Born A Crime: Stories From A South African Childhood, By Trevor Noah

RATING:

3 stars

0 stars = good but not on the scale

1 star = perspective supplementing

2 stars = perspective influencing

3 stars = perspective altering

SHORT SUMMARY:

I was surprised to give three stars to this book.  Not to indict Noah’s relevancy or importance.  Instead, I saw this biography as an opportunity to understand a life perspective told with an interesting voice.

But this book resonated deeply.  Trevor Noah speaks with a level of sincerity about his upbringing in South Africa–not to cast his story as a rags to riches rise, but rather to provide an honest window into a life raised post-Apartheid.  His story is an allegory, of the absurd racial constructs that make his legal race unclassifiable, to the confines and pleasures of life in South Africa, to the stories of childhood that are simultaneously universally relatable, culturally specific, and uniquely individual.  He tells his story in a way to ask both the big questions and small questions at the same time.

Lately, I have been thinking a lot of what stories my young daughter will have from her childhood—and how to make her experiences real and relevant for the world in front of her.  My lesson from this book:  there are joys, sorrows, wins and losses, in every life lived, and it’s the background culture and society that makes those stories interesting and expansive.  Take the lessons from your own life, and apply it to your personal philosophy, but understand that the narrative for your children is mostly out of your control.  Noah speaks poetically of his mother, whose life knew struggles different than his own, but who’s influence undoubtedly impacted his own quest to find himself.  Perhaps this is a three star because it echoes some stories told within my own family.

LONG SUMMARY

This isn’t going to be one of my traditional book summaries.  Instead of recaping the book start to finish, I’m going to jot down interesting points and areas that I want to further learn about.  The book is great though, a window into growing up just after Apartheid in South Africa.

-The “bloodless” revolution to end Apartheid was anything but bloodless.  Noah speculates that this is called a “bloodless” revolution because little white blood was shed.  Makes me rethink the narrative of the “nonviolent” movement in India, and the sectarian violence that resulted in millions killed and displaced.

-The tribal conflicts in South Africa, primarily between the Zulu and the Xhosa defined a lot of the violence.

-Afrikaans were white people of Dutch heritage that migrated to South African and later settled there.

-Noah opines on the nature of oppression during Apartheid.  An interesting analysis:  his view is that the British and Afrikaans followed various effective models of subjugation around the world (including in the United States).  A small group of white colonialists were able to keep a majority of the population under control by exploiting tribal divisions between them.  The British did this in India, and the race-based system of slavery did this in the United States.  While keeping people divided along tribal lines, a minority could keep remain in power.  Makes you wonder if about our politics.

-Under Apartheid, there were three different “races”–blacks, whites, and colored.  Colored included mixed race and people of Indian heritage.  This lead to some weird oddities.  Chinese people were considered black because there was not enough Chinese people to justify a new designation.  Japanese people, however, were similar in population but were treated as white because the South African government wanted to keep in good favor with Japan to purchase luxury cars and electronics (at least, according to Noah)

-Noah talks a lot about the power of language.  His mother’s ability to speak multiple tribal languages enabled her to connect with more people and to avoid more danger.  Similar for Noah.  His belief is that language provides a short circuit for acceptance into a group.  He mentions a story of being accosted by a group of men speaking Afrikaans, and when he was able to speak with them in their language, they went from wanting to mug him to playfully bantering with him.  Noah’s view is that this taps into a notion of “speak like us, even if you don’t look like us, and we will accept you.”

-Another comment that Noah made that was very interesting to think about.  Given that he was half-white, Noah was considered “colored” under Apartheid’s racial classification.  He talks about living in an area (or going to a school–I can’t remember), of a majority “colored” children, and how he was ostracized because of his non-colored interests, more so than when he was a colored kid amongst white kids interested in white culture or a colored kid amongst black friends interested in black African culture.  His point is this:  it’s easier to be an outsider trying to assimilate into a group than it is to be an insider trying to assimilate out of their group.  His view is that a white guy who is into black culture and who has a majority black friends is more able to assimilate and be accepted than if that same white guy was into black culture and had a majority white friends.

-One of the themes in Noah’s book is the power of language, the ability for language to transcend other boundaries.

-One funny anecdote was about how when Noah started DJing in “the hood” he had a friend named Hitler who would bring the party with his dance moves.  Noah goes into a discussion about names among people in the South African “hood” and how there are many people named Hitler, Mussolini, etc.  Not because people identified or agreed with their beliefs, but rather, because people didn’t have any reason to be educated about who these people were.  So folks just heard these names, and associated them with power.  That Hitler was fighting the British and was winning against people who the colonized people in South Africa saw as being all powerful.

-Noah ends his story with a poignant recount of his mother’s troubled relationship with her husband, Noah’s step father.  This person ultimately shoots Noah’s mother in the head, but she miraculously survives.  The way Noah describes his emotions, being raised in an abusive family, is honest and raw.