Born a Crime - Book Summary

Delve into the extraordinary life of Trevor Noah and the tumultuous world he was born into.

When it was announced that Jon Stewart, the longtime host of Comedy Central's Daily Show, was stepping down, few could have predicted that his replacement would be a youthful comedian from South Africa. Yet, in a twist of events, Trevor Noah took the reins in September 2015.

However, this unanticipated career leap was not the first astonishing episode in Noah's life.

Born during the apartheid era in South Africa, to a white father and a black mother, Noah's existence was itself a marvel. Mixed-race children were an uncommon sight in a nation grappling with ingrained, systemic racism. As you journey through the narrative of Noah's life, you will witness his growth, and in tandem, grasp the bizarre, brutal, and unequal nature of living in a society where racism is not just prevalent but institutionalized.

Through the course of this chapter, you will discover:

- why Noah's very existence was considered a criminal act,

- how language and sweets became Noah's tools for navigating racial dynamics in South Africa, and

- why a historical figure like Hitler led to unexpected issues for Noah.

Trevor Noah's birth in apartheid South Africa was considered a criminal act.

We all know Trevor Noah as the renowned comedian and host of the Daily Show. However, what might be less known is the incredible story of his birth and childhood.

Noah was born into the world of apartheid in South Africa.

Apartheid, a system of racial segregation in place from 1948 to 1991, traces its origins to 1652 when Dutch traders enslaved the indigenous people after they settled on the Cape of Good Hope. When the British gained control in the mid-1800s, the Dutch settlers, now referred to as Afrikaners, moved inland and cultivated their distinct culture. When the British departed, the Afrikaners took charge and developed a complex legal system and surveillance apparatus, extending over 3,000 pages, to suppress the black population.

One of these laws made interracial relationships a punishable offense. This regulation was "philosophically" significant for preserving the racist foundation of the system. If races mixed sexually, it would threaten the racist notion of the unnaturalness of racial intermingling. In simple terms, it would threaten racism and a racist system like apartheid.

Violators faced imprisonment—men for up to five years and women for up to four. However, in reality, black men were frequently charged with rape if involved sexually with white women. The offense was so significant to the government that special police units were designated to spy on potential illegal sexual activities.

And so, on February 20, 1984, amidst this turmoil, Noah was born—his mother was black and his father was white. They both risked imprisonment by bringing a child into the world, as Noah was literally the living proof of a crime.

The striking contrasts between Noah's parents were more profound than their racial backgrounds.

It's often said that opposites attract, and if we take a closer look at Noah's parents, this axiom appears to hold true. The differences between them were truly stark.

Noah's father, Robert, of Swiss-German ancestry, relocated to South Africa in the late 1970s. He was a reserved and introverted individual who couldn't comprehend the entrenched racism of the country. He later pioneered one of Johannesburg's first racially integrated restaurants. However, due to the strictures of apartheid, Noah could only occasionally visit his father. By the time Noah turned 13, the pair lost touch. It was not a reflection of Robert's indifference towards his son. When Noah, at 24, finally managed to visit, he discovered that Robert had been carefully collecting newspaper cuttings about Noah's career and compiled them into a scrapbook.

In stark contrast, Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah, Noah's mother, was a spirited, ambitious, and determined woman. She endured a challenging upbringing marked by poverty and rejection from her father. As a young girl, she was abandoned by her father and left in her aunt's care in Transkei, home to the Xhosa tribe. There, she shared a tiny hut with 14 other abandoned relatives, and they often had to steal from animal troughs to fend off hunger.

Despite these harsh beginnings, Patricia remained steadfast in her determination to succeed. She was fortunate enough to learn English from a white missionary and soon secured a job at a local sewing factory. The job was tough and the earnings barely sufficient for subsistence. But by the time she turned 21, she moved back to Soweto, her parents' township, and took up a position as a humble corporate secretary.

Patricia was also a devoted Christian, ensuring she attended three different churches each Sunday—one black, one white, and one racially mixed.

At 22, she made the audacious move to Johannesburg, notwithstanding the legal restrictions on black residency. Her willpower was unyielding—she navigated the city with the guidance of local sex workers, and often had to resort to hiding and sleeping in public restrooms.

Noah's mother strove relentlessly for his well-being, despite his pesky tendencies, making life challenging for both of them.

Noah's life resembled his mother's childhood as he experienced the same trials of poverty. Food was scarce, and sometimes their meals were nothing more than a clear soup of water and bones. Much of his younger years were spent in Soweto, a Johannesburg township that was home to a million black residents. The apartheid government had constructed this township as a controlled ghetto. Its design had only two entry roads, enabling easy closure, and was defensively structured so it could be bombed from above if deemed necessary.

During school vacations, Noah resided in his grandmother's two-roomed house, sharing the floor as a bed with his mother, grandmother, great-grandmother, an aunt, an uncle, and cousins. The toilet was a modest and fly-ridden outhouse, a mere hole in a concrete plank, with old newspapers serving as makeshift toilet paper.

