"Born a Crime" Memoir of Trevor Noah

Trevor Noah's very comedic memoir “Born a Crime” takes place during the Apartheid period. Trevor describes the Apartheid as “Apart hate” (Noah 3) because white groups made policies of racial segregation to keep different groups of the black race from coming together. Afraid that if the black people of South Africa were to come together the white minority would be outnumbered five to one. So by allocating the black South Africans into different areas based on their tribes and by using the animosity that already existed between the tribes they were able to keep the black South Africans from unifying and overpowering the white government.

Trevor Noah a South African Comedian 

By manipulating the tribes, white minorities were able to keep themselves in power. So this makes me wonder whether societies and even nations are being manipulated to this day to benefit a smaller party. This would explain the pointless hate and violence that happened in the past or is still going on throughout the world today. For example the civil war in Syria, Iraqi conflict, the Mexican drug war, Kashmir conflict, and the Northern Mali conflict. What if all these conflicts were constructed by smaller parties of people of influence for their own benefit at the expense of world peace. 

Trevor Noah was born to a Xhosa mother; Patrica Noah, and a Swiss-German father; Robert Noah. But during the Apartheid period, any interracial relationships were outlawed. It was a crime punishable by prison time. Trevor came from an unlawful relationship hence the title “Born a Crime”. The whites felt the blacks were inferior to them therefore it would be ungraceful to mix blood, even though this may sound like a plausible reason I think there was more to it. Because If the real fear was to mix blood, then I believe any child between a white and black couple would have been executed, but instead prisoning the parents while letting the child with mixed blood live on makes me believe they wanted to create fear between the black and white adults on the idea of interracial sex. After analyzing this law and its penalty it has led me to believe that this law was put in place to prevent the white and black communities from coming together and understanding each other. 

Jane Goodall a Primatologist (study of primates)

Trevor who is a mix of white and black (colored) never felt as if he really belonged anywhere. He was too dark to fit in with the white kids at school at the same time he was too light to fit in with any of the black kids. Even though he wasn’t really able to find himself belonging to one community he was able to build bridges between him and other communities through the languages he learned. He learned to speak English, Xhosa, Afrikaans, Tsonga and other languages not mentioned in the book. Being able to communicate with each tribe in their native languages Trevor was able to build trust, and avoid any brutal conflicts. Building bridges with others through learning about them is not only seen in humans it is also seen between the relationships of humans and animals. For example how Jane Goodall built a relationship of trust with the chimps that she was studying by learning the unique behaviors and interests of each chimp. What Jane did was similar to Trevor. They were both able to forge relationships by learning something about the other side, the only difference being Trevor forged relationships with humans while Jane forged relationships with primates, but both did it through similar means. 

While reading Trevor's memoir I was able to identify a few themes like racism, poverty, Apartheid system, identity, community, belonging, love, personal growth, and resilience through religion, education, and humor. But the theme that really popped out to me was the theme of resilience through religion, education, and humor. 

Trevor's Mom: Patrica Noah 

Trevor's childhood has been a difficult one, but his mother Patrica was there with him every step of the way. Both mother and son used to turn towards religion, humor, and education as a mechanism to help cope with their poverty and the violence around them. Trevor's mother is very religious, she views everything that happens as God’s will. Patrica spends endless hours going to church to pray to God. Trevor’s childhood involved “...some form of church, at least four nights a week. Tuesday night was the prayer meeting. Wednesday night was Bible study. Thursday night was youth church...Then on Sunday we went to church. Three churches, to be precise.” (Noah 5). I believe Trevor's mom allocated so much of her time to praying and forced Trevor to do the same was because it allowed her to get a sense of control over her life that she seemed to be lacking. Patrica also encouraged Trevor to educate himself so he can have a bright future ahead of him which explains why he knows so many languages. Finally, Patrica and Trevor both connected through their humor. The humor allowed them to face their sufferings while also being optimistic about life. A good example is when the mother and son broke out laughing when Trevor made the following joke right after almost being killed, “I know you love Jesus, but maybe next week you could ask him to meet us at our house” (Noah 18). By joking around and laughing out hard both Patrica and Trevor were able to mask the trauma of being chased by a man with a war club. 

As of today, I'm more than halfway into the book, and it keeps getting better as more characters who played a huge role in Trevor's life are being introduced. I can't wait to write about the remaining chapters and tell you guys about how Trevor's dog taught him a very valuable lesson.