Growing up in Switzerland, his parents didn’t sugarcoat why they never visited his father’s native country. His father, Patrick, was black. His mother, Christine, was white. For the first 10 years of Thabo’s life, the South African government enforced the segregation system of apartheid, which meant such interracial marriages weren’t just frowned upon — they were revolutionary.
“We couldn’t really go back,” he said. “Looking back at our parents and everything they had to go through to have a better chance in life — it really builds character, and it made me who I am.”
Times changed in South Africa, of course, and times changed for Sefolosha as well.