VOA常速英语2007年-South African Movie Shows How Football Unified

By Terry FitzPatrick
Cape¹ Town
12 November 2007

During South Africa's apartheid era, many of the nation's black activists² were detained in a notorious island prison near Cape Town. A new film is revealing a bit of hidden history about prison life. The movie is about football, and how many prisoners feel the sport saved their lives. For VOA, Terry FitzPatrick reports.

Sedick Isaacs says the smell of the ocean makes him think of prison. Walking along Cape Town's waterfront, Isaacs peers at an island just off shore. Robben Island. It is a place many regarded as the "Alcatraz of Africa."

"When I look at that island, I almost get a shiver of freezing cold. And I think that probably is very difficult to get out of a person's mind," he said.

Isaacs was a scientist, imprisoned³ as a saboteur for teaching anti-apartheid activists how to make bombs. He spent 13 years on Robben Island.

 

Isaacs is one of five former prisoners whose experiences are chronicled in a new film, entitled More than Just a Game. Isaacs helped organize a prison football league. He was worried about the toll⁴ that poor nutrition and harsh conditions were taking on Robben Island inmates⁵.

 

"And I knew that there are long term effects of imprisonment⁶. I can still quote the textbook: like mental vacuity⁷, listlessness. And I thought we need to keep alive and prevent those things from happening to us, because there is a revolution taking place in South Africa. And once we are released we need to be healthy enough to take our places again in that revolution," he added.

More than Just a Game is part documentary, part dramatic re-enactment. It is set in the turbulent 1960s and 70s when many liberation leaders were jailed. They endured brutal⁸ punishment and long days of breaking rocks in a quarry⁹. Soccer brought hope.

 

It took prisoners three years to get permission to play football on Saturdays. When authorities relented, inmates organized a formal league, with eight teams, trained referees¹⁰, tournament rules and trophies¹¹. They called it the Makana Football Association.

Documents about the league were discovered by an American professor from the University of Missouri, Chuck Korr.

 

"The prisoners on Robben Island are of a generation that believe fervently¹² in the Victorian values of sports builds character. They used football as a way of reclaiming¹³ their dignity. This was something they ran. Anytime authorities tried to interfere¹⁴ with it they closed it down and then they threatened to talk to the International Red Cross, they threatened a hunger strike. Football was theirs," said Korr.

League activities were meticulously¹⁵ documented, and Korr's scholarly research led to the making of the movie by Durban-based Videovision Entertainment. Korr realized how important the project was for South Africans as he talked with a member of the crew during filming.

 

"He said when he went to school all he ever learned was how many ships the Portuguese¹⁶ sent, and the names of the first Dutch governors. He said: 'My people were never allowed to have our own history. And what this film is doing is restoring to us the past that we were never allowed to learn',"said Korr.

Several of South Africa's current political and business leaders played soccer as inmates on Robben Island. But Sedick Isaacs says More than Just a Game is about more than apartheid. He feels it's a universal story of human spirit overcoming adversity.

 

"I feel the message is that there were other people on the island besides the politicians, and how within this community we had internal problems and how we actually solved it," said Isaaacs. "That's what we want the world to look at."

More than Just a Game will premiere later this month (November 23, 2007) when hundreds of international sports officials gather in South Africa to organize the 2010 World Cup football tournament.

1 cape   

n.海角，岬；披肩，短披风

参考例句：

• I long for a trip to the Cape of Good Hope.我渴望到好望角去旅行。
• She was wearing a cape over her dress.她在外套上披着一件披肩。

2 activists   

n.（政治活动的）积极分子，活动家( activist的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• His research work was attacked by animal rights activists . 他的研究受到了动物权益维护者的抨击。
• Party activists with lower middle class pedigrees are numerous. 党的激进分子中有很多出身于中产阶级下层。 来自《简明英汉词典》

3 imprisoned   

下狱，监禁( imprison的过去式和过去分词 )

参考例句：

• He was imprisoned for two concurrent terms of 30 months and 18 months. 他被判处30个月和18个月的监禁，合并执行。
• They were imprisoned for possession of drugs. 他们因拥有毒品而被监禁。

4 toll   

n.过路(桥)费；损失，伤亡人数；v.敲(钟)

