A person who is a contemporary witness to this scene would have seen tears in sixty five thousand peoples eyes and would have heard the national anthem of south Africa loud as he ever heard. In this picture I see a man handing a trophy to, what seems like a winner but this isn't just a man handing a trophy to a winner. This is a mulatto coming together and becoming one; to form a new nation. The man on the left Nelson Mandela; who spend twenty nine years of his life in five by seven person cell, for trying to bring blacks and whites to live in peace was now was free and the face of South Africa as the first black president. Mandela ones again was trying to unite blacks and white and got an a opportunity and he took it on a national stage. The man on right Francois Pienaar the caption of the South African rugby team the Springbok; shared Mandela's vision. Both men adapted the notion of “...one team one nation...”.
In 1994, Nelson Mandela became the first democratically elected black African president of the Republic of South Africa. A new constitution was instituted. A new country was emerging. None of this was an easy transition, there was resentment, fear, anger, uncertainty, vengeance, forgiveness all wrapped up in confusing welter of emotion but Mandela put all that aside and convinced international powers to let South Africa host the rugby World Cup that year and because of its host status Springbok automatically fielded a team in the competition. Despite long odds, This fragile, new State of South Africa won the rugby World Cup!
Sport, like no other in South African institution, has shown it has the power to heal old wounds. When the Springboks won the Rugby World Cup on home turf in 1995, Nelson Mandela donned the Number six shirt of the team's captain Francois Pienaar and the two embraced in a spontaneous gesture of racial reconciliation that melted hearts around the country. A single moment, and 400 years of colonial strife and bitterness suddenly seemed so petty. Tears in everybody eyes who were in Johannesburg's Ellis park stadium that day; Streaming down their face tears of joy, as the moment was described when Nelson Mandela walked on the field to present the trophy and the national anthem was played. Mandela said to Pienaar "...Francois, thank you very much for what you have done for our country." "No, Mr. President," Pienaar replied. "Thank you for what you have done for our country." Pienaar said in a interview “...Mandela, who could have walked out of jail seeking revenge on the oppressive white minority, instead won them over with his open hearted humility”. He turned to the white dominated sport rugby and made the players and their followers his friends “...so when the team saw what Mandela was trying to do ...We adopted a motto, 'One team, one country, because we realized that this competition was for everyone in South Africa and to do well in this competition would make everyone in South Africa proud, We underestimated how proud it could make South Africa...".
What Mandela and Pienaar was trying to do and trying to address through that moment of smiles and hugs was to unit two races to live in peace and this picture symbolizes that. Their relationship to the issue, which is to attain peace they were invested emotionally, personally and the big one equal and human rights. Mandela relationship to this issue was that he was convicted and sentenced to five years imprisonment because he was leading the cause of equal rights movement in South Africa. While serving his sentence he was charged, in the Rivonia Trial. Mandela's statements in court during these trials on resistance to apartheid was “...I have fought against white domination, and I have fought against black domination. I have cherished the ideal of a democratic and free society in which all persons live together in harmony and with equal opportunities. It is an ideal which I hope to live for and to achieve. But if needs be, it is an ideal for which I am prepared to die...” Mandela was sentenced to life imprisonment. While in prison, Mandela flatly rejected offers made by his jailers for remission of sentence in exchange for accepting the Bantustan policy which is a territory set aside for black inhabitants by recognizing the independence of the Transkei and agreeing to settle there. Mandela 's reputation grew steadily. He was widely accepted as the most significant black leader in South Africa and became a potent symbol of resistance as the anti apartheid movement gathered strength. He consistently refused to compromise his political position to obtain his freedom. His life was too invested in the cause of equal rights so when he was realized he got a chance to unite his nation and he took it by asking Francois Pienaar to win the 1995 rugby world cup for South Africa and pienaar replied by winning the cup because he was invested as a close friends with Mandela.
