Trevor Noah’s mom instilled in him the traits of a self-assured and sensible adult. Every choice, movement, and encounter that he made was a lesson. Every child makes errors as they grow up, and at times they commit the same mistake several times before learning the lesson. In his book Born a Crime, South African comedian Trevor Noah recalls his boyhood during the country’s transformation from apartheid, a white supremacist system of governance founded on forced labour and racial segregation. The connection between Noah and his mother will be examined to see how the intricacies and constraints of that relationship shaped Noah’s character and his vision of the world.
Patricia, Trevor’s mom, was distinct from the rest of her family; she constantly felt as though she did not belong. She desired something to love, cherish, and provide pleasure in her life. In the same way that Trevor was a problematic kid, so was his mother. “My mom was the problem child, a tomboy, stubborn, defiant. My Gran had no idea how to raise her” (Noah 64). Attitude is passed along in the same way that genes are. His mother had a troubled childhood and always felt like an outsider. As for her parents, they did not have a lot either.
The government seized their home and bulldozed the whole area to build a fancy, new white suburb, triumph. Triumph along with tens of thousands of other black people, my grandparents were forcibly relocated to Soweto, to a neighborhood called the Meadowlands (Noah 63).
Since she grew up under limits imposed by her family and was compelled to labor as a youngster, she desired a different upbringing for Trevor. She wanted to reveal to him the prospects and demonstrate that it is possible to move from nothing to anything. Before giving birth to Trevor, she had nothing, and he was her whole world. She did not impose many restrictions on what he might do to have a happy and successful life. As a kind of rebellion against apartheid, Patricia opted to give birth to Trevor with a white and eventually raised him alone. She desired Trevor to be unrestricted in his movements, actions, and identities. Patricia provided him with the resources necessary to complete the task. She educated him on English as his first language and frequently read to him.
Trevor’s upbringing was unlike that of the other children he was surrounded by. He never felt like he belonged anywhere, and his mother was the only one with whom he had a decent connection but also struggled with discrepancies. Trevor was not permitted to interact with other children since he was of mixed race. The rules were different, and relationships between black and white individuals were prohibited. Trevor’s father was a white Swiss guy, and his mother was a black woman. His parents violated the law by deciding to have him. They perpetrated the crime of merging and producing a mixed-race by engaging in sexual relations in a location where they wished to maintain the superiority of whites over blacks. Being of mixed race was challenging for Trevor and affected his connection with his mom because, although he did not understand at the time why his mother would keep him indoors and try to hide him. All he wished to do was play with his relatives and other children, which prompted him to revolt and disobey his mother’s rules as a child. To keep himself busy, he would read novels that transported him to other lands and allowed him to escape his reality.
Since he was constantly alone, he went to the arcade whenever he could, such as when his mother sent him to fetch groceries, “he wouldn’t come home right home because I’d be using the change from the milk and bread to play arcade games at the supermarket” and while he was there for hours and hours “next thing I knew there’d be a behind me with a belt” (Noah 11). Thus, this is an illustration of how Patricia never confined her son to certain demands as a youngster who required greater attention to his everyday behaviors. Additionally, she allowed him to pursue his delinquency by not being there when he had to be corrected. When he was present, he would flee in order to avoid receiving his mother’s scolding and lesson.
Trevor’s mother regarded him as a child when he was little, but his grandmother, grandpa, cousins, neighbors, and even strangers recognized him as a special child. Because he was of mixed race and seemed white to them rather than black, his family treated him differently. Whenever he rode in the automobile with his grandpa, he had him ride in the backseat, served as his chauffeur, and addressed him as “Mastah” (Noah 52). “Whenever the children on the street spotted me, they would shout “Indoda yomlungu,” which means “The white guy is coming” (Noah 53). They were more kind to him since he was regarded as “white.”
Misconduct for which my cousins would have been penalized, I received a warning and was allowed to continue. And I was far more mischievous than my cousins. Not even close. It was my fault if anything was damaged or if someone stole grandmother’s cookies. My mother was the only person I really dreaded. She believed if you spare the rod, you spoil the child. But everyone else said, no, he is different, and they gave me a pass (Noah 52).
Trevor’s mother never spared him; however, she did not compel the rest of her household to treat him like she did, so he became used to his disobedience being overlooked. Particularly, Noah lived in uncertainty as a result of his biracial identity, in that his mother treated him one way while others treated him differently. Thus, this caused a lot of complications with Trevor and how he behaved in public, which was challenging for his mother since he was a stubborn child.
Trevor’s mother, Patricia, did not place a language restriction on him. Trevor’s mother ensured that he had an edge in a place where everything was restricted owing to his and his family’s ethnicity by ensuring he spoke many languages. She taught him various languages because it was advantageous for them and because they might be used as a weapon. English was essential to master since it was the most widely spoken. “English can give you a leg up. It is the language of money and equaled intelligence. English is the difference between getting the job or staying unemployed” (Noah 54). Trevor’s mother here depicts the importance of learning and comprehending the English language during the apartheid regime.
Trevor was fluent in English, Afrikaans, Xhosa, Zulu, Tswana, Sotho, and Tsonga. Thus, this positively impacted his life in numerous ways, such as when he was in a store with his mom, and a worker told the security officer to follow them. He thought they stole something, and his mother “turned around and asked in beautiful, fluent Afrikaans, “Why don’t you follow these blacks so you can help them find what they are looking for?” (Noah 55). The humorous aspect of the story is that Trevor got an apology for inflicting racism on them, but not for being stereotypical and for being a racist.
