Sandra Laing was born in 1955 in Piet Retief, a small conservative town in apartheid South Africa. Born to white parents, she was raised as a God-fearing Afrikaner, superior to blacks and 'coloureds'.
Sandra's brothers were white. So were her grandparents. But Sandra's skin was black. Her skin colour was the result of a biological quirk - possibly a genetic throwback to the early 18th century when the Dutch settled in South Africa and liaisons with black servants were not uncommon.
Sandra Laing talks about her search for identity in a system based on race and prejudice.
