Image of baby from Shutterstock, James Barker.  Image of Bars, Nicholas Nanos. Images merged by Nicholas Nanos

A review of “Born A Crime”, by Trevor Noah.

The book explores Trevor Noah’s life’s journey. He documents his changes as he grows into a successful adult. The book highlights the culture created by the apartheid laws, and Trevor’s families perilous lives in the fear of the police taking Trevor away to an orphanage, jailing his mother and punishing his father. It tells how Trevor and his mother navigate these unjust laws and the violence caused by the environment they create.

This book requires an understanding of the laws of apartheid in South Africa which made interracial marriage a crime. Trevor, born of a Black woman and a white Swiss man is a crime. The story has three main thrusts. One, the brutality of apartheid. Two how he does not fit in. Three the strength and defiance Trevor and his mother show defying apartheid. He says apartheid laws divide and conquer non whites. 

The different languages of the various tribes and ethnicities are exploited creating conflict between them. When apartheid fell the African tribes went to war trying to form the new government. He tells a story about when his mother threw him out of a moving minibus. They were being threatened by a Zulu driver who wanted to kill them because his mother is Xhosa. When they slowed at an intersection, she threw Trevor from the moving van and then jumped wrapping his brother in her body, and they ran away. Her faith is so strong she gives up her insurance because Jesus is her insurance.  He writes “She was unwavering in the face of danger.”

Trevor writes about himself, a youth running from his mom escaping punishment, to a music bootlegger making enough money to survive. He doesn’t quite fit in with any tribe but speaks the languages of most, and because of that is tolerated by them. He makes them laugh, foreshadowing his comedy career.

Another foreshadowing near the beginning of the book is when the mechanic, who services their car, marries, abuses, and shoots his mother. The book tells a fascinating series of stories about what Trevor his mother and his friends lived through. His mother gives him inner strength, self confidence, and knowledge, teaching with tough love. He learns that language, not colour defines a tribe, and learning another’s language mitigates your outsider status.

The book explains his powerful sense of self worth that made him successful. The women in his life made him strong. He was raised believing the world was his oyster. He made most people laugh, spoke their languages, and was accepted.

The literary theory concept of the ‘death of the author’[¹] applies here. My perception of him as just another very talented funny guy shifted to a man who is a bridge between people. He enables others to understand each other by becoming part of differing groups and helps them realise they have more in common than differences. He does this now through his comedy. I did not see this before.

Marxist literary theory applies as the white people have all the money and power. Trevor manages to over come these economic bonds and succeeds despite them. The theory also applies to the oppressed tribes. The economics of apartheid, create the conflict Trevor witnesses and experiences. The economics practiced by Trevor are capitalistic. The laws of apartheid are economically oppressive, and the oppressed are aware of that as they witness the white people’s affluence while working for a pittance.

The apartheid laws are a character in the story. The violence and ignorance they enforce is well illuminated in the book. The lack of economic opportunity is over come by his mother’s independent spirit when she becomes a secretary. She shows her independence by having Trevor and teaching him as if he were white. Marxist theory examines class struggles between economic cultures of rich and poor. This book moves the theory into the struggle between the ‘races’. The Zulu against the Xhosa, coloureds against blacks, and whites against everyone, etc.

Trevor becomes a productive society member, morphing from a troublemaker with more energy than normal, into a person who is both apart from the tribes but accepted because he speaks their language. He becomes an entrepreneur selling music to minibus drivers and others. But he doesn’t make enough money to save and improve himself. He lives and breaks rules that do not make sense. He found loopholes in every law he encountered and exploits them.

The book is so well written, I often wondered if he would survive.  I was so engrossed that having seen him on TV was temporarily banished from my mind. This book points out many important facts. The main ones are.

1.      Family is the most important thing you have.

2.      Racist ideas and racism are based on fallacy and is therefore nonsensical.

3.      Language, not race, defines the members of a culture or tribe.

4.      Laws and rules that are silly or stupid should be pointed out and broken to ensure they’re revoked.

5.      If you believe in yourself, you can overcome adversity and anyone who tries to hold you back.

6.      Faith in something, God, the Creator call it what you will is very important.

7.      Money is not everything. (He didn’t care what the cost for the hospital would be to save his mother).

 I'll leave you with this question from the book that stood out for me, “If Jesus walked into a Catholic Church, would they deny him communion because he is Jewish?”  

I’ll add another that the book does not ask, “If he is allowed, is that a form of cannibalism, and is that a valid reason for the denial of the sacrament?

---

[1] The death of the author refers to a change in attitude toward the role of author by the reader. From the book Critical theory today A user-friendly guide by Lois Tyson