World Bank officer from 1971 to 2006, and she led the World Bank’s faith and ethics initiative between 2000 and 2006. Marshall is a member of the Working Group on Child Rights and Family Values and the Working Group on Displaced Persons and Hospitality to the Stranger, both part of the Culture of Encounter Project.