Sunday December 15, 2013
Kaieteur News
Page 65
“Nelson Rolihlahla Mandela - Invictus!” Colin E. H. Croft By now, after the death of Nelson Rolihlahla “Madiba” Mandela, one of the most influential persons to have lived this last century, in the same company as only Mohandas Karamchand “Mahatma” Gandhi, everyone knows the meaning of “Invictus”, taken from the 19th century poem by William Earnest Henley. The word means ‘unconquerable’; ‘undefeated’, and will always be associated with politics and sport. For “Madiba”, that word meant much more, including especially forgiveness, rehabilitation and reconciliation for, and with, all of his enemies, and those who may have harmed him, physically, mentally and emotionally, for twenty seven years that he was in that prison at Robben Island, just off Cape Town. The irony of Gandhi and Mandela being closely associated should not be lost. They both became lawyers but practiced forgiveness, not the sometimes perceived
vindictiveness of that profession. They should have been vindictive, given the treatment meted out to them by their own countrymen. But Gandhi and Mandela will always be greater than that! Both also got their political starts in the Republic of South Africa, before Gandhi went back to try, succeeding but not in the way he had hoped, to liberate his native India from the British Empire, while Mandela, trying to do the same thing for RSA, to free it from the Dutchinfluenced Boers, went to jail! “Invictus” is director Clint Eastwood’s brilliant 2009 film biopic of Mandela’s influence on the Republic of South Africa’s rugby team, and its eventual, extremely unexpected win of 1995 Rugby World Cup. When I first saw the film, which won several academy Awards, on a flight from London to Miami, I was convinced that it is the most influential sporting film that I had ever seen. Yes, I had played a good part in “Fire in Babylon”, that film about West Indies
Nelson Mandela presents Francois Pienaar with the 1995 World Cup trophy. (Daily Mail) conquests in 1970’s/1980’s, and I have also seen “Senna”, the biopic of the stunning Brazilian Formula One driver Ayrton Senna. But, unlike those two, “Invictus”, the film, is not about the actual players of the games at all. It is about the man, South Africa’s President by then,
Guyana Wado Ryu Karate Assoc. host successful grading exercise Seven-year-old Sadelle Britton of Mae’s Primary School was among five students who were successful in the Shodan (First Degree Black Belt) when the Guyana Wado Ryu Karate Association (GWKA) held its final grading exercises for 2013 at Mae’s Primary School Dojo and Banks DIH Sports Club Dojo recently. Sixty (60) students were examined by Fifth Dan Sensei Winston Dunbar, who is the Technical Advisor/ Chief Instructor of Wado Ryu Karate in Guyana. The four other students who secured First Degree Black Belt were, Imran Khan, Simeon Campbell, Daren Bobb, Alfred Hescott and Sierra Evans. The remaining students were graded in the ranks of seventh Kyu to first Kyu. Britton is the youngest Black Belt student in the Association. She has been training in the art
since she was four years old and has been diligent and committed to her craft. Her diminutive stature is misleading since she is never afraid to mix it up with the older and taller students, Darren Nurse, President of the GWKA said. Almost half of the examined students attend the Mae’s School Dojo which has had Wado Ryu Karate being practiced there for a period of approximately six years. The school has opened its arms to the GWKA with an extremely supportive administrative staff, who are interested in seeing the club continue to blossom. Sensei Dunbar said he was extremely pleased with the performance of the young students who have showed dedication and commitment which could open many doors for them.
Nelson Mandela, who influenced RSA’s national rugby team to do the impossible, and, in the process, united a dangerously fractured country, by beating rugby powerhouses Australia and New Zealand, expected finalists, on the way to 1995 Rugby World Cup. Both Morgan Freeman, as Mandela, and Matt Damon, who played RSA’s “Springboks” 1995 rugby captain Francois Pienaar, acted out of their skins, literally, one representing the new direction that RSA had to take, for its very survival, the other representing one of the traditions of South Africa’s sports. The most poignant part of the film? After Damon (Pienaar) had completed his invited, unexpected visit to see President Mandela
(Freeman), and was being driven home, he remarked, incredulously, to his female companion, when asked as to how the visit went, and how the President really was: “I think that he wants us to win the World Cup!” That is real influence, to make anyone, an entire team, even a country, do the impossible! In real life and in the film, the bonding chemistry of these two people was amazing. When Pienaar received that trophy from Mandela, who was clad in one of Pienaar ’s actual Springboks jerseys, and a baseball-type RSA cap presented to him by the team, the Republic of South Africa was reborn to the sports world! Talk about seizing the opportunity, timing is everything. Mandela used that exact sporting event in a sport that did not include many Blacks or Coloreds, to unite a nation; the Rainbow Nation. That world rugby championship win in 1995, coming so soon after Mandela’s 1990 release from prison, was the catalyst that everyone in RSA needed, that characteristic ethos of national re-building and reconciliation that that country required at that exact moment! In my several trips to RSA, the most beautiful country I have seen, I have not been fortunate enough to meet “Madiba,” but I have had direct contact; still keep those; with members of his family, including his former wife, Winnie, knowing one of his daughters, Zindzi, and two grand-daughters. I have also visited Mandela’s prison, and cell, at
Colin E. H. Croft Robben Island. In passing, great kudos to Prime Minister of Trinidad & Tobago, Ms. Kamla Persaud Bissessar, for insisting and ensuring that everyone in T&T’s Parliament saw the film, after Mandela’s death, before herself leading a T&T bipartisan delegation to “Madiba’s” funeral; a magnificent reconciliatory gesture! Conversely, disappointingly, Guyana’s response was unbelievably poor, given similar demographics of having a majority population of people of East Indian descent. Former Guyana President Cheddi Bharrat Jagan, himself a great revolutionary, must be turning, crying even, in his grave! How could Guyana’s political authorities, including its President, Donald Ramoutar, whose ancestors, like Ms. Bissessar’s, are of East Indian origin, not appreciate or understand that they should have done more, at least attend today’s funeral too, to also represent massive Indian diaspora that includes Durban, RSA. Hopefully, Zindzi’s suggestion, in memory of her father, for all ages; forever; would eventually be heeded. One massive word “Forgiveness!” Enjoy!