Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation Paperback – Illustrated, July 28, 2009
by John Carlin (Author)
4.7 out of 5 stars 311 ratings
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The inspiration for the film INVICTUS, starring Matt Damon and Morgan Freeman.
Beginning in a jail cell and ending in a rugby tournament- the true story of how the most inspiring charm offensive in history brought South Africa together. After being released from prison and winning South Africa's first free election, Nelson Mandela presided over a country still deeply divided by fifty years of apartheid. His plan was ambitious if not far-fetched: use the national rugby team, the Springboks-long an embodiment of white-supremacist rule-to embody and engage a new South Africa as they prepared to host the 1995 World Cup. The string of wins that followed not only defied the odds, but capped Mandela's miraculous effort to bring South Africans together again in a hard-won, enduring bond.
Beginning in a jail cell and ending in a rugby tournament- the true story of how the most inspiring charm offensive in history brought South Africa together. After being released from prison and winning South Africa's first free election, Nelson Mandela presided over a country still deeply divided by fifty years of apartheid. His plan was ambitious if not far-fetched: use the national rugby team, the Springboks-long an embodiment of white-supremacist rule-to embody and engage a new South Africa as they prepared to host the 1995 World Cup. The string of wins that followed not only defied the odds, but capped Mandela's miraculous effort to bring South Africans together again in a hard-won, enduring bond.
Editorial Reviews
Review
" This wonderful book describes Mandela's methodical, improbable and brilliant campaign to reconcile resentful blacks and fearful whites around a sporting event, a game of rugby."
-The New York Times Book Review
" If you have any doubts about the political genius of Nelson Mandela, read John Carlin's engrossing book . . . [A] feel-good slice of history."
-USA Today
About the Author
John Carlin is senior international writer for El País, the world’sleading Spanish language newspaper, and was previously the U.S.bureau chief for The Independent on Sunday. His writing has appeared inThe New York Times, The New Republic, Wired, Spin, and Conde NastTraveler.
Product details
Item Weight : 9.4 ounces
Paperback : 274 pages
Customer Reviews: 4.7 out of 5 stars 311 ratings
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John Carlin
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Biography
John Carlin has written Playing the Enemy, the book about Nelson Mandela on which the film Invictus was based, starring Morgan Freeman and Matt Damon, and directed by Clint Eastwood. He has also co-written Rafa: My Story, the official bio of Rafa Nadal, and White Angels, about Real Madrid in the age of Beckham, Ronaldo and Zidane. Carlin, who is bilingual, has additionally had two books published in Spanish, Heroica Tierra Cruel and La Tribu.
A journalist for 30 years, much of it as a foreign correpondent in Africa and the Americas, he has covered wars, peace negotiations, soccer, food and won numerous awards, some of them for TV and radio documentaries. He has worked for or contributed to el Pais (Spain), the London Times and Sunday Times, New York Times, Observer, BBC, Financial Times, Wall Street Journal, ESPN, Channel Four, PBS, among others.
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Top reviews from the United States
Karen Molenaar Terrell
5.0 out of 5 stars The Power of Love to Heal a Nation
Reviewed in the United States on July 28, 2015
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*Playing the Enemy* is a wonderful book - moving, touching, filled to brimming with inspiration. This is the story of Nelson Mandela's rise to the presidency of South Africa, and the power of love (and rugby) to unite a nation. I laughed. I cried. By the time I finished this book, my heart was filled with hope for our world. This book was proof, to me, that nothing - absolutely nothing - is impossible to Love.
"Mandela’s weakness was his greatest strength. He succeeded because he chose to see good in people who ninety-nine people out of a hundred would have judged to have been beyond redemption...By appealing to and eliciting what was best in them, and in every single white South African watching the rugby game that day, he offered them the priceless gift of making them feel like better people, in some cases transforming them into heroes.
"His secret weapon was that he assumed not only that he would like the people he met; he assumed also that they would like him. That vast self-confidence of his coupled with that frank confidence he had in others made for a combination that was as irresistible as it was disarming." - from *Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation*
- Karen Molenaar Terrell, author of *Blessings: Adventures of a Madcap Christian Scientist*
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EJ
5.0 out of 5 stars Absolutely brilliant
Reviewed in the United States on February 11, 2011
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I agree with the other reviewers here about this book; it is indeed a "must-read". This book is not really a story of rugby, as later portrayed in the Hollywood movie; it is a story of a country struggling with a massive and long-overdue change in the fabric of its society.