Despite these conditions, Noah's mother's determination remained unyielding. She desperately wanted to save him from the burden of the "black tax"—the money that impoverished blacks had to spend to compensate for their parents' poverty, and the same tax they paid for theirs. To achieve this, she invested her sparse income in educational resources such as encyclopedias, self-help books, and the Bible. She regularly tested his understanding and comprehension of all he read. Her intention was to encourage Noah to envisage a life beyond the confinements of the ghetto.

However, her efforts were partly squandered on Noah's mischievous nature. He developed an intense fascination for knives and a penchant for fire-setting, even going to the extent of accidentally incinerating a house. His follies inevitably resulted in painful spanking sessions from his mother, but they were always born out of love, not malice. Her only wish was for him to be able to skillfully navigate the harsh realities of racial discrimination rampant during those times.

The dawn of post-apartheid South Africa bore its own set of challenges.

In 1990, Nelson Mandela was liberated from his life-long prison sentence, and a year later, apartheid was officially declared over. However, this historic victory marked the onset of a different complex morass for many people. Although, theoretically, black individuals had gained power, there was a veil of ambiguity around where real authority resided. The termination of apartheid led to a ruthless power struggle between the Zulu and Xhosa tribes—the two primary tribal groups, leading to the loss of thousands of lives.

In these volatile times, Noah's mother demonstrated unwavering resilience and tenacity. Indicative of this was an incident that occurred one Sunday when Noah was about nine. Their dilapidated car failed to start, thus forcing Noah, his mother, and his half-brother Andrew to resort to public minibuses for their trip to church. During that era, buses, devoid of any regulation, were highly hazardous due to sporadic turf wars erupting between drivers and operators over bus routes.

It was nightfall, and they were on the last leg of their journey when a verbal altercation erupted between Noah's Xhosa mother and the Zulu bus driver. The disagreement escalated, and the driver vowed to "teach her a lesson". He accelerated, leaving them no chance to alight. However, Noah's mother showcased swift dynamism in this perilous situation. As the minibus decelerated at an intersection, she forced the doors open, shoved Noah out and quickly jumped out herself, cradling Andrew protectively as they tumbled onto the street. From there, they sprinted with all their might until they reached the safety of their home.

Post-apartheid South Africa posed its unique challenges for Noah as well. He navigated these trials by harnessing his linguistic abilities. The nation had declared eleven official languages, and Noah endeavored to master several. His linguistic proficiency served him well on several occasions. For instance, once when a gang of Zulu boys were conspiring to mug him, under the assumption he was white, he strategically defused the potential assault by engaging them in Zulu and persuading them to target someone else. They were taken aback by his fluency in their language and left him unharmed, assuming he was from their tribe.

'Coloured' was Noah's official designation, but he identified as Black.

Designated as “coloured” during apartheid, an official term referring to individuals who were neither entirely Black nor exclusively white, Noah grappled with a unique set of identity issues. Where did he truly fit in? This predicament was accentuated by the cessation of apartheid.

Under the apartheid regime, 'coloured' individuals were informed that they could ‘ascend’ to whiteness. This meant that they had the potential to be reclassified: association with whites insinuated the eventual absorption of you and your progeny into the white category.

However, in the wake of apartheid's end, Blackness was no longer deemed a disadvantage. 'Coloured' people were now free to claim their Black heritage. But this newfound freedom ignited instances of identity crisis among some.

Noah, however, was unmistakably clear about his identification as Black. Having grown up amongst his African mother and family members and speaking multiple African languages, he was at ease in his skin. At school, his close-knit group was composed of Black peers, and he even requested to be transferred from a white-dominant class into a Black one at one point.

Yet, Noah was fluent in the art of social adaptability, adeptly navigating within different groups without losing himself.

This social grace propelled him into the role of the "tuckshop guy" – slang for a candy-shop operator – during his high school years. The queues at the tuckshop for sweets post-assembly were notoriously long, but Noah, always the first in line, crafted a profitable scheme. He began taking orders during assembly, buying the confectionery, and delivering them later for a commission. His diverse clientele encompassed a spectrum of backgrounds, enabling him to seamlessly interact with the affluent, the intellectually inclined, and the sports enthusiasts alike.

Moreover, these interactions brought along the additional reward of honing his talent for humor. As he shuffled between these diverse groups, he quickly realized that generously doling out laughter was his passport to acceptance. This marked the burgeoning of his career in comedy.

During Noah's DJ zenith, his companion Hitler incited a problem.

Noah's entrepreneurial prowess extended beyond his role as the tuckshop guy. At a mere age of 16, he was trafficking illicit CDs, brimming with songs he had downloaded from the internet. A privileged older white schoolmate gifted him a CD writer—a luxury beyond his means, which sparked his venture into CD burning.

Propelled by his CD-booting success, Noah transitioned towards creating his unique mixes and eventually disc jockeying at parties. His expansive digital music library gave him an edge over vinyl-reliant DJs by allowing him to perform extended sets. His popularity soared, and he began receiving invitations from all corners of the city. He even marshaled his own dance troop that performed while he spun tracks.

