National

It’s 1986 and apartheid South Africa is banned from global sporting events. Chanelle Va der Merwe, the daughter of a wealthy South African banker must convince footballer and Jamaican National icon, Patrick Anderson, to take part in the international football competition South Africa is hosting. In a bid to save her father’s company Chanelle offers Patrick the deal of a lifetime if he agrees to put together and captain a Caribbean team.

Patrick, who has not forgotten the fate of the blacklisted cricketers who took part in the 1983 Rebel Tour to South Africa, refuses the offer. Plus, unlike the cricketers, he will not compromise his integrity to become an ‘Honorary white’.

Despite a rocky start, a friendship develops between them when Patrick, in order to help fund medical care for his gravely ill godson, must choose between nationhood and friendship; play football in apartheid South Africa or allow the boy to die. He realizes that life is not black and white — including any future with Chanelle — and begins to understand that at times some deals are brokered out of great pain, and that love can have a fighting chance even if it’s forbidden.

Get your copy of National on Amazon… and let me know what you think. Thanks!