Trevor Noah is a South African stand-up comedian famously known for making it big in the USA as the host of The Daily Show. He became popular worldwide for being capable of traversing the stormy seas of Trump’s America with meaningful reflection and hilarious satire. 

 

Trevor’s autobiography, Born A Crime: Stories of a South African Childhood, seems to be an ode to his mother and a recollection of the comic’s childhood in the apartheid gripped South Africa. He recounts how being a child of apartheid made is very existence a crime. Noah was born to a white Swiss father and a black Xhosa mother in the midst of a humanitarian crisis where interracial couples were punished by death. The book also talks about his conflict with faith, racism, adolescence and abuse among other pressing topics on the backdrop of an intolerant South Africa. 

 

Interracial children, Noah included, have often talked about the difficulties of being caught between two identities since the society does not accept mixed-race children as they ought to. Noah’s case, like many other South African children, is different. Children like him born in a time and place where their identities were that of criminals. A time when it was illegal for a black and white person to have children. 

 

At the very outset of his book, Noah introduces readers to the reality of apartheid. “I was nine years old when my mother threw me out of a moving car”. These shocking opening lines might baffle the reader into thinking his mother is a brute but in reality, as revealed soon after, she does this to protect him from the policemen, who would have killed him if he was spotted. The ‘throwing out of a car’ episode occurred after a deeply religious single-mother, Patricia Noah, defiantly made young Noah go to church despite their car breaking down. “I know you love Jesus, but maybe next week you can ask him to meet us at our house. Because this really wasn’t a fun night,”As the family finally reaches safety, Noah wonders aloud.  As is often the case with Noah’s anecdotes, this rocky episode ends in laughter shared between mother and son. The pair constantly spar with words; his deeply loving relationship is clearly the root of Noah’s comedic ability.

 

Noah grew up in a township and it was clear that he was different from others. “Nearly 1 million people lived in Soweto. 99% of them were black – and then there was me,” he writes. In apartheid South Africa, skin colour dictated so much of the kind of life one could live. Even within his close-knit family unit, Noah recounts this racial inequality. On one occasion, he recalls, the comedian was playing with his cousins, and he started to misbehave. What followed was a round of beatings administered by his South African grandmother. Noah was simply told he was "a naughty boy," while both of his cousins received the full brunt of the punishment.Young Noah honestly believed he was the favourite grandchild at the time, but he subsequently realized that his grandmother had been unable to hit him because she considered him to be a white man.

 

Trevor’s mother, Patricia, seems to be the book’s real hero – obviously reflecting the huge admiration Noah has for her. Patricia is presented as independent, funny, beautiful and defiant. In a moment of frequent rioting in South Africa’s township – which ultimately saw thousands die – Noah describes how his mother would “head straight out, and as we’d inch our way past the blockades, she’d give the rioters this look.” He continues, “it didn’t matter that there was a war on our doorstep. She had things to do, places to be.”

When Patricia met and married her second husband, life gradually started to change for her and the adolescent Trevor. “The man’s name in English was Able, but his Tsonga name was Ngisaveni. It means ‘be afraid’,” Noah believes that should have served as a red flag to the family. Able quickly became controlling, at first no longer allowing the family dog into the house, then specifically not fixing Patricia’s car so she could not spend so much time out of the house at church. What Noah describes is a spiralling domestic abuse situation, that resulted in the physical abuse of both mother and son – climaxing with attempted murder. The descriptions of alcoholism and pain very aptly paint a picture of a phenomenon experienced far too often by victims of abuse, be it physical, mental or both.  The book comes to a close with this image: “she broke out into a huge smile and started laughing. The book ends on a bittersweet note, leaving us in tears while also making us laugh.

 

Born a Crime is a worthwhile read for both young and old. Understanding Noah's life gives us all a plethora of opportunities to learn from, despite the serious subject matter. As we talk about race, identity, family, and youth with the author, Noah reminds us of the therapeutic qualities of love and joy at every step. And those are qualities worth remembering.

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