Pam is 29 years old. She is half-Zambian and half-Zimbabwean and has been living in South Africa since 2005. Warren is a 32 year-old South African. They are married and have a daughter. They both come privileged backgrounds and have had friends of different races since they were young. They met and got together as they were neighbours and ran in the same circles. Their friends and family have been open and supportive of their relationship. When they go out, they sometimes experience disapproving or curious looks. But overall, they agree the situation is improving and the change of mentalities is happening in big cities of South Africa while people remain more intolerant in more rural areas.

Thelma is a 23 year-old Black South African born in Rustenberg. Matin is a 31 year-old South African born in Durban and raised in a traditional Hindu family. They met in 2009 and first became very good friends. When they started to date each other, both families were shocked especially Matin’s, whose parents are very traditionalist and expect him to be with and marry a Hindu woman. Matin has been torn since between his love for Thelma and the fear to lose his parents if he’s moving forward with her.

Linda is a 52 years old woman from London. Her family is from Sainte-Lucia in the Caribbean and she is a first generation British. Mathew is 49 years old. He lived in South London until he was about 9 years-old and then moved with his family to South Africa, where he grew up, went to school and university before returning to London in 1990. They met there, got married and had a daughter. Neither in the United Kingdom nor elsewhere in Europe was race an issue between them within their family or in public. A couple of years ago, they moved to South Africa together. For Linda, being in an interracial couple in South Africa was a “cultural shock”, as they were stared at and « got attitude » when together in public spaces. The experience was all the more disappointing for Linda as she had a very romantic idea about South Africa « the Rainbow Nation » before moving here and took part to the marches in support of the anti-apartheid movement.

Nick was born in DRC and moved to South Africa in 1992. Anne is French, she has been in the country for six and a half years. They met after she was offered the opportunity to work in South Africa. When he knew that his son would marry a white woman, Nick’s father had dealing with it. But other members of his family were very supportive. Anne’s parents strongly opposed to the relationship at the beginning, mainly because of the preconceived ideas they had about African immigrants in France. But after meeting him, they accepted it. Anne and Nick admit that people in South Africa still usually have difficulties imagining that they are together in the street and Nick is often assimilated to a Black guy who is harassing a white woman, especially when venturing out of Johannesburg.

Jerome is from Manchester. He is the son of an Irish man and a Zimbabwean woman. Camilla is a South African born and raised in Johannesburg in a relatively privileged environment. They are married and have a son. They met in London through Jerome sister, who she used to live with a few years earlier. They never experienced prejudice towards their relationship from their friends and family. When Jerome arrived in South Africa, he felt people were looking at them but because it was a bit of a novelty to see mixed race couple. Today, as there are more mixed-race couples, he says it happens less frequently. For Camilla, the big cities of South Africa are a bubble when people are tolerant towards mixed race couples but they do not reflect the reality of the situation in the whole country. Both think that their relationship is judged differently because they come from similar backgrounds and share common grounds, despite being from different races. To them, South African people are more curious and/or afraid of cultural differences.

Sizwe is 28 year-old South African born and raised in Diepkloof, Soweto. He has a 5 year-old daughter from a previous relationship. Lali is a 25 year-old Afrikaans South African from Pretoria. They met in 2012. Before meeting Sizwe, Lali never considered dating someone from a different race. And she did not know anyone in an interracial relationship in her entourage as « it was not done, it was not accepted » where she is from. She admits that the biggest fear that her parents had when she was younger was that she would come home with an English man. When she announced her relationship with Sizwe, she faced strong incomprehension and opposition from her friends and family. Sizwe received mixed reactions from the community, some were supportive, others told him “he thinks he’s better now” that he is dating a white girl. They both lost many friends because of their relationship. Despite the opposition they faced in the beginning, they have stayed together and Sizwe won over the heart of Lali’s mother, who was against their relationship when they started dating. Lali thinks that “in a small way, they are changing something for the better” in the South African society.

Johannes is Afrikaans. He grew up in a very conservative family in Pretoria. Margaret comes from Zimbabwe. They have a daughter. They met in a club when Johannes was still married to his now ex-wife, an Afrikaans lady. Johannes fell in love with Margaret but tried to fight his feelings for her at the beginning of their relationship because he felt that it was the right thing to do. After spending months away from Margaret, he realized he could not live without her, and divorced his wife. His family rejected him and his parents disinherited him. Now that they have got a baby, members of his family come back one by one. For Johannes, the cultural differences between the different races are still too strong and cities are still too segregated to allow the majority of South Africans to mix and be in interracial relationships.