and so listening to these inspirational quotes could help Scamp study just what Buster could use in that situation.

 

Not too much later in the film, it came to the part where the National Sports Executive threatened to drop the Springboks completely because of their apparent representation of apartheid; when Mandela showed up to the building where the NSE held the meeting with the black citizens of South Africa, who were in support of the elimination decision, and protested against their decision:

 

“Brothers, sisters, comrades;” Mandela spoke aloud to his fellow natives. “I am here because I believe you have made a decision with insufficient information and foresight. I am aware of your earlier vote. I am aware that it was unanimous. Nonetheless, I believe that we should restore the Springboks.”

 

Some of the people in the audience murmured quietly in question to this to one another as Mandela continued:

 

“Restore their name, their emblem, and their colours immediately. Let me tell you why: On Robben Island, in Pollsmoore Prison, all of my jailors were Afrikaners. For 27 years I studied them. Learned their language. Read their books…their poetry. I had to know my enemy before I could prevail against him. And we did prevail, did we not? All of us here; we prevailed. Our enemy is no longer the Afrikaner. They are our fellow South Africans; our partners in democracy. And they treasure Springbok rugby. If we take that away, we lose them. We prove that we are what they feared we would be. We have to be better than that. We have to surprise them with the compassion; with restraint and generosity. I know all of the things they denied us; but this is no time to celebrate petty revenge. This is the time to build our nation using every single brick available to us; even if that brick comes wrapped in green and gold. You elected me your leader. Let me lead you now. Who is with me on this?”

 

“Woah! What amazing words of wisdom!” Tramp exclaimed, completely awed at what he had just heard. “This whole reconciliation process seems even more complicated than I thought.”

 

“I don’t think that many others would have thought of it in the way he did.” Angel added. “Everyone else seemed to be jumping to conclusions on the whole apartheid torture before seeing reason.”

 

“Yep, safer to research before judgement.” Scamp agreed, who was really keeping up to date with the theme of the film.

 

The very next scene showed Mandela and his secretary Brenda in the back seat of his car that was being driven by his bodyguards:

 

“I’m sorry, Madiba,” Brenda said to the president. “but we’ve got problems everywhere we look: Housing, food, jobs, crime, our currency. You can’t keep interrupting affairs of state to placate a minority.”

 

“But I must.” Mandela replied immediately with slight force. “That minority still controls the police, the army, and the economy. If we take that away, we cannot address the other issues.”

 

“So this rugby is just a political calculation?” Brenda asked.

 

“Uh…it is a human calculation.” Mandela replied. “If we take away what they cherish; the Springboks, their national anthem; we just reinforce the cycle of fear between us. I will do what I must to stop that cycle, or it will destroy us.”

 

“That is very true.” Angel responded after she listened to this. “If Mandela had actually let his comrades seek revenge on the whites, then the whites would also try to fight back, and then maybe a full civil war could have broken out, disrupted peace of mind, and made things worse for the nation.”

 

“Yeah, the blacks may be attempting to seek justice, but I believe that it is plain revenge, and I don’t think that it will make the pain go away.” Scamp added, also seeing reason to this. “You never know what horrible things you can do or what you might become with such bad intentions.”

 

“Not to mention that part about the other problems South Africa had.” Tramp also remarked. “It would be very difficult to solve them if ALL the people of the nation cannot cooperate with each other. The nation would just collapse and take longer to rebuild. So you could say that this peace between both clans is the most urgent and important priority towards building the nation before fixing the other problems.”
 

“Good point, dad.” Scamp replied in agreement.

 

“Yeah, well said.” Angel also agreed.

 

A bit later they came to the part where Mandela had invited Springbok captain Francois Pienaar to tea:

 

“Tell me, Francois,” Mandela said to him. “What is your philosophy on leadership? How do you inspire your team to do their best?”

 

“By example.” Francois replied. “I’ve always thought to lead by example, sir.”

 

“Well, that is right.” Mandela continued. “That is exactly right. But how to get them to be better than they think they can be? That is very difficult, I find. Inspiration, perhaps. How do we inspire ourselves to greatness, when nothing less will do? How do we inspire everyone around us? I sometimes think it is by using the work of others. On Robben Island, when things got very bad, I found inspiration in a poem.”

 

“A poem?” Francois asked, seemingly intrigued.

 

“A Victorian poem.” Mandela went on; deep in thought at his memory in prison. “Just words. But they helped me to stand when all I wanted to do was to lie down.” He then snapped out of his thoughts and focussed back onto his tea guest, thinking that he might be boring Francois. “But you didn’t come all this way to hear an old man talk about things that make no sense.”

 

“No, no, please, Mr. President.” Francois immediately replied, catching onto what Mandela was talking about. “It makes complete sense to me. On the day of a big match, say, a test, in the bus on the way to the stadium, nobody talks.”

 

“Yes. They’re all preparing.” Mandela responded.

 

“Right.” Francois said, continuing. “But when I think we’re ready, I have the bus driver put on a song: Something I’ve chosen, one we all know. And we listen to the words together. And it helps.”

 

Mandela, getting that Francois understood, went back into his thoughts and continued on with his inspirational words:

 

“I remember when I was invited to the 1992 Olympics in Barcelona. Everybody in the stadium greeted me with a song. At the time, the future; our future; seemed very bleak. But to hear that song in the voices of people from all over our planet made me proud to be South African. It inspired me to come home and do better. It allowed me to expect more of myself.”

 

“May I ask, what was the song, sir?” Francois asked.

 

“Well, it was ‘Nkosi Sikelel’ iAfrika’.” Mandela replied. “A very inspiring song. We need inspiration, Francois. Because in order to build our nation, we must all exceed our own expectations.”

 

All three canines were once again awestruck at Mandela’s words. These seemed to be some of the most motivational words that they had ever heard.

 

“I don’t know how anyone on earth could ever be as philosophical as this man.” Tramp responded in amazement. “But what I do know is that from what he said; with great motivation and inspiration in every way possible, the impossible can be made possible and the best can be brought out of anyone, even if things seem bad, if they have great vision and belief and therefore work harder than ever expected to make it come true.”

 

“Well figured out, dad.” Scamp responded, impressed at his father’s attention to detail. He then, also inspired by the motivational philosophy, came up with an idea. “I think we could certainly use this philosophy to motivate our team, what say you?”

 

“I think that it will certainly help boost the team’s psychological morale.” Tramp replied, agreeing with his son’s idea. “Especially for any team playing a sport that is not entirely popular in this country. They might think that by playing an unfamiliar sport, others might not think much of their performance; but with a little inspiration to greater performance, they can exceed both their expectation of themselves and others’ expectation of them, and therefore the team might gain additional support to help them ascend to great heights beyond imagination.”

 

“Totally agree, again, dad.” Scamp responded, still amazed at his father’s philosophy.

 

“Yeah, well said.” Angel put in. “I couldn’t have said it better myself. Not many others could.”

 

Tramp, flattered by Angel’s gesture as if he himself was an inspirational figure, smiled and nodded at her in appreciation before focusing his eyes back onto the film.

 

A bit later still, they came to the part where sports journalist and reporter Johan de Villiers was interviewing Mandela on TV:

 

“Tell me, Mr. President.” de Villiers inquired to Mandela. “Have you always been a rugby fan?”

 

“Well,

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