Angelina Jolie Calls Daughter Zahara an ‘Extraordinary African Woman’: ‘I Have Learned So Much From Her’

Proud mom Angelina Jolie is “in awe of” her daughter Zahara Jolie-Pitt.

The actress, 45, recently sat down for a video interview with Ugandan climate activist Vanessa Nakate for a TIME 100 Talk and praised 15-year-old Zahara as “an extraordinary African woman.”

“My daughter is from Ethiopia, one of my children … And I have learned so much from her. She is my family, but she is an extraordinary African woman and her connection to her country, her continent, is her own and it’s something I only stand back in awe of,” Jolie said of her daughter, whom she adopted in 2005.

In addition to Zahara, Jolie shares Maddox, 18, Pax, 16, Shiloh, 13, and twins Knox and Vivienne, 11, with ex Brad Pitt.

Angelina Jolie with Shiloh and Zahara. ANDREA STACCIOLI/LIGHTROCKET VIA GETTY IMAGES

Though she does not often talk about her children, the Maleficent actress recently opened up to Harper’s Bazaar about raising her kids amid the “racism and discrimination in America.”

“A system that protects me but might not protect my daughter — or any other man, woman or child in our country based on skin color — is intolerable,” she told the outlet in June.

“We need to progress beyond sympathy and good intentions to laws and policies that actually address structural racism and impunity,” Jolie added. “Ending abuses in policing is just the start. It goes far beyond that, to all aspects of society, from our education system to our politics.”

From L to R: Vivienne Jolie-Pitt, Angelina Jolie, Zahara Jolie-Pitt, Shiloh Jolie-Pitt and Knox Jolie-Pitt. DAVID FISHER/SHUTTERSTOCK

Angelina Jolie Opens Up About Her Family, Adoption and the ‘Resilience’ of Refugees
In a June Vogue interview, Jolie discussed adoption — a journey she has personally been on three times, for Zahara, Pax and Maddox.

“Each is a beautiful way of becoming family,” said the mother of six. “What is important is to speak with openness about all of it and to share. ‘Adoption’ and ‘orphanage’ are positive words in our home. With my adopted children, I can’t speak of pregnancy, but I speak with much detail and love about the journey to find them and what it was like to look in their eyes for the first time.”

“All adopted children come with a beautiful mystery of a world that is meeting yours,” Jolie shared. “When they are from another race and foreign land, that mystery, that gift, is so full. For them, they must never lose touch with where they came from. They have roots that you do not.”

“Honor them. Learn from them. It’s the most amazing journey to share,” she said. “They are not entering your world — you are entering each other’s worlds.”