AILSA CHANG, HOST:
South Africa's Springboks are the No. 1-ranked rugby team in the world. And the country's cricket team just won a world championship that's held by the International Cricket Council every two years. Both teams have Black captains, and as Kate Bartlett reports from Johannesburg, their successes have united fans in a country that's still grappling with the legacy of racial division.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Singing in non-English language).
KATE BARTLETT, BYLINE: This month, South Africa's cricket team, led by their first Black captain, stunned fans by winning the ICC World Test Championship in London, defeating Australia. South African cricket fans celebrated their victory at London's iconic Lord's Cricket Ground.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Singing in non-English language).
BARTLETT: They are dancing and singing "Shosholoza," a traditional song in the Ndebele and Zulu languages, and they have a new hero.
UNIDENTIFIED PERSON: His name is Temba, Temba Bavuma.
UNIDENTIFIED CROWD: (Chanting) He came to score, came to score, came to score, score, score.
BARTLETT: Team captain Temba Bavuma grew up in the impoverished township of Langa outside Cape Town. Against the odds, he rose to become the first Black captain of South Africa's cricket team, the Proteas, in 2023. Five years earlier, Siya Kolisi took the title as the first Black captain of South Africa's Springboks rugby team. Kolisi and Bavuma are inspiring a new generation of Black children to take up the sports, says South African sports journalist Keanan Hemmonsbey.
KEANAN HEMMONSBEY: It's made people believe. It's made young boys from every community believe that they can make it.
BARTLETT: But it wasn't always this way. Cricket and rugby were introduced to South Africa by colonizers, and during apartheid, multiracial teams were banned. The all-white teams were seen by many Black people as symbols of oppression and were sanctioned internationally. South Africa's first Black president, Nelson Mandela, did more than anyone to change that 30 years ago today.
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UNIDENTIFIED COMMENTATOR: But that's it. South Africa have won the World Cup.
(CHEERING)
BARTLETT: Mandela stunned the country by famously donning the Springbok rugby team's green-and-gold jersey as the team won the 1995 World Cup, just a year after the first Democratic elections ended white minority rule. Later, Mandela gave this speech.
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NELSON MANDELA: Sport has the power to change the world. It has the power to inspire. It has the power to unite people in a way that little else does.
BARTLETT: Fast-forward 30 years, and rugby and cricket now have multiracial teams that are supported by South Africans of all colors.
HEMMONSBEY: Siya Kolisi has been instrumental. I think he didn't have a lot of support initially. People, especially white South Africans, constantly saying he wasn't good enough.
BARTLETT: But the Springbok captain has proved them wrong.
HEMMONSBEY: That has helped race relations to a large extent. He is a symbol of hope because of what he's done and what he's achieved.
BARTLETT: And now, Bavuma is too. South Africans celebrated on social media, using the antiracist hashtags, stronger together, and no DNA, just RSA. RSA is short for the Republic of South Africa. Large crowds of all races gathered at the Johannesburg to greet the returning players.
(CHEERING)
BARTLETT: Sports Minister Gayton McKenzie couldn't contain his excitement.
GAYTON MCKENZIE: South Africa is the best sporting nation in the world, and you better believe that.
BARTLETT: One of the Proteas, Wiaan Mulder, said Mandela would be incredibly proud of the, quote, "diverse team."
For NPR News, I'm Kate Bartlett in Johannesburg.
(SOUNDBITE OF MUSIC) Transcript provided by NPR, Copyright NPR.
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