‘iamablackwomanwithwhiteskin’

‘I was born in Rockville, Soweto,to two loving parents who alwaysmade me eel special and loved.My mother told me that whenI was born, the nurses at thehospital said I looked like a perectdoll – porcelain-white skin, biggreen-grey eyes and none o theskin patches or deects otenassociated with albino babies.Growing up, I was adoredby my amily and neighbours. Tey used to call me the walking,talking doll. I have two youngersisters, but I was never treateddierently rom them and they didn’t see me as dierent untilthey started going to school. Tenthey would beg me to etch themrom school, because they wantedtheir riends to see me. Teirriends saw me as a novelty and would ask me questions about my hair, my make-up and my riends.But I also think it’s my character;people are comortable aroundme and orget I’m an albinobecause it’s not something I ocusexplained my existence. I askedmy mother how she elt about mebeing an albino, and she said shedidn’t eel anything except love.“You were my child, my baby,”she said, “my frst-born little girl. Tat’s all that mattered to me.”As a teen, I started to question why I was born with albinism; it was a niggling question in the back o my mind, but that vanished when I turned 13 and

magazineasked me to take part in a ashionshoot. Tat’s when I realised thatI could be considered beautiul andbe a model i I wanted to. I wassold on the idea o being a model;I’d have the opportunity to show the country I was beautiul.I realised I could challengeconventional notions o beauty and the criteria required orappearing in a ashion magazine.People started reerring tome as beautiul more and more– inside and out. I owe that to my mom, partly, because she allowedme to be whatever I wanted tobe. She didn’t try to make medownplay my personality, or keepme out o the public eye. She walked with me with pride. Shealso paid special attention to my skin. She would take time o on. o my sister’s riends, I wastheir cool older sister. And they were proud to be seen with me.I you raise an albino childand make them eel they havelimitations, they will perpetuatethat belie. It’s true that in black culture, being an albino is seen asa curse; a burden. But as a amily, we didn’t care. Around theneighbourhood, some classifedme white, but I never elt excluded.O course, I had my air shareo being teased. Every now andagain a bunch o guys walking paston the street – or a group o kids– would shout out “

leswaf

”, whichis albino in swana, and becauseI always elt completely normal,having my dierence pointed outlike that hurt. But it’s just a wordthat describes what I am andit didn’t happen oten enoughto aect my sel-confdence. When I was a bit older, I oundout that some people thought my mother had been involved witha white guy – that’s how they

marie clairefrst person

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Her family is black, but with her porcelain complexionRelwe Modiselle, 21, is often mistaken for a whitewoman or a foreigner. She talks about growing up withalbinism in a country where it can be seen as a curse

‘There are guys whohave seen me as apossible trophy’

a LIGHTERSHaDE

I Sa, oe i 4 000people hs lbiism.Professor aroldChristiso of theWits Hum Geeticsdeprtmet sys thecorrect term forpeople with thisgeetic coditiois ‘wom, m orchild with lbiism,becuse itemphsises tht theyre people’. Thereis deitely stigmttched to lbiism,sys Christiso.Oe belief is thtpeople with lbiismre  curse d somechildre with lbiismre ostrcized by thecommuity, rejectedby their fmiliesor eve killed.