John Carlin tells the story of South Africa during the transition period after Nelson Mandela was freed from prison and apartheid ended. Whether you are an expert in this era or a neophyte, Carlin's writing and summary of this time is nothing short of superb. He is able to tell the tale of how South Africa managed an almost incomprehensibly huge change in its society without warfare, which is an incredible feat. Carlin had worked in South Africa and as such had background knowledge of the country as well as access to the many prominent figures that he interviewed for the book, including Mandela himself.
The role of rugby in this book is as the thread that ties together the characters from all walks of life who appear throughout the story. It doesn't much resemble the movie in that sense, which relied more heavily on showing the rugby team, games, etc., as the primary driver of the story. The book is far more powerful.
Everyone, and I do mean everyone, should read this book. It is well-written, fast-paced, emotional, and tells a story that would have been unbelievable if it weren't true. As a side note, the poem "Invictus", for which the movie was titled, brilliantly captures the bravery of Mandela and all of South Africa shown in this book.
"It matters not how strait the gate,
How charged with punishments the scroll.
I am the master of my fate:
I am the captain of my soul."
Excerpt from Invictus, by William Ernest Henley
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Andrew Schonbek
4.0 out of 5 stars Did Mandela Have Any Flaws?
Reviewed in the United States on December 29, 2010
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The author raises this question toward the end of this very good book. It's a legitimate one to ask. Mandela takes on an almost supernatural aura as the action unfolds.
Playing the Enemy chronicles the birth of post apartheid South Africa and the unexpected role in this of an epic sports contest. It follows Mandela from the beginnings of his contacts with government officials while still in prison, through his triumphant release and election as President. But all this simply provides context for the narrative of a rugby match.
And what a match it was.
Mandela understood that before a new country of South Africa could come into being, what was required was the creation of a population of South Africans, something that had not existed in the era of the Afrikaners and numerous fragmented tribal groups. He seized on the sport of rugby as the unlikely vehicle to make this happen. Rugby had been the exclusive province of the Boer oppressors, and the name and colors of the national team were vilified among the black population. Mandela's amazing leadership turned this around, and the sight of black masses cheering for the Springboks conveyed a potent message of forgiveness and reconciliation.
Read this book to replenish your hope in human potential and possibilities.
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Dr. Jack
5.0 out of 5 stars The onion of South Africa
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 27, 2013
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Reading Mandela's 'Long Walk to Freedom' may be good for you but perhaps too long a walk, too many pages? If so, at least try this, a very appetising introduction to the biography of surely one of the most remarkable men ever to walk the earth. Carlin assembles the realities of apartheid, Mandela's cruel imprisonment and how he used his superior intelligence to outwit and subsequenty overcome the cruelties of his captors, followed by the hazardous deconstruction of the Boer regime in a way analogous to a phase of play in the rugby final that forms the setting for the book. How, rugby, for long associated with brutish white arrogance, was turned to advantage by Mandela and how the Broederbond embraced humanity is vividly depicted.
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Michael Bromfield
4.0 out of 5 stars Playing the Enemy
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on June 16, 2010
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.....was the original title and on my list of books that I wanted to read long before Cint Eastwoods film adaptation 'Invictus' came out.
One Mans terrorist is another mans freedom fighter but Mandela managed what few on this planet have done - risen to become a living legend beloved by former foes.
Whatever the simplifications and generalistions referred to in the earlier reviews this book does successfully convey the image of the man and the role the 1995 World Cup provided in laying the foundation for a country that if not united was not torn apart by strife as many predicted - and is still not 15 years later.
The book is interesting and often moving
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colinwasp
4.0 out of 5 stars Well-crafted and a great introduction to recent South African political history
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on September 6, 2011
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The excellent research and literary craft in this book singles it out straight away as the work of a journalist.
The book begins with a compelling insight into the mind and life of Nelson Mandela and builds to the climax of the 1995 Rugby World Cup final, which was the catalyst for uniting a disjointed country slowly rebuilding its image post-Apartheid.
The political context may make this a difficult read for those who may think this a pure sports book, but the way that other key characters are woven in and out of the story keeps the interest and the thorough research gives the whole a complete credibility. The author carefully builds the emotion into the story right to the end, which keeps the reader fully engaged.
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Rob Peach
4.0 out of 5 stars The book picks apart all the initiatives around “using” rugby to reunite a nation at war.
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on May 2, 2019
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The book was excellent to read Mandela , whose birthday I share is lauded as the great people leader that he was and still is (as his successors try to emulate him) thoroughly recommend this
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Grobo59
5.0 out of 5 stars You don't have to like Rugby to enjoy this
Reviewed in the United Kingdom on November 4, 2019
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Amazing incite into how Nelson Mandela managed to unite a fractured country by using a sport loved by one side and hated by the other. A remarkable book, about a remarkable plan, concocted by a remarkable man.
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