BORN A CRIME - Trevor Noah

BORN A CRIME

Stories from a South African Childhood

Born A Crime is Trevor Noah narrating his own story- about his life in South Africa under apartheid to the country’s lurching entry into a post-apartheid era in the 1990s. In essence, the book is a lesson of the inequities of the past and a warning for what is still possible to happen again in our world. But it isn’t heavy-handed; it’s fun, insightful, and very compelling. Not contrary to his Daily Show monologues, the book is filled with humor and biting social commentary.

The title of the book was the first thing that intrigued me. For those also curious, he explains early on in the book- 

“On February 20, 1984, my mother checked into Hillbrow Hospital for a scheduled C-section delivery. Estranged from her family, pregnant by a man she could not be seen with in public, she was alone. The doctors took her up to the delivery room, cut open her belly, and reached in and pulled out a half-white, half-black child who violated any number of laws, statutes, and regulations—I was born a crime.”

Trevor was born to a black Xhosa mother and a white Swiss father in South Africa at a time when such unions were punishable by five years in prison. He gives a heartfelt account of what it was like to grow up as a mixed-race child, where he wasn’t white enough to be considered white, nor was he black enough to be considered black. While at times this had its advantages; for the most part, it left him on the outside looking in, having to handle everything on his own, fight his own battles, struggle to find people who genuinely liked him for who he was and not the novelty of his skin color, and rebel against a mother when she wanted him to behave.

All the chapters of the book make for different incidents of Noah’s life. Some stories were already familiar to me since I also follow his stand-up acts. He also unintentionally gives in the conception of his brilliant oratory skills. In one of the chapters, he says that he discovered early on that language was a way to camouflage his mixed-race identity. He learned to become “a chameleon”-

“If you spoke to me in Zulu, I replied to you in Zulu. If you spoke to me in Tswana, I replied to you in Tswana. Maybe I didn’t look like you, but if I spoke like you, I was you.”

Born a Crime goes much beyond an unnerving account of growing up in South Africa under apartheid. There is mention of the violence, discrimination, and injustices; for instance- Noah could not meet his father growing up, his step-fathers did not turn out to be good role models, he had to continually change schools, even his father had to shut down his restaurant because he wanted to allow black people in it. But more importantly, it is a love letter to the author’s remarkable mother- a woman who ran away from home at an extremely young age, and was determined that her son would not grow up paying “the black tax”. She coined up this term to refer to black families having to “spend all of their time trying to fix the problems of the past,” using their skills and education to bring their relatives “back up to zero,” because “the generations who came before you have been pillaged.” It is a tribute to a fiercely religious woman who attributes her miraculous survival from a gunshot wound to the head to her faith. It is about a woman who took her son(s) to three churches on Sunday as well as a prayer meeting on Tuesday, Bible study on Wednesday, and youth church on Thursday, even when there were dangerous riots in the streets.

He owes a lot to the influence his mother had on him. Even the name she chose for him helped him get where he is today. He describes that African names always have meanings, and that meaning, to some extent, defines what the person would grow up to be. But his mother did not want that baggage for him. So she named him Trevor- which has no meaning in South Africa.

“It’s not even a biblical name. It’s just a name. My mother wanted her child beholden to no fate. She wanted me to be free to go anywhere, do anything, be anyone.”

I had a good time reading the book and learned a lot about apartheid, which I now realize I really didn’t know much about. Noah is an excellent writer and delivered his narrative much like the gifted performer we know him as. The book is not brilliant in terms of language; it is easy and light. But it very often tells you something so harrowing that it leaves you alarmed. Although I am not someone who frequently indulges in celebrity memoirs, I do not think I over-hype when I say that it is one of the most terrific accounts written by a celebrity you will ever find. 

I did feel that some of his anecdotes went on for too long however, while others did not go on long enough. I also would have liked to have learned how he went from his upbringing in South Africa to one day hosting the acclaimed Daily Show. Other than mentioning towards the end that his career had already started off, he makes no mention of how he made the leap.

Noah’s Born a Crime is hilarious, heartbreaking, and always told through a sympathetic lens. He moves from comedy to tragedy seamlessly, and seems to understand the human condition better than most people. I’ve heard some people say that the audio version of this book is brilliant because Noah reads it himself, but if you read the print/digital version, you can still hear his voice through his words. Much like his own self, this book is inspiring in the funniest way possible.