I had commissioned my friend and colleague, Bafana Mtini, to do voice promos for my book ‘Introducing Ubuntu Stoicism’ [https://buff.ly/3QvkZZa]
And because he has a great voice, I thought it would be fitting if he did a recording of the Invictus Poem by William Ernest Henley.
The book has a chapter on Nelson Mandela’s ‘stoicism’ and features bits of this poem which he has now become synonymous with: “I am the master of my fate: I am the captain of my soul.”
William Ernest Henley was a Victorian era poet, writer and editor (lived between 1870 to 1903).
The poem was written in 1875 when he was recovering from deadly tuberculosis disease. His leg had been amputated.
The Invictus was named after the poem. In the movie, Morgan Freeman plays Nelson Mandela. It is a biographical sports film about events leading to the 1995 Rugby World Cup after South Africa returned to competing internationally due to apartheid being ended and Nelson Mandela elected the first democratic President of the country.
South Africa won the cup.
THE INVICTUS POEM:
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.
– – –
For more information about the book Introducing Ubuntu Stoicism, visit www.tiisetsomaloma.co.za/ubuntustoicism.