Playing the Enemy

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.

Wonderful... Don't wait for the movie. New York Times
A triumphant conversion... A portrait of South Africa's answer to George Washington... [It] works because Carlin got so close to Mandela and the people Mandela seduced. -- Simon Kuper Financial Times
Revelatory... A tight, gripping and powerful book that shines a light on a moment of hope, not just for one nation but the whole world. Daily Express
A fascinating story... Thirteen years on, it is possible to look back with emotion at a moment which suggested that everything was possible. -- Justin Cartwright Sunday Telegraph

John Carlin grew up in Argentina and the UK and spent 1989-95 in South Africa as the Independent's correspondent there. He has also lived in Nicaragua, Mexico and Washington, writing for The Times, the Observer, the Sunday Times, and the New York Times, among other papers, and working for the BBC. He now lives in Barcelona, where he writes for El Pais.

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. 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.

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