Who is Siya Kolisi, the first black captain of the South African national rugby team

If it were still there Nelson Mandela, he would be proud of him. And of his people, who continue to walk in the right direction, towards the goal of equality. After all, sport is a metaphor for life and today seeing a black player lead the South African national rugby team is certainly a big step forward in the corporate progress of a country that for too many years has had to deal with Apartheid.

Who knows what Siya Kolisi must have thought when, in 2018, due to the injury of her teammate Warren Whiteley, she achieved the ranks of captain of the Springboks. After one hundred and twenty-six years of history and rivers of words written and spoken about integration, respect and equality, this 26 year old boy is now the emblem of the result achieved.

But Kolisi has a story within a story that deserves to be told, to understand even more and better how much value that armband now has. Siya shouldn’t even have been at the World Cup in France. Just seven months ago a tackle destroyed his knee. But giving up is a word that isn’t in his vocabulary and so after the operation to reconstruct the ligaments, he continues with rehabilitation. Then the training sessions, first light, then increasingly intense, with the sole focus on arriving ready for the world championship competition.

And sometimes tenacity, will and determination make it happen. So, at the start of the tournament he is there, even if he gives the credit to others. «I had doubts about my recovery», he says, «but the doctors gave me all their skill, God and my prayers did the rest».
Growing up in Zwide, with a childhood spent sniffing petrol and drinking alcohol, Siya could have ended badly. «I could have become a tsotsi, a criminal child with a horrible future: prison or death. Or both”.

But what saves him, as in a film, is rugby. The African Bombers train in township, he, curious, approaches and is invited to join the group, his life changes. «I remember finishing the session exhausted, bruised and bleeding, but I went home on cloud nine. Since that time I have never looked back, I have never smoked weed, drank or sniffed petrol.”

An oval ball, that was enough. Siya Kolisi is determined, aiming straight for the goal. He wins a scholarship to Gray High School, gets closer to God, sweats, runs and grows. Today he is the cover man of the country. “I want to make my influence available to the South African people to change the narrative of inequality there is no freedom until everyone is free, there is no security until everyone is safe.”

Siya Kolisi will lead South Africa against New Zealand in the Rugby World Cup final on Saturday at 9pm. And perhaps, once the meeting is over, for once he will look back at the path he has taken for himself and his people.