GG Alcock: White boy raised black

GG Alcock’s life is nothing but ordinary.

This white looking man speaks Zulu with a deep Kwa-Zulu Natal accent you would think it’s Zulu Boy the Durban muso.

Alcock is Zulu. Or at least that is what his daughter Zandi will tell you.

“My mother is Mamvelase from Msinga, ebaThembini,” said Alcock to a group of guests gathered for the launch of his book Third World Child: Born white, Bred Zulu at Love Books in Melville on 29 October.

The book tells Alcock’s childhood story.

He grew up in a white family residing in a black community during the apartheid years.

Alcock’s parents, Creina and Neil, were humanitarians who gave up comfortable lives to move to a place called Msinga in rural Zululand.

“My parents were interested in changing lives and they said it is impossible to make a difference when we live luxurious lives. My father sold his farms and all his wealth and we moved into a mud house,” retold Alcock.

The Alcock family rebuked all benefits that came with being white in an apartheid regime.

“We grew up with no running water and electricity. We would run up to the mountain with other children and hunted rats,” said Alcock.

“My mother used to say we have enough running water meaning the river,” added Alcock with a chuckle.

This writer and businessman was the first white man to be infected by typhoid.

“When we got to the hospital, the doctors were shocked and when they asked around they were told that I lived with black people so I got black people diseases,” he recalled.

Alcock’s book also talks about the apartheid days when his father’s guns were confiscated by the government.

“They thought my father was a troublemaker who was helping Zulu’s rise up against whites,” he said.

Neil was subsequently assassinated by rival tribesman when Alcock was 14.

As a result of his upbringing, Alcock partook in a Zulu traditional ceremony.

“We had to fetch my father’s spirit where he was killed.”

Alcock claims that he runs a successful marketing business that employs thousands of people because of the way he grew up.

“The way I grew up exposed me to massive invisible markets that exist in this country. For example, we introduced the Parmalat cheese that was because of the Kota that is highly sold in townships.”

A Kota is a quarter loaf of bread with chips, eggs, atchar, polony, russian sausage and cheese fillings, among other things.

Alcock also introduced the Perfect Sishebo Show which is the 10th most viewed show in South Africa.

He attributes his flair of the written word to his mother.

“My mother taught us how to write with a lot of beatings. We sat on a rock table under a tree at 5.30am and studied.”

Alcock tries to give his children Zulu traditions and experiences through taking them to townships and teaching them the Zulu language.

“One of my most interesting experiences is when I was at Pick-n-Pay and the cashier said to the other in Zulu ‘look at this white man, he has hair like a baboon,’ and after I finished writing my cheque I said, ‘Have you ever seen a baboon write a cheque’,” he remembered with laughter.

According to Alcock the cashier apologised and began saying “sorry Baas” as she was embarrassed.

Alcock’s mother and brother still reside in Msinga were he often visits.

His book is available in book stores at R250.

Details: GG Alcock https://www.ggalcock.co.za/