参考例句：

• The hailstone took a heavy toll of the crops in our village last night.昨晚那场冰雹损坏了我们村的庄稼。
• The war took a heavy toll of human life.这次战争夺去了许多人的生命。

5 inmates   

n.囚犯( inmate的名词复数 )

参考例句：

• One of the inmates has escaped. 被收容的人中有一个逃跑了。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The inmates were moved to an undisclosed location. 监狱里的囚犯被转移到一个秘密处所。 来自《简明英汉词典》

6 imprisonment   

n.关押，监禁，坐牢

参考例句：

• His sentence was commuted from death to life imprisonment.他的判决由死刑减为无期徒刑。
• He was sentenced to one year's imprisonment for committing bigamy.他因为犯重婚罪被判入狱一年。

7 vacuity   

n.(想象力等)贫乏，无聊，空白

参考例句：

• Bertha thought it disconcerted him by rendering evident even to himself the vacuity of his mind. 伯莎认为这对他不利，这种情况甚至清楚地向他自己证明了他心灵的空虚。
• Temperature and vacuity rising can enhance osmotic flux visibly. 升高温度和降低膜下游压力可明显提高膜的渗透通量。

8 brutal   

adj.残忍的，野蛮的，不讲理的

参考例句：

• She has to face the brutal reality.她不得不去面对冷酷的现实。
• They're brutal people behind their civilised veneer.他们表面上温文有礼，骨子里却是野蛮残忍。

9 quarry   

n.采石场；v.采石；费力地找

参考例句：

• Michelangelo obtained his marble from a quarry.米开朗基罗从采石场获得他的大理石。
• This mountain was the site for a quarry.这座山曾经有一个采石场。

10 referees   

n.裁判员( referee的名词复数 )；证明人；公断人；（专业性强的文章的）审阅人

参考例句：

• The fiery player has had numerous run-ins with referees. 这位脾气暴躁的队员曾和裁判员发生过无数次争吵。
• If you want to appeal, the Court of Referees will decide. 如果你要上诉，可以由仲裁法庭去判决。 来自辞典例句

11 trophies   

n.（为竞赛获胜者颁发的）奖品( trophy的名词复数 )；奖杯；（尤指狩猎或战争中获得的）纪念品；（用于比赛或赛跑名称）奖

参考例句：

• His football trophies were prominently displayed in the kitchen. 他的足球奖杯陈列在厨房里显眼的位置。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• The hunter kept the lion's skin and head as trophies. 这猎人保存狮子的皮和头作为纪念品。 来自《现代英汉综合大词典》

12 fervently   

adv.热烈地，热情地，强烈地

参考例句：

• "Oh, I am glad!'she said fervently. “哦，我真高兴！”她热烈地说道。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• O my dear, my dear, will you bless me as fervently to-morrow?' 啊，我亲爱的，亲爱的，你明天也愿这样热烈地为我祝福么？” 来自英汉文学 - 双城记

13 reclaiming   

v.开拓( reclaim的现在分词 )；要求收回；从废料中回收（有用的材料）；挽救

参考例句：

• People here are reclaiming land from the sea. 这儿的人们正在填海拓地。 来自《简明英汉词典》
• How could such a man need reclaiming? 这么一个了不起的人怎么还需要别人拯救呢？ 来自英汉文学 - 嘉莉妹妹

14 interfere   

v.(in)干涉，干预；(with)妨碍，打扰

参考例句：

• If we interfere, it may do more harm than good.如果我们干预的话，可能弊多利少。
• When others interfere in the affair,it always makes troubles. 别人一卷入这一事件，棘手的事情就来了。

15 meticulously   

adv.过细地，异常细致地；无微不至；精心

参考例句：

• The hammer's silvery head was etched with holy runs and its haft was meticulously wrapped in blue leather. 锤子头是纯银制成的，雕刻着神圣符文，而握柄则被精心地包裹在蓝色的皮革中。 来自辞典例句
• She is always meticulously accurate in punctuation and spelling. 她的标点和拼写总是非常精确。 来自辞典例句

16 Portuguese   

n.葡萄牙人；葡萄牙语

参考例句：

• They styled their house in the Portuguese manner.他们仿照葡萄牙的风格设计自己的房子。
• Her family is Portuguese in origin.她的家族是葡萄牙血统。