Playing the Enemy: Nelson Mandela and the Game That Made a Nation.

• Author: Hartley, Scott E.
• Position: Book review

PLAYING THE ENEMY: NELSON

MANDELA AND THE GAME THAT MADE A NATION

John Carlin

(New York: Penguin Group, 2008), 320 pages.

John Carlin's work of non-fiction, Playing the Enemy, offers a refreshing portrait of the human effort behind the South African transition from apartheid. Carlin offers a novel perspective on this oft-described political movement by looking at the 1995 rugby World Cup championship, an unlikely denouement that united a people.

By focusing much of his book on the passion of sport rather than the personality of politics, Carlin provides an unorthodox perspective. While rugby occupies a central role, he outlines South Africa's historical context and creates a compelling portrait of Nelson Mandela as a talented humanitarian who brought together conflicting peoples by winning hearts as well as minds.

In Playing the Enemy, Carlin posits that sport can impel diplomacy. Prior to 1995, the South African Springbok rugby team symbolized Afrikaner dominance. Mandela used political savvy to unite opposition, diplomacy to demand concessions that made compromise viable and humanity to believe that sport--and the Afrikaner game of rugby--could be a standard-bearer for unity within the racial mosaic of South Africa.

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