I used a little of my birthday money to get John Carlin’s book, “Playing the Enemy-Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation.”

I strongly  recommend this book. It’s not so much a rugby book, it’s really a bit of history with rugby as a very important supporting character.

John Carlin interviewed many of the important figures from diverse backgrounds as Nelson Mandela, François Peinaar, ANC political figures, De Klerk, Viljoen, Mark Andrews,  Bernard, and Louis Luyt-among others.

The thing that really struck me in reading this book was just HOW close South Africa very easily could have descended into chaos and civil war-particularly after the assassination of Chris Hani. Unlike US President Barack Obama’s recent awarding of the Nobel Peace Prize, President Mandela REALLY earned his Nobel Peace Prize. When you think of how Mandela had to win the hearts and minds of Afrikaners and members of his own ANC, it was an amazing, and tenous balancing act. For most black South Africans, rugby was the white man’s game, and even more than that, the game of the Afrikaners who wanted to keep the status quo of the Apartheid system. For white South Africans, they had a very real fear of the unknown of what would happen when the ANC achieved power.  Mandela used the 1995 Rugby World Cup as a way to try to unite his nation in very stressful times. Carlin weaves amazing images of Mandela wearing the Springbok Jersey, of other black South Africans cheering for the Springboks, of this mostly white team singing the new national anthem, Nkosi Sikelel iAfrika, whith real emotion, and of the mostly white crowd at Ellis Park singing the Zulu song “Shosholoza”-a miner’s song more associated with black fans at soccer games.

Mandela used the game of rugby at the 1995 Rugby World Cup as sort of a carrot on the stick to create his vision of a multi-racial South Africa united under a new flag and a new spirit of forgiveness and redemption. “Playing the Enemy” is a fantastic story of perseverance and the power of the human spirit to overcome obstacles. It’s a great read that I think rugby fans and students of history will both enjoy.