As he walked alone one day, three Zulu men walked closely behind him and conversed in Zulu. Hence, this was another instance in which he had difficulty because of the color of his skin. They did not anticipate Trevor understanding what they were saying, but he understood them well and comprehended that they intended to rob him. Instead of fleeing, he approached them and said, “Yo, guys, why don’t we mug someone together?” (Noah 55). Immediately he spoke their language; however, they thought he was “part of their tribe” and left him alone (Noah 55). Trevor was able to use language as a tool to alter the perceptions of others. Thus, this is not a constraint that his mother imposed on him, and she had a profoundly good influence on his daily life, which aided him.
Raised in a nation where seeking more and capable of doing more than working as a maid or in a temporary position were not options for people of color. Apartheid, the system of segregation between blacks and whites, was effectively established. Families from the past recounted the cycle of being in debt, poverty, and not advancing because they had become used to continuing living the same way and could not afford a new lifestyle. With the end of apartheid, private schools in South Africa began to accept children of color, and since his mother worked for a reputable firm, Trevor was allowed to enroll at Maryvale College. Trevor was privileged to be able to join this private school since it not only allowed children from many backgrounds to coexist as equals but also treated them as such. His enrollment in the school shaped his perspective of the world. He learned the truth about the justice system and how blacks were treated, especially the impoverished blacks.
White, black, and American Indian students shared the same clothes, textbooks, and teachers. Although his time in this realm was lovely, it veiled the reality from Trevor; he was oblivious to the actual world. Outside of school, whites, Indians, and blacks were perceived and treated differently according to the rules and culture of their own societies. As a result of Trevor’s transfer to H.A. Jack Primary School, the environment altered and became more like the actual world. They were “occupying the same space but choosing not to interact with each other in any way” (Noah 57). Trevor’s mom taught him that several individuals choose to associate with specific individuals but should never pass judgment on others.
Abel, Trevor’s violent alcoholic stepfather, Andrew’s biological father, and Patricia’s spouse, exemplifies the disparity in the treatment of men and women in the justice system. Abel always apologizes passionately after hitting Trevor and Patricia, persuading the family to accept him back. Conversely, he is well-liked by the community and tries his ways to assist others in need, leaving his family torn between his external and inside identities. Patricia sells their family home and leaves her profession to assist Abel in rehabilitating his garage company, but he squanders their earnings on alcohol. Patricia eventually retreats to a cabin in the backyard to escape Abel, but she is terrified to leave since she fears he will murder her.
Eventually, she meets another person and decides to leave; Abel then attempts to murder her by shooting her. She miraculously lives, while Abel brings himself in and serves no time in jail. Abel persuaded the court that he had to be free to sustain his children, despite being fully reliant on Patricia’s wages. Abel’s continual aggression and professional failure represent the pervasive challenges that afflicted black communities in South Africa following apartheid. Abel is enraged because he feels helpless and emasculated, unable to make a good income since he has never mastered operating a company. Moreover, he is preoccupied with controlling his wife to show his manhood in a society that limits him any sense of dignity.
Ideally, Trevor’s relationship with his mother was anything but normal, particularly because he was raised in a world where black and white were indistinguishable, and he was conceived with both white and black bloodlines. In the end, he was the common way between the two extremes. Due to the hostility he received from the world for being biracial, his mother set restrictions on him as a kind of love and protection. His mother’s strong love gave him the courage and fortitude he needed to withstand the fury of others and their negative impressions of him.
Following the 1976 Soweto Uprising, the South African government, led by P.W. Botha, instituted changes that it believed were reforms to restore order. These would lessen international critiques of apartheid, gratify white South Africans, establish interactions with other black African nations, and decrease internal black resistance within. Botha was also aware of a united black resistance movement (Little). As a first step, the National Party (NP) government utilised a divide and rule strategy, dividing the citizens into ethnic groups and uniquely portraying each group. Many saw these reforms as merely cosmetic because, while they changed the appearance of apartheid externally, the system did not change. The predicament for the average person on the street got worse due to these changes (Little). During this period, apartheid’s most violent years were also experienced, as the government attempted to hold on to power while repressing the resistance of black people through any means possible.
Around this era, the anti-apartheid movement grew more cohesive and active, which contributed to the outbreak of violence and the movement’s success in bringing about change in South Africa. During a national referendum held in March 1992 for “whites only,” white South Africans chose to make the change from an exceedingly restricted type of democracy to a complete version of democracy (Klaus). Sixty-nine percent of white voters supported Prime Minister Fredrick de Klerk of the national party, leading discussions on a new constitution that would provide blacks political rights (Klaus). The essence of this accord was the abolition of the racial-state system. The breakdown of the racial state was followed by the collapse of a democratic system that was confined in its scope and effectiveness. Only after the 1994 election, when citizenship was granted to black South Africans, did apartheid finally come to an end.
My first impression of Trevor Noah’s memoir Born a Crime is that it is a narrative filled with humor and amusing episodes that call attention to the political history of South Africa. My lasting impression is that the majority of this book does not adhere to what would be termed traditional structure: beginning-middle-end, following a course of action that, in normal tales, would build to a climax. There is a broad sense of chronology, with events being detailed in approximately the sequence in which they took place: the narrative proceeds from the writer’s childhood encounters, through his adolescent experiences, and into his early adulthood experiences. The narrative is anecdotal or episodic, consisting mostly of memoir-like storylines of single experiences that are given some context and include narrative and thematic repetitions of other such situations. The closest thing to a through-line is the author’s examination of his family’s connection.
Works Cited
Klaus, Kästle. “History of South Africa – the Republic of South Africa: 1961–Present – Key Figures in South Africa’s History.”Nationsonline.org, 2021.
Little, Becky. “Key Steps That Led to End of Apartheid.”HISTORY, 2020.
Noah, Trevor. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African childhood. 2nd ed., New York: Spiegel & Grau, 2016. Print.