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Aufgaben zu Text I

Aufgaben zu Text I (nicht-literarisch)

1

Outline the information on Siya Kolisi and how his career is typical of a black top rugby player in South Africa.

30 %

2

Analyse to what extent the history of rugby in South Africa is connected to the political developments in the country. Focus on the stylistic devices and the quotes.

30 %

3

Choose one of the following tasks:

40 %

3.1

“There were times that I felt I was in the team just because of my skin colour.” (ll. 41-42)

Taking the quotation as a starting point, discuss the role of affirmative action when trying to achieve changes in society.

or

3.2

Your school and your American partner school are preparing a video project for the “International Day for the Elimination of Racial Discrimination” (March, 21). As part of this English-language project, your school will record a series of short speeches on inspirational leaders.

You have chosen to give a speech about Nelson Mandela in which you assess the role he played in shaping South Africa. You use the photo as your starting point.

Schwarzweißfoto: Zwei Männer in Anzügen schütteln sich auf einer Bühne die HandSchwarzweißfoto: Zwei Männer in Anzügen schütteln sich auf einer Bühne die Hand

Frederik de Klerk and Nelson Mandela shake hands at the Annual Meeting of the World Economic Forum held in Davos in January 1992

Copyright World Economic Forum (www.weforum.org), Frederik de Klerk with Nelson Mandela - World Economic Forum Annual Meeting Davos 1992, CC BY-SA 2.0

100 %

Text I (nicht-literarisch)

Rugby brings South Africa together – if only for 80 minutes

1
Under white rule, both rugby and the national team, known as the Springboks, were symbols of
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white South Africa’s resistance to change. As Nelson Mandela put it, rugby was “the application of
3
apartheid in the sports field”. In his autobiography, “Rise”, Siya Kolisi, the Springboks’ current
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captain – and the first black player to be granted that honour – writes: “For so long, the Springbok
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emblem of a leaping antelope represented only a small part of the country and reflected how that
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part felt about themselves: that rugby was a sport for real men, white Afrikaners.”
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Such attitudes are largely consigned to the past. In 2019 Mr Kolisi captained the most diverse
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rugby team in South African history to victory in the World Cup. But the sport is still a symbol: of a
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country where racial progress is real but uneven, where change at the top is clearer than at the
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bottom, yet which still yearns to realise the tarnished dream of the rainbow nation.
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If outsiders think of South Africa and rugby, they tend to recall the World Cup of 1995, held in
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the country a year after Mandela became its first black president. The master politician embraced
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the Springboks as part of a bid to woo recalcitrant whites. At the final Mandela famously wore the
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green-and-gold team jersey and joined the victorious captain, Francois Pienaar, on the field.
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Black South Africans rallied to the team; Mandela was praised by Afrikaners who once
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deemed him a terrorist. […]
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It was a genuinely pivotal moment. But it has occluded the role that rugby had already played
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for generations in black and mixed-race communities. In fact, rugby was not a white sport belatedly
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embraced by non-whites, but a sport enjoyed by all races – only separately.
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“We didn’t see it as a white sport,” says Temba Ludwaba. “It was ours.” Under apartheid, when
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rugby was run on racially demarcated lines, Mr Ludwaba played for top black teams. […]
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Mr Kolisi was born on the last day before apartheid laws were rescinded in 1991 and was
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brought up by his grandmother. Too poor to have toys, he pretended that a brick was a car: “I
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could have ended up a tsotsi [gangster] but it was rugby that saved me.” He played games at Dan
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Qeqe stadium, the historic home of township rugby, which also hosted the funerals of anti-
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apartheid heroes. “Rugby at the time was a catalyst for social cohesion in the township,”
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remembers Dan Ngcape, who used to run a black rugby association. […]
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Ex-players are immensely proud of the likes of Mr Kolisi. At the same time they lament the
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decline of township rugby, noting that the black players who achieve stardom are plucked from
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state schools by the elite private ones that groom future professionals. Mr Kolisi was recruited by
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Grey High School, where for the first time he wore socks and had enough to eat. “There is no way
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that black schools can produce Springboks,” says Mr Ngcape. This, he suggests, is emblematic of
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what has happened more broadly since 1994. A black elite has emerged but, for the black majority,
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there are too few opportunities.
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Racial “transformation” is a thorny subject in South Africa, including when it comes to rugby.
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After the Hollywood ending in 1995, the sport was slow to change. In 1997 a Springboks coach
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was sacked after he was taped using a racial slur. A few years later (in contested circumstances),
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a white player refused to room with a mixed-race one.
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The ANC put increasing pressure on the authorities to pick black and mixed-race players. In
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2005 the minister for sport said that winning was less important than the team’s racial composition.
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Black players, for their part, resented being seen as “quota players”. “There were times that I felt I
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was in the team just because of my skin colour,” Mr Kolisi has said. “And I hated it.”
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When Rassie Erasmus became coach of the Springboks in 2018 he talked openly with the
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squad about how their team had to look like the rest of South Africa. Yet he stressed that there was
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enough talent, recalls Mr Kolisi, “for us to be competitive and transformed all at once”. He would
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showcase equality of opportunity, not diversity for diversity’s sake.
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Mr Kolisi’s first game as captain of the national team (under Mr Erasmus’s stewardship) was a
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euphoric moment. Fans from the Eastern Cape travelled by minibus to Johannesburg, singing
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African spirituals. Springbok games are broadcast simultaneously in English, Afrikaans and Xhosa.
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As Mr Kolisi recalls, that day the Xhosa commentary, voiced by Kaunda Ntunja, resembled a
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sermon by a revivalist preacher:
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Siya is the first black player in history to captain the national team…Siya is our grandson,
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our son, our nephew, our younger brother…A cement truck with no reverse gear! Let the
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teams battle each other!
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At first Mr Erasmus stressed that the team could only inspire the country if it was winning
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games. But in 2019, when South Africa reached the World Cup final in Japan, he talked about what
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victory by this particular team might mean to those struggling back home. In “Chasing the Sun”, a
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fly-on-the-wall documentary, he tells the squad: “Rugby is not pressure. Pressure is not having a
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job, losing a child…” He tells his captain: “You are fighting, Siya, for the next lightie [child] in Zwide
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to not suffer like you suffered.”
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Cheesy? Maybe. But Mr Erasmus, now South Africa’s director of rugby, and his team tap into
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profound feelings. South Africa is a patriotic country, yet one in which tensions are high and trust is
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low. Anything that awakens the dormant dreams of reconciliation and progress is cherished – and
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can unleash scrumloads of pent-up emotion. At the same time, the Springboks embody South
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Africans’ desire to be known for their wide-ranging achievements, not just the stereotypes of
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corruption, economic decline and high crime.

“Rugby brings South Africa together – if only for 80 minutes”, The Economist, 22.09.2022

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