THE STRANGE LIVES OF TRUE WHITE AFRICANS: Neil and Creina Alcock
The final chapters of this compelling and passionate book cover the lives of on Neil and Creina Alcock, who lived among the Zulu. Theirs is a gripping story that embodies the whole book — but so do most of the stories . The book sobers; it stuns; it reminds one of what lies deep in the heart of the heart throughout the world: fear of the other, white fear of black and black fear of white. Probably no country on planet earth dramatizes that story more than South Africa.
Yet still a miracle that apartheid could be dismantled without even more bloodshed…
from epic injustice to epic reconciliation!
– Creina Alcock
There is, of course, a problem with love. On the one hand it seems to promise us everything, happiness, pleasure, a sense of security and well-being which nothing else on earth can provide; on the other hand it can let us down so easily and to such an extent that life becomes miserable and hardly worth living. Love can promise the world, but it can also be the cause of great unhappiness if its expectations are not met. Creina Alcock expresses well how she felt betrayed by her expectations of love, or rather by what she had been led to expect of love.
(Quoted in Rian Malan’s My Traitor’s Heart, Vintage International, 1991, p 409)
You could say that is precisely what Jesus did with his disciples when he told them that they must love. He made them take a good hard look at what it really means to love. In no uncertain terms he (Jesus) spells out for them what true love is all about. “I say to you that hear, love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who curse you, pray for those who abuse you, …” There is certainly nothing soft or sentimental about that; they must love in the same way as God loves, who “is kind to the ungrateful and the selfish”. This is not a self-seeking love, nor a love which promises comfort.
(ibid p 423)
http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2007/jun/24/southafrica.features
http://articles.latimes.com/1990-02-08/news/vw-638_1_south-african/6
South African rainbow
There is also an excellent blog on My Traitor’s Heart at
http://galbeckerman.wordpress.com/2008/03/20/divided-soul/
http://galbeckerman.com/crit5/