Sandra Laing is a famous figure who came into the limelight after being rejected by her family members. Sandra Laing was expelled from a school in South Africa and was classified as colored by authorities, something that caused problems and despair in the family.
Adriaan’s sister was born on November 26, 1955, and her parents were white. Her father went through many processes to prove she was his daughter and that she was white, but her skin color and hair texture betrayed her, making authorities conclude she was colored.
Sandra Laing’s Early Life
Sandra Laing was born in a white family in South Africa during the apartheid era. At least three generations of her ancestors were regarded as white, but her skin color and hair texture classified her as colored.
When Sandra was ten years, she was expelled by her all-white school, and the authorities based their decision on her looks. Sandra’s mother was called Susanna Margaretha, and her father was Abraham Laing.
Sandra was born with darker skin, and as she grew up, her skin became darker. She was the only daughter in the family, and her brothers Adriaan and Leon had different skin colors from her.
Sandra’s parents, grandparents, and great-grandparents all were white, and she was treated as white. Because Sandra’s family was white, she attended the Dutch Reformed Church and went to an all-white boarding school.
At the age of ten years, the school authorities expelled Sandra and classified her as colored. The expulsion came from other parents in school, who said her skin color and air were different and that she was from a mixed race.
Sandra’s parents went through many legal battles to have Sandra classified as white because of her ancestry without success. During those times, there was no DNA test, and the father went through blood typing for paternity, which proved he was the father, but the results were not trusted due to the small number of blood types.
Was Sandra Laing White?
Sandra Laing found herself separated from the white community and had to attend a colored boarding school away from her siblings. Although the law changed later, allowing her to be classified as white in 1966, she had no white friends except those whose parents were black employees.
When Sandra Laing was sixteen, she eloped with a black South African to Swaziland. This fact angered her father, who swore to shoot her if she ever went back home. Sandra never saw her father again in life.
Sandra ‘s Reunion with Her Mother
Sandra used to sneak and greet her mother before they relocated and lost contact. She searched for her parents for a long time and realized her father had died in 1988. Even after his father’s death, Sandra’s mother refused to see her.
The Johannesburg Times helped Sandra to track her family, and they made it possible for her to see her mother again before she died. Her mother was happy to see her in 2000 while she was in a nursing home. Unfortunately, Sandra’s brothers, Adriaan and Leon Laing, refused to see her, even after her parents passed on.