However, one member of his dance crew landed Noah in hot water during a performance at a cultural festival hosted by a Jewish school. That individual was the dance crews' most accomplished dancer, and his name—quite unfortunately—was Hitler.

The name 'Hitler' might strike as distressing to the Western mindset or anyone with exposure to the atrocities of World War II and the Holocaust. Yet, a considerable number of South Africans were only hazily acquainted with Hitler—the man regarded as a powerful leader but little beyond that. So, what's the harm in naming your son after a potent trailblazer?

Once Noah started spinning the records and the rhythm took control, he beckoned Hitler via the PA system. Hitler burst into a dance routine, prompting an excited cheer from the crew. They chanted in unison, "Go Hitler, go Hitler, go Hitler!"—an exuberant display, their arms extended hip-hop style.

Unsurprisingly, the music was abruptly halted within moments. The air was thick with outrage, yet Noah and his crew were utterly clueless about the cause of the inflamed tempers. This incident was a stark reminder that possessing business acuity is only a fragment of the larger essence needed to navigate the world peaceably.

Noah's encounters with legal hassles were not few, and he was fortunate to dodge grave repercussions.

Being a DJ proved favourable for Noah, but aside from that, Black people grappled to secure employment in post-apartheid South Africa. Officially, with the abolishment of apartheid laws, job opportunities were equally accessible to everyone. However, systemic racism stubbornly persisted, creating a barrier for educated and competent Blacks keen on employment. Laws notwithstanding, a xenophobic Afrikaner shop owner would still, in all likelihood, hesitate to hire a person of colour.

Driven to desperation, Black people resorted to criminal activities as one of the scarce avenues for earning money. Hustling diligently, irrespective of skin colour, yielded financial returns.

Admittedly, Noah veered towards criminality as well. He leveraged his earnings from CD sales and DJ gigs to establish a credit-and-loan enterprise in Alexandra, a Black slum in Johannesburg. His foray into this venture was short-lived, however. During a raid of a party, a policeman shot his computer, thereby destroying his digital song collection and terminating his DJ career.

Noah's most perilous brush with the law came later. Surreptitiously taking a car from his stepfather's garage for a joyride—a car possibly stolen, considering its mismatched plate registration—he caught the attention of law enforcement. Noah found himself behind bars on suspicion of theft for a week before a judge, bearing in mind Noah's clean record, determined his bail and trial date. Thankfully, his mother managed to arrange his bail and hire a lawyer.

The jail stint provided a harsh insight into the lopsided judicial system. In prison, he met a bulky, intimidating Black man who was incarcerated for shoplifting PlayStation games; a mild-mannered individual who had an unfortunate inability to communicate in English or raise bail money. This man, although essentially harmless, faced the inevitability of a prison sentence. The odds, Noah realized, were significantly stacked against him and those of his racial demographic.

Noah's mother grappled with severe domestic violence, almost losing her life to her ex-spouse.

As Noah embarked on his journey of self-discovery and carving a niche in the world, his mother, Patricia, was battling her personal demons. These primarily revolved around Abel—a car mechanic she met when Noah was roughly six or seven years old. They married and had two children.

However, their relationship soon revealed its sinister underpinnings. Underneath his affable exterior, Abel was a violent alcoholic whose Tsonga name, Ngisaveni—meaning "be afraid," was an unsettlingly accurate representation of his nature.

One harrowing night, with Noah’s baby half-brother, Andrew, in the house, Abel savagely beat Patricia in an inebriated state. Patricia lodged a complaint with the police, only to be met with apathy and victim-blaming. The law enforcement officials suggested that she should have refrained from angering her husband.

Caught in this ruthless cycle of abuse, Patricia was perpetually gripped by the fear that any attempt to escape could lead to Abel murdering her and the children.

Observing his mother's distress and the disheartening inertia to her situation proved to be too overwhelming for Noah. The constant exposure to her abuse and her refusal to break free strained their relationship, driving a wedge between them. Post completion of his schooling, Noah's detachment grew, leading him to move out.

In a surprising turn, Patricia managed to extricate herself from the clutches of her tormentor and went on to remarry.

Noah usually received intermittent updates about his family's happenings. He was on a DJ tour in England when he learned of Abel's most monstrous attack. Enraged after spotting Patricia with her new family post a Sunday church visit, Abel shot Patricia twice. Astonishingly, she survived—the bullets missing her vital organs and exiting through her nostril. She was up and about, resuming work within a week.

The most shocking part was yet to come. Abel, thanks to a clean record, avoided a prison sentence. His crime was merely penalized with a three-year probation, a glaring injustice that underscored the persistent issues riddling Noah's South Africa.

Wrapping up

Trevor Noah's experience as a mixed-race individual in South Africa, throughout apartheid and its aftermath, was rife with challenges. He grappled with poverty, rampant racism, pervasive violence, involvement in petty crime and a pressing struggle with identity. Yet, he emerged from these trials with an abundance of poignant tales to narrate.