Rugby’s selective colonialism

I managed to read the hilarious piece in BBK Unplugged, “Remnants of verkramptes and rooineks resisting change” (March 10), without falling off my recliner.

Obviously Bareng-Batho Kortjaas does not know that rugby originated in the colonial village of Rugby in England in 1823 and was introduced to SA by Canon George Ogilvie, headmaster of Diocesan College in Cape Town, in 1861.

As a recognised sport it took off in 1875, with the South African Rugby Board founded in 1889. The rooineks helped spread the game, and the verkramptes perfected it.

I find it ironic that, while all remnants of the colonial past have to be got rid of, BBK, politicians and other African activists are fighting tooth and nail to play a game with such a rich colonial background. Should Africans be playing rugby? Won’t they be tainted with colonialism?

Black people are not “begging to be part of rugby”, but are already playing this “rubbish” (as BBK puts it) in their thousands.

Don King of boxing fame commented: “Hypocrisy is the mother of all evil, and racial prejudice is still her favourite child.”

Give it some thought, BBK!

JR Whitlock, Germiston