(RepublicanInformer.com)- An exhibit at the University of St. Andrews in Scotland has linked the game of golf to British “exploitation” through colonialism.
According to the exhibition, because golf balls were once made from material taken from British colonies, the game itself is the result of colonial exploitation. Worse still, the British Empire had the audacity to “impose” the sport on the rest of the world.
But it isn’t just golf that is proof of the British Empire’s “colonial exploitation.” The exhibit also takes aim at cricket, claiming it too was forced on colonized countries throughout the world.
To make golf balls, the evil British exported the natural resources of the colonized countries in Southeast Asia.
The gutta-percha, a natural rubber material found in trees that grew most abundantly in the former British colony of Malaysia, was harvested to make golf balls for those evil white people in Europe.
Victorian scientists had discovered that the gutta rubber was the perfect and most profitable material for covering telegraph wires. But it was the gutta rubber’s natural bounce that made it ideal for the golf ball. It is believed the gutta golf ball was first developed in 1843 by St. Andrews student Robert Adams Paterson. This ball then replaced the older golf ball that was made from feathers and stitched leather.
Ironically, the University of St. Andrews is located in a town dubbed the “home of golf.”
St. Andrews has a six hundred-year history with golf dating back to the 15th century. The “golf is colonial exploitation” display is only steps away from a display featuring the Karahi Golf Club Cup, the award given by a club that dates back to the time of the British Empire.
“The Re-Collecting Empire” exhibition runs at St. Andrews University’s Wardlaw Museum until October. It is part of the university’s pledge to examine “the legacies of Empire in our collections” to explore how to build “a more equitable future.” It is part of a wider trend of “academic decolonization” that began during the 2020 Black Lives Matter riots.
