SOUTH AFRICA: South Africa's freedom-fighting footballers honoured in film

As part of festivities to mark the 89th birthday of South Africa's first black president and Nobel Prize laureate Nelson Mandela, FIFA conferred honorary membership status on the Makana Football Association on Wednesday (July 18). The Makana Football Association was formed by a group of political prisoners held on Robben Island during the apartheid era. Makana is a local name for Robben Island, after a 19th century warrior leader of the Xhosa, the tribe from the eastern parts of South Africa to which Mandela belongs. The British banished Makana to Robben Island in 1819, and he died trying to escape. Mandela spent 18 of his 27 years in prison on the island. For years, prisoners on Robben Island demanded a right to play sports - including soccer - but prison authorities said no. Eventually they relented under pressure from the International Red Cross, former prisoners say. Award-winning South African filmmaker Anant Singh, who has produced a documentary about the little-known Robben Island footballers, says the movie shows how human beings can prevail under trying circumstances. "The story of "More than Just a Game" came about about four or five years ago. A historian from the University of St. Louis, Chuck Korr, came to see me and told me he's been doing all the research, he's a sports historian. He was doing research on sport with prisoners on Robben Island and he came across the story about soccer and what it represented for the people, for the prisoners on the island," Singh said at the movie launch in Cape Town. A FIFA delegation is expected in Cape Town on Wednesday ahead of another soccer spectacle in honour of Mandela dubbed "90 minutes for Mandela". "Because your history, the history of soccer on Robben Island is not only a reflection of the history of your country, but in particular it's a reflection of the role played by football in the history of your country," said FIFA vice-president Jerome Champagne. South Africa, and Cape Town in particular will be hosting the 2010 FIFA World Cup. "I think the movie tells the story of Robben Island in this country, of hopes crushed, of hopes renewed, of the determination to pursue what is right and just, and never to surrender in the pursuit of getting the permission, the right to play football," said Danny Jordaan, head of the local 2010 organising committee. Among the players billed to play in Mandela's honour are one-time Brazilian great Pele, three-time African player of the year Samuel Eto'o from Cameroon, and former European player of the year Ruud Gullit from Holland.

ITN Source | July 19, 2007

Tags:. .documentary. .africas. .represented. .pressure. .escape