Review by Booklist Review
*Starred Review* Nelson Mandela spent 27 years in a South African prison because of his position as the military leader of the African National Congress, the leading anti-apartheid organization. Amazingly, while inside, he actually increased his influence as a resistance leader. In 1994, after his release, he was elected South Africa's president in the country's first free election. Realizing that his new government was on tenuous ground and could disintegrate at any moment, he sought a symbolic moment that would unite the black citizenry with white Afrikaners and hit upon the idea of South Africa hosting rugby's first World Cup. The first step was to convince South Africa's national team the Springboks to get aboard. Mandela's charm, determination, and patriotism won them over to the point that the team wound up singing the national anthem of the black resistance movement in a much-replayed television spot. Improbably, Springbok once the sporting symbol of Afrikaner dominance and arrogance advanced to the cup finals, gathering more fans, black and white, with each win. Carlin, former U.S. bureau chief for the Independent, was assigned to South Africa during the transition from white to majority rule. He personally interviewed most of the principals involved in this fascinating story and undertook the project with Mandela's blessing. A new slant on the familiar but always inspiring saga of Mandela's rise to power.--Lukowsky, Wes Copyright 2008 Booklist
From Booklist, Copyright (c) American Library Association. Used with permission.
Review by Publisher's Weekly Review
Carlin offers the final dramatic chapters of how then president Nelson Mandela and his wily strategy of using a sporting event--the Sprinkboks rugby team in the 1995 World Cup--to mend South Africa. Carlin, a senior international writer for El Pa¡s, quotes Mandela: "Sports has the power to change the world.... It is more powerful than government in breaking down racial barriers." After giving an informed capsule history of apartheid's bitter legacy and Mandela's noble stature as a leader, the scene is set for the influential rugby match between the solid New Zealand team and the scrappy South African squad in the finals of the World Cup, with 43 million blacks and whites awaiting the outcome. All of the cast in Afrikaner lore are here--Botha, DeKlerk, Bernard, Viljeon--as they match wits with Mandela. Carlin concludes this excellent book of redemption and forgiveness with chapters that depict how a divided country can be elevated beyond hate and malice to pride and healing. (Aug.) (c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
(c) Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved
Review by Library Journal Review
Carlin (senior international writer, El Pais; White Angels: Beckham, the Real Madrid and the New Football) provides an intriguing and readable addition to the small shelf of books (e.g., David Black and John Nauright's Rugby and the South African Nation) on the role of rugby in unifying post-apartheid South Africa and on how sports and politics can be meaningfully intertwined. Although Carlin focuses on Nelson Mandela's use of the 1995 World Cup rugby championship, which had been uniquely scheduled to take place entirely in South African stadiums, he provides many engrossing anecdotes that illuminate the troubled political atmosphere in South Africa at the time. Carlin depicts Mandela's evolving attitude toward rugby, from his contempt for a sport that represented white South African domination (specifically as represented by the national team, the Springboks), to his consideration of the sport as a tool for unity, to his becoming an actual rugby fan. Nestled within Carlin's stories are valuable insights into the political genius of Mandela both generally and specifically in his role in converging sport, culture, and politics. Carlin's own recent interviews, with Mandela, the rugby players, and various politicians, serve as strong primary-source material. Endnotes and a bibliography would have made the book more suitable for an academic audience. Recommended for high school and public libraries. [See Prepub Alert, LJ 5/15/08.]--Shannon Pritting, SUNY at Oswego Lib. (c) Copyright 2010. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
(c) Copyright Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.
Review by Kirkus Book Review
The Independent's former South Africa bureau chief chronicles the 1995 Rugby World Cup victory that united a divided country. Carlin (White Angels, 2004, etc.) presents a revealing and entertaining insider's view of the improbable events leading to South Africa's upset triumph over New Zealand, which many believe instantly secured a peaceful future for the then-unsettled nation. The Springboks, as South Africa's team was called, may have secured the World Cup trophy, but the real hero of this stirring tale is recently elected President Nelson Mandela, who adopted the mostly Afrikaner players as his own and somehow got the predominantly black population behind them. Carlin shows that Mandela's genius for swaying hearts and minds was nothing new. Jailed since 1964 by the country's apartheid government, the African National Congress leader systematically won over his enemies, from a cruel prison warden to President P.W. Botha. By the time he was released in 1990, Mandela was a celebrated world figure and a hero to many at home. But even after his inauguration in May 1994, South Africa remained on the verge of civil war. The new president was smart enough to realize that his best chance of calming the white minority's anger and fear was by getting a united South Africa behind the celebrated Springboks, who'd been banned from the first two Rugby World Cups, in 1987 and '91, as part of an international anti-apartheid boycott. Carlin follows the events leading up to the 1995 World Cup with a knowing eye for both history and the sport of rugby. But most memorable of all is his portrait of Mandela: an inherently simple man (he rises at 4:30 a.m. every day to a breakfast of papaya, kiwi, mango, porridge and coffee) with a knack for the perfect political gesture, and the courage and conviction to pull it off. A rousing, highly readable piece of history. Copyright ©Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
Copyright (c) Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.
