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South Africa with Af-Am teen girl & her white parents

We are an adoptive family - 2 Caucasian parents in our late 50s/early 60s with a sixteen year old dark skin African American daughter. Our family of three has traveled in Europe, Turkey, Mexico, Central and South America. This is our first trip to the African continent. In addition to her birth certificate (which the SA government requires in addition to passport), we are bringing a copy of our daughter’s adoption papers as extra caution.

My daughter often gets stares (all of the above mentioned places but Ecuador), but our sense is it’s because she’s Black and not because of us as a transracial family so much. So, not expecting stares due to her race in South Africa, but might we encounter overt racism as a family of two races, black and white? How common is it for South Africans to see families where inter-racial adoption is obvious?

A long shot, but was hoping some Africans might be on the forum. Or maybe African Americans could shed some light if they’ve traveled to South Africa?

Posted by
10344 posts

Welcome to our travel forum!
I'm sure people here will do their best to give your their thoughts or advice--but of course you'll want to also be on other forums, which you probably have already been.
Let's hope people here have some personal experience that will enable them to give you useful advice.
Let's see what forum members have to offer you.
And enjoy safe and happy travels!

Posted by
2399 posts

My father-in-law’s third wife’s ( don’t ever call her my mother-in-law 😀 ) ex-husband (white) married a black African ( they live in South Africa ). Her son had a black lover. I never heard that this caused any problems.