To be black and white in Apartheid South Africa
Born black, classified white, reclassified black and then disowned by her family – the bizarre tale of Sandra Laing is perhaps apartheid South Africa's most shocking testament. Born to white Afrikaner parents Abraham and Sannie, a genetic conundrum resulted in the birth of black baby Laing, giving South Africa a heart-wrenching story that is now legend.
Raised for 17 years in a family that struggled with the stigma of loving a black child, Laing's life has played out in the media for 40 years. Her story drew international attention when her parents called on journalists to spotlight Laing's expulsion from an all-white school.
A few years later, Laing made a move that stunned her family and nation. Stubborn and stoically in love, she eloped with Petrus, a fellow black African, leaving a distraught family enraged and afraid.
Not surprisingly, her parents and brothers disowned her for life, leaving her penniless.
Such gripping tales make for great movies, and when director Anthony Fabian discovered in 2001 that the silver screen was still deprived of this tale, he made it his life's cause. Seven years on, Fabian and Laing spoke to Emirates Business about Skin – his drama feature and project to give Laing a life she justly deserved.
So how did he stumble upon S Laing's story? "I heard this absolutely brilliant interview of Sandra by Peter White of BBC Radio 4 for a series called No Triumph, No Tragedy, which was for prejudices experienced by the disabled," Fabian says. "He felt that under apartheid, being black was worse than being disabled and so he told her extraordinary story.
"Within 20 minutes of listening, I was brought to tears and knew there was a movie in it. I also felt angry about what had happened to her and wanted to reach out to her in some way. So I tracked her down and we spoke on the phone first.
"Six weeks later I was on the plane to try to persuade her to assign her life rights to me."
She is reserved and shy as Fabian passionately plays her spokesperson. Fleetingly, she says she trusted him instantly and his promise to turn her life around was delivered.
"I knew he would change my life. At that time I was staying in a rented house. Now I have my own house and my life is much better. I feel telling my story again has been like therapy," she whispers.
It is the constant attention to her story and the resulting documentaries, publications and now movie that gives her brothers stronger reason to disassociate from her. Fabian admits that Laing's brothers despise her for telling her story.
"She has brought her family into the public eye and they would rather be private. They feel that they too suffered as a family, and that there's very little sympathy for them. Yet they refuse to tell their side of the story," says Fabian.
As for her parents, both Laing and Fabian feel they were misguided and reacted out of love. They wanted to protect Sandra from the fate of being black in apartheid South Africa – a fate that became her reality. "He [ Laing's father] couldn't bear it. He loved her and I think it was too much for him, having fought to protect and keep her within the realm of the privilege, to see her leaving," says Fabian.
"It wasn't straight-forward racism on his part, it was actually fear for her and for what might become of her," says Fabian.
Unable to reconcile with her father, who died 20 years ago, Sandra's only struggle today is to find peace with her brothers. Heavy hope lies on the film triggering a change in her brothers' thought. Fabian agrees: "There's one more chapter. The story had one ending when Sandra reunited with her mother, which was a very seminal, emotional watershed for her and did enable her to feel almost whole.
"The final chapter is really when her brothers come to terms with reuniting with her. We all hope that something of the spirit of the new South Africa might affect them enough to make that decision.
"This is to some extent my last title in the film where I say her brothers refused to meet with her – which is like a challenge to them to step forward."
His passion overrides every comment. His cause is very pure, almost infectious. This plays out on screen too, and we can't help but applaud his intent. We wonder which aspect of Sandra's life affected him most? "I felt the injustice of this story very, very deeply," Fabian says.
"It made no sense to me that her white family had gone on to prosper while she ended with nothing. I wanted to understand how that could happen. How within one family the colour of your skin can determine your entire fate?
"What the story does so elegantly is provide a window into how that society worked. How crazy, arbitrary and wrong it was. There was almost this Kafkaesque nature of how can you are white one moment and black the next – officially." Since its completion this year, Skin has enjoyed two screenings at the South African parliament with the government intent on making it recommended viewing for children and adults to help understand the country's tragic history.