The Soccer Fence: A story of friendship, hope, and apartheid in South Africa

A moving story about soccer and apartheid in time for the 2014 World Cup.

 

Hector loved to play soccer in his township in Johannesburg, South Africa. He dreamed of playing on the real soccer pitch with the boys on the other side of town, but apartheid made that impossible. When Nelson Mandela was released from prison in 1990, apartheid began to crumble slowly.

 

Then in 1996, South Africa’s first soccer team, Bafana Bafana, won the African Cup of Nations. When he saw black and white South African players on the field together, Hector knew his dream to play on the real pitch could come true.

 

This poignant story artfully depicts the emergence of hope in a country struggling with acceptance.