What Does the Word Invictus Mean?

The word invictus means that in the face of opposition, though the night covers you, though your heady is bloody, thought your team doesn’t seem to stand a chance, though you’ve been wrongfully imprisoned for decades, though you can’t see the light of day, you are not conquered. You are the master of your fate; you are the captain of your soul.

When William Ernest Henley wrote the poem in 1857, he did not give it a title. It was not until 1900 that it was named Invictus by Arthur Quiller-Couch when he published it in The Oxford Book of English Verse. The word invictus is Latin for “unconquered,” a title which effectively captures the sentiment of both the Henley poem and the 2009 Clint Eastwood film, Invictus, not to mention the life of Nelson Mandela.

Invictus

Out of the night that covers me,

Black as the pit from pole to pole,

I thank whatever gods may be

For my unconquerable soul.

In the fell clutch of circumstance

I have not winced nor cried aloud.

Under the bludgeonings of chance

My head is bloody, but unbowed.

Beyond this place of wrath and tears

Looms but the Horror of the shade,

And yet the menace of the years

Finds and shall find me unafraid.

It matters not how strait the gate,

How charged with punishments the scroll,

I am the master of my fate:

I am the captain of my soul.

The movie, Invictus, portrays Nelson Mandela giving Francois Pienaar a poem that helped him when he was in prison. As the rugby team tours the prison where the president was held for nearly two decades, Pienaar imagines Mandela and his fellow prisoners in their daily life there as Morgan Freeman’s voice recites the poem.

This poem gives Pienaar a glimpse into the very heart of Mandela, and he begins to understand that his team’s success on the field is now about far more than a sport. It is about the future of his country and his countrymen.

Nelson Mandela

Nelson Mandela served as the first black president of South Africa from 1994-1999. Before that, he was an anti-apartheid activist, sentenced to life in prison for sabotage. In 1990, after serving 27 years in prison, then-president F.W. de Klerk ended apartheid in South Africa, reversed the government ban on anti-apartheid organizations, and orchestrated Mandela’s release from prison.

The end of the apartheid era and the beginning of a fully representative democracy in South Africa which meant that the black majority was allowed to vote for the first time, and in 1994, they elected Nelson Mandela as their president. During his time in office, he was instrumental in establishing trust between the races. One of the ways he did this was by supporting the country’s mostly-white rugby team, developing a friendship with the team’s captain, Francois Pienaar, and encouraging the rest of the country to embrace and support the team as well.

Movie

The 2009 film Invictus is a biographical drama that tells the story of Mandela and the Springboks rugby team. Early in his presidency, Mandela attended a Springboks match, where he noticed that the black South Africans in attendance were actually cheering against their own team. He understands that this is because the team, to non-white South Africans, still represents apartheid oppression.

Nelson Mandela, played by Morgan Freeman, gives a poem to the captain of the national rugby team, played by Matt Damon, to inspire them. The film portrays the rugby team visiting the prison on Robben Island where Nelson Mandela was held for 18 of his 27 years in prison.

Mandela reasons that if he can unite the country in support of their national team, and if that team can win the 1995 Rugby World Cup (which was held in South Africa), then his nation will be inspired and unified. The move Invictus is about how the Springboks team goes from losing every match to winning the World Cup, how Nelson Mandela becomes friends with the team’s captain, Francois Pienaar, and how the nation unites in support of them both.