Some years ago, when I met a couple from sectarian strife-torn Northern Ireland, I mentioned that some of my forebears came from there. “Catholic or Prottie?” was the instant, instinctive response. The 1981 Springbok tour of New Zealand prompts a similar question of what side were you on? The issue was recycled in the drama “Rage” aired on TV One on Sunday, of which I happened to see the tail end.
I happened to be out of New Zealand in 1981 so missed the turmoil that went on between July 19 and September 12, 1981. But in all the heat generated in the self-righteous protests about the apartheid policies that separated South Africa into racial communities, naive protesters seemed unaware that they were being used as pawns in a battle for the control of southern Africa.
