Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood - A Comprehensive Summary



When Jon Stewart announced he was leaving Comedy Central’s late-night and political-satire flagship, the Daily Show, which he’d hosted for more than 15 years, few imagined a young South African comedian would take his place. And that’s exactly what happened: Trevor Noah took the helm in September of 2015. 

But this was hardly the first extraordinary event in Noah’s life. 

Born during apartheid in South Africa to a white father and black mother, Noah himself was a rare thing in the country: a child of mixed heritage. And his life, through childhood and adolescence, continued to be extraordinary. In these moments, you’ll follow Noah as he grows up – and you’ll learn, as he learned, about the absurdities, cruelties, and inequalities of being born in a country where racism is institutionalized and systemic. 

You’ll also find out 

Why the very fact of Noah’s existence was a crime; 

how language and candy helped Noah tackle race relations in South Africa; and 

why Hitler got Noah into trouble. 

That region of South Africa has been inhabited since prehistoric times and was a region that attracted populations from all over Africa. The Khoisan population was the indigenous population in this part of the world, but they were driven away to the arid lands by the Bantu invasion, which originated