Shankar Vedantam

He was a heroic figure already by that time.

But to many white South Africans, they saw him as a criminal and a terrorist.

Play continues.

Offside by New Zealand.

He used the Rugby World Cup, which was being hosted in South Africa.

And during the apartheid era, South Africa had been banned from competition.

And the South African team was known as the Springboks.

And they were beloved by the white South Africans and despised by the black population.

But what Mandela did was he went out onto the podium, not just as the president, but as a fan, he had the green Springboks cap and jersey, and he used it as a way to make a statement that we're one team, we're one country now, and he took a symbol of oppression and used it as a symbol of togetherness.

The president to the captain.

Thanks for having me.

Yeah, so this is a great piece of advice you learn if you're ever going to travel in Canada.

Your family, your friends will tell you to sew a Canadian flag on your backpack so that it serves as a signal to other people in other parts of the world who you are and where you're from.

Canada is a reasonably well-liked and respected country, but it does something even better, which is it allows you to connect with people.

So I was actually on my first ever international trip in high school, and we were in Venice, you know, one of the most beautiful, interesting cities in the world, some of the best food in the world.

And I was a Canadian teenager, so I found the first McDonald's that I could.

that I had seen in probably a week.

And I wandered in and I'm in line to get some chicken nuggets.

And this young teenage girl comes up and just starts talking to me in English.

And it quickly dawned on me that she saw that I had a Canadian maple leaf on a sweater that I was wearing.