The reaction that this picture or moment received in pienaar's word was “... We underestimated how proud it could make South Africa...", by winning the world cup. People described the entire stadium, bars, people on the streets, in homes standing on their feet singing at the top of their lungs the new national anthem. One woman said “...I was jumping up and down on my bed and fell off and I broke my arm”. Everyone stated that this was the moment South Africa became a new nation. Capturing that moment of reconciliation Nelson Mandela handed The William Web Ellis trophy to Springbok captain Francois Pienaar. South Africa had just won the 1995 Rugby World Cup and much more finally, it seemed the country had come together as one. For the disadvantaged people of the old apartheid South Africa, rugby was the white man's game, and even more so the game of the Afrikaner. Traditionally, most communities of colour played soccer while, for white communities, rugby was the winter sport of choice; but not any more.
Monday, May 31, 2010
Sunday, May 23, 2010
sources
The movie INVICTUS....the movie GOODBYE BAFANA....
....http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1143996/index.htm.....
....http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i.thisislondon.co.uk/i/pix/2008/11/mandela-pienaar-415x275.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-sport/article-23588493-hollywood-epic-cant-gloss-over-row-behind-scenes-for-springboks.do&usg=__oiHT7-qvaAZmnt50yw97BcHk_I8=&h=275&w=415&sz=35&hl=en&start=1&sig2=wev8bfHxFORZGfZdmMhHJQ&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=fmifhRPUzTI-CM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnelson%2Bmandela%2Band%2Bfrancois%2Bpienaar%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=olkMTInBOML6lwejw4SKDg....
...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1454208.stm...
...http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article7144393.ece...
....http://sportsillustrated.cnn.com/vault/article/magazine/MAG1143996/index.htm.....
....http://www.google.com/imgres?imgurl=http://i.thisislondon.co.uk/i/pix/2008/11/mandela-pienaar-415x275.jpg&imgrefurl=http://www.thisislondon.co.uk/standard-sport/article-23588493-hollywood-epic-cant-gloss-over-row-behind-scenes-for-springboks.do&usg=__oiHT7-qvaAZmnt50yw97BcHk_I8=&h=275&w=415&sz=35&hl=en&start=1&sig2=wev8bfHxFORZGfZdmMhHJQ&um=1&itbs=1&tbnid=fmifhRPUzTI-CM:&tbnh=83&tbnw=125&prev=/images%3Fq%3Dnelson%2Bmandela%2Band%2Bfrancois%2Bpienaar%26um%3D1%26hl%3Den%26client%3Dfirefox-a%26rls%3Dorg.mozilla:en-US:official%26tbs%3Disch:1&ei=olkMTInBOML6lwejw4SKDg....
...http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/africa/1454208.stm...
...http://www.timesonline.co.uk/tol/news/world/africa/article7144393.ece...
Wednesday, April 21, 2010
blog#5 revision
The Spiritual Trilogy Medley are three traditional songs that I think mean the same to every African American who wanted freedom. The song I chose to write about is titled “Oh Freedom”; it’s a traditional song so no one knows who wrote it. I think it was sung in churches to pray to god for freedom; not just from the white man’s injustice, not just from their sticks but from the body that endured the white man’s beating. It was sung at rallies or at protests to resist violence and to portray nonviolence because it’s never easy to “turn the other cheek” when someone hits you right on your face. I think this is when the song “oh freedom” was sung to resist nonviolence from the beat downs blacks took from the police men at rallies so they would stay true to the words of Dr. King that “...nonviolence is the answer to the crucial political and moral question of our time”.
The song starts off by “oh freedom, oh freedom, oh freedom over me...”, I think whoever wrote it and whenever it was written the artist is calling out for freedom to come to him. I think the artist is so tired and sick from all the fighting; that he can’t fight back physically to obtain his freedom so he wants freedom to come to him and surround him; like clouds surround a crop field on a rainy day and slave get to go home. Than the song goes on saying “...before I'll be slave, I'll be buried in my grave, and go home to my Lord And be free...” The artist wants freedom “by hook or by crook”, I think he is suffocating, literally by the thought of being a slave of someone; he wants to die before someone makes him a slave and go to his creator to whom with he can be free. The song keeps going saying “ no more weeping, no more shooting”; meaning no more crying, no white man shooting at you and no more white man’s injustice because at gods feet everybody is equal and there only be “...singing”.
