In 1995, South Africa hosted the rugby World Cup, coinciding with the election of Nelson Mandela as the country’s first black president. Historically, the national rugby union team—the Springboks, named for a national antelope—traces the racial fissures in the country. Afrikaners (crassly: white South Africans) revered the team. Black South Africans loathed what they saw as a redoubt of privilege and oppression, evidenced by the fact that only one player on the team was non-white. This, in a country where the black population is more than 75 percent.
But, taking their cue from Mandela, the entire country rallied behind the national team, which—cue music—won that 1995 World Cup, buoyed by all that unified home support.