The "comrades" ultra-marathon, a symbol of hope in South Africa

June 8, 2023

Mokgele Ramathe gets up before dawn to drive a school bus. When he has dropped off the children, he undresses, like Superman, to reveal his sportswear underneath: He is preparing for the Course des Comrades, an infernal challenge yet incredibly popular in South Africa.

These 90 km to be covered in less than twelve hours in the green hills of the Zulu country (east) still give chills to many black South Africans who, like him, have long been excluded from it under apartheid.

Jovial smile and short goatee, “Roro”, 42, fixes his watch and takes a small stride down a shopping street in Soweto, under the bewildered gaze of “mamas” in bathrobes and young men with their fists deep in their pockets.

In this desolate environment of small brick houses, drying laundry and satellite dishes, he amazes everyone: For the second year in a row he takes up this titanic challenge. “It’s a sick thing,” he repeats.

The mocking passers-by “made fun of me”, he says, before seeing him on TV with his medal around his neck.

He is proud to demonstrate that it takes neither money nor specific equipment to reach the finish line, “it’s just a matter of discipline”.

The race, a symbol since it was won by a black man under apartheid, offering the whole country the burning hope of ending the domination of the white minority, retains a special aura and flavor. “I have goosebumps”, breathes “Roro”, in his new superhero clothes.

His days are timed: School tour, then 5km run, shower, opening of his hairdressing salon, his second job, new bus tour to pick up the children, second run of five or ten kilometres. Long training sessions, 30 to 50 km, he saves them for the weekend.

The “comrades” will set off on Sunday at 5:30 a.m. in Pietermaritzburg (south-east), towards the port of Durban.

Some 17,920 runners have qualified, the vast majority of them South Africans from all walks of life. They are at least twenty years old and must have already run a classic marathon in less than 4h50. Last year 84% of participants completed it.

This ultra-marathon, created in 1921 to pay tribute to the South African soldiers killed during the First World War and to celebrate the strength “of the human spirit in the face of adversity”, runs on average over more than ten hours. You have to finish it in less than twelve to be classified.

Blacks and women were able to register for the first time in 1975, some fifteen years before the end of the segregationist laws. At the time, South Africa was banned from the Olympic Games and other international competitions, it was a question of changing its image in the world.

Many black South Africans, flabbergasted to see on television or to hear on the radio that runners resembling them challenge white people, start dreaming and seize their chance.

The railroad worker Sam Tshabalala entered South African history and imagination by becoming, in 1989, in the last convulsions of apartheid, the first black winner of the Comrades.

“It was a considerable step forward, he showed that it was possible”, tells AFP Bruce Fordyce, a white athlete who has won it nine times.

“At the start, it was a very small race, reserved exclusively for white men”, recalls the champion. This year, the top ten male runners will “probably be all black”.

“It takes guts, determination and a lot of practice. And the attitude of never giving up,” he advises.

The start is more emotional for this South African than any other race. After the national anthem we sing the “shosholoza”, a melody adopted by the struggle against apartheid which means “moving forward” and “puts everyone in the mood”.

To cross the finish line is to be “forever changed and to know that now, if something is worth doing, we will succeed”. A way to show, to others as well as to yourself, that you have regained the upper hand.