I think this songs purpose was to give hope of freedom to the ones who were weak mentally and were willing to be slaves before the Civil War nd to the ones who thought they deserved to be treated injustice and to those who were being brainwashed;during the Civil Rights Movement. I think this song give courage, longing and the desire to die for ones freedom and ones you do that and if you die; you'll be free because you would be next to god where there's only “...singing”. This songs purpose was to make people realize if you can’t get freedom on earth you'll get it in heaven. The article “BERNICE JOHNSON REAGON”, which is a interview between Claire Peeps a reporter and Bernice Johnson a “...activist, singer, composer, scholar and producer”. She also was one of the leaders on the group called Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC). Johnson says in her interview that “...collective action invites people to step across internalized societal lines, and how when you cross that line, you're free”. What the song “Oh Freedom” want people to do is it wants the black men to realize that freedom at any cost, it can be obtained by crossing that line which the song speaks off “...before I'll be a slave, I'll be buried in my grave...”, so the whites can take a “...collective action...” cross those racial barriers and realize that African American are willing to die for their freedom., they will die before being a slave or treated injustice and that we need to help them in their fight for equal rights.
The article is basically Johnson describing how life was during the civil rights movement. She explains the struggle for freedom during that time for African Americans. For example she says in her interview that “two students were arrested for buying tickets at the white window of the Trailways bus station. Four others were also arrested for joining in...”, this was the kind of stupidity that was carried out by whites during the civil rights movement and obviously before that. What I mean by stupidity is the way whites acted or reacted when blacks interfered with white man’s way of life. They arrested the students just for buying tickets at white man’s window. The four students who bailed themselves out were NAACP group members so they did a sympathy demonstration around their campus to support their fellow victims for the injustice that our American Constitution allowed during that time. They had to run away from their march because college's administrators were “...very hostile to activism”. This is the same kind of stupidity that I was talking about before in the paragraph and this is how whites reacted; with hostility when blacks tried to change the way they were being treated; that was to keep the blacks down, to do whatever you want to do whenever you want to do to, with no legal punishment. So the protester from the march went to the nearest church where they sang the songs of freedom just like the song “Oh Freedom”.
I think this songs reception at the time it was written might have been a sigh of relief. I think when people sung this song it gave them courage, hope and satisfaction. Courage to run from the fields; for putting their lives on hand while running away for the hope of freedom, and satisfaction of giving their lives for freedom from the dreadful injustice that whites had on the blacks. There were basically two types of listener the blacks and the whites. The way I think the blacks reacted to this song was probably with a purpose do achieve freedom and whites may have reacted with violence they probably thought if you want death we'll give you death.
The song starts off by “oh freedom, oh freedom, oh freedom over me...”, I think whoever wrote it and whenever it was written the artist is calling out for freedom to come to him. I think the artist is so tired and sick from all the fighting; that he can’t fight back physically to obtain his freedom so he wants freedom to come to him and surround him; like clouds surround a crop field on a rainy day and slave get to go home. Than the song goes on saying “...before I'll be slave, I'll be buried in my grave, and go home to my Lord And be free...” The artist wants freedom “by hook or by crook”, I think he is suffocating, literally by the thought of being a slave of someone; he wants to die before someone makes him a slave and go to his creator to whom with he can be free. The song keeps going saying “ no more weeping, no more shooting”; meaning no more crying, no white man shooting at you and no more white man’s injustice because at gods feet everybody is equal and there only be “...singing”.
I think this songs purpose was to give hope of freedom to the ones who were weak mentally and were willing to be slaves before the Civil War nd to the ones who thought they deserved to be treated injustice and to those who were being brainwashed;during the Civil Rights Movement. I think this song give courage, longing and the desire to die for ones freedom and ones you do that and if you die; you'll be free because you would be next to god where there's only “...singing”. This songs purpose was to make people realize if you can’t get freedom on earth you'll get it in heaven. The article “BERNICE JOHNSON REAGON”, which is a interview between Claire Peeps a reporter and Bernice Johnson a “...activist, singer, composer, scholar and producer”. She also was one of the leaders on the group called Student Nonviolent Coordination Committee (SNCC). Johnson says in her interview that “...collective action invites people to step across internalized societal lines, and how when you cross that line, you're free”. What the song “Oh Freedom” want people to do is it wants the black men to realize that freedom at any cost, it can be obtained by crossing that line which the song speaks off “...before I'll be a slave, I'll be buried in my grave...”, so the whites can take a “...collective action...” cross those racial barriers and realize that African American are willing to die for their freedom., they will die before being a slave or treated injustice and that we need to help them in their fight for equal rights.
The article is basically Johnson describing how life was during the civil rights movement. She explains the struggle for freedom during that time for African Americans. For example she says in her interview that “two students were arrested for buying tickets at the white window of the Trailways bus station. Four others were also arrested for joining in...”, this was the kind of stupidity that was carried out by whites during the civil rights movement and obviously before that. What I mean by stupidity is the way whites acted or reacted when blacks interfered with white man’s way of life. They arrested the students just for buying tickets at white man’s window. The four students who bailed themselves out were NAACP group members so they did a sympathy demonstration around their campus to support their fellow victims for the injustice that our American Constitution allowed during that time. They had to run away from their march because college's administrators were “...very hostile to activism”. This is the same kind of stupidity that I was talking about before in the paragraph and this is how whites reacted; with hostility when blacks tried to change the way they were being treated; that was to keep the blacks down, to do whatever you want to do whenever you want to do to, with no legal punishment. So the protester from the march went to the nearest church where they sang the songs of freedom just like the song “Oh Freedom”.
I think this songs reception at the time it was written might have been a sigh of relief. I think when people sung this song it gave them courage, hope and satisfaction. Courage to run from the fields; for putting their lives on hand while running away for the hope of freedom, and satisfaction of giving their lives for freedom from the dreadful injustice that whites had on the blacks. There were basically two types of listener the blacks and the whites. The way I think the blacks reacted to this song was probably with a purpose do achieve freedom and whites may have reacted with violence they probably thought if you want death we'll give you death.
Friday, April 9, 2010
blog#4 read a thon
Even though bit hot and I was only at the Read a Thon for only thirty minutes I enjoyed it. I liked how even professor got up and read there own stuff. I liked how the artists shared their personal life stories with their audience. i like how even the first timers who had no experience in public speaking got up and read their materiel. i liked how one artist read about his little baby brother and how his teacher complained.
Blog#3: the black arts movement
I'll think Neal's calling far kind writing which is theirs own, personal, about their own heritage and ancestral from the black artists from that time period. He wants this because he feels that the art that the artist are creating isn't theirs its white peoples; its what the white wants. He wants the blacks to look for the own black American history to which they can relate too on deeper, meaningful level which an a artist should be doing with his art.
Thursday, March 25, 2010
1st draft
Oh Freedom
The Spiritual Trilogy Medley are three traditional songs that I think would mean the same to a African American who wanted freedom. The song I chose to write about is titled “Oh Freedom”; its a traditional song so no one knows who wrote it. I think it was sung in churches to pray to god for freedom; not just from the white mans injustice, not just from there sticks but from the body that they had to endure the white mans beating. It was sung at rallies or at protests to resist violence because its never easy to “turn the other cheek” when some one slaps you right on our face.
The song starts “oh freedom, oh freedom, oh freedom over me...”, I think who ever wrote when ever it was written the artist is calling freedom to come. I think the artist is so tired and sick from all the fighting that he cant make any physical play to obtain freedom so he wants freedom to come and surround him like clouds surround a crop field on a rainy day. So he goes on saying “...before I'll be slave, I'll be buried in my grave.
The Spiritual Trilogy Medley are three traditional songs that I think would mean the same to a African American who wanted freedom. The song I chose to write about is titled “Oh Freedom”; its a traditional song so no one knows who wrote it. I think it was sung in churches to pray to god for freedom; not just from the white mans injustice, not just from there sticks but from the body that they had to endure the white mans beating. It was sung at rallies or at protests to resist violence because its never easy to “turn the other cheek” when some one slaps you right on our face.
The song starts “oh freedom, oh freedom, oh freedom over me...”, I think who ever wrote when ever it was written the artist is calling freedom to come. I think the artist is so tired and sick from all the fighting that he cant make any physical play to obtain freedom so he wants freedom to come and surround him like clouds surround a crop field on a rainy day. So he goes on saying “...before I'll be slave, I'll be buried in my grave.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)