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SYNOPSIS
In the energetic, dangerous urban landscape of the late 1950s, five youngsters are
weeks or even days away from being arrested. Their backgrounds are as diverse as
their personalities, but all share an activist’s zeal and a desire to change the racist
status quo. ANTHONY SUZE is a hothead and athlete, a world away from the cool,
introspective activism of MARK SHINNERS or the steady, stocky rugby-playing LIZO
SITOTO. Others have come to the struggle in their own way: SEDICK ISAACS, the
impassive bomb-making schoolteacher; MARCUS SOLOMONS the non-aligned
guerrilla. But all are targets of the state, and all are destined to spend their youth on
Robben Island.
The island is more brutal than they ever imagined. Nobody, they naively believed,
could be cruel enough to send schoolchildren to the Alcatraz of Africa. But as the
reality of their new life dawns on them, with its eternal cold, brutal warders and
nagging hunger, so too does the sense of community and shared purpose. The
physical hardships – exemplified in the hulking person of DELPORT – are extreme, but
there is refuge in learning and in comradeship. A philosophy of excellence is applied
to every task, no matter how brutalising: the prisoners take pride in building the most
escape-proof prison they can. And ultimately there comes the realisation that there
is humanity to be reclaimed in sharing a love for sport and fair play. The seeds of
soccer are sewn.
It is not an easy journey. SHINNERS’ requests for soccer to be allowed is a war of
attrition, and ISAACS must apply the strict disciplines of his highly trained mind to his
mission of spreading sport throughout the prison community. But at last the
authorities relent, and informal soccer kicks off on Robben Island.
But recreation is only half the aim. To the prisoners, all steeped in the ethos of
debate, dialogue and negotiation, it is not only essential that sport takes place, but
that it is seen to take place in a well ordered and highly structures manner. The
Makana Football Association is formed, based on the principles of inclusivity,
collective discipline, and fair play. 16-year-old Dikgang Moseneke is elected
Chairman, an act that underlines the Association’s commitment to excellence and
FIFA-like technical rigour, rather than hierarchy, party politics and personality.
The Association is a microcosm of democracy, a training ground not only for the
body but for the political soul, where the principles of negotiation and dialogue are
practiced and entrenched. It is literally the training ground for the leaders of the
future. It is also a happy collective ripe for upheaval…
Enter the Atlantic Raiders, a team selected with a cold, calculating eye focused
purely on merit. It makes no concessions to inclusivity: the ongoing experiment with
socialism on the island is suspended in favour of a voracious attitude to winning. The
Raiders demand respect almost immediately, their fans viewed as heretics by the
elder statesmen of the community desperately concerned about the potentially
fracturing effect of this rogue team of elitists.
And then the impossible happens: in an insignificant knock-out match, the Raiders
are controversially beaten by a team of self-confessed “old crocks”. A freak goal is
scored, a referee leaves the field, a desperate defence produces a 1-0 scoreline,
and the Raiders are incensed. At once they throw themselves at the official
channels, filing complaints, demanding official redress; but the MFA resists their
charge. The result stands. It is an intolerable situation for SUZE and his fellow Raiders,
and at last they step outside the rules, so carefully laid down with so much
negotiation, and stage a sit-in, hijacking the field and throwing the League into turmoil.
It is an injury to all, and an injury that festers. Morale drops as the youthful, arrogant
Raiders refuse to back down. The community is in danger of fracturing. At last an
elderly official takes SUZE aside, and helps him see past his pride and his outrage, to
see the large effect of the stand-off. The Raiders relent, and back down: soccer is
saved, and with it, the emotional integrity of the community.
It is 1976, and the five men are older, their youths past. Slowly they and their
comrades are being released. But a new generation is coming to the island,
schoolchildren-activists plucked off the bloody streets of Soweto. The torch is passed,
as the old guard, those who built the prison and the MFA, leave the island and look towards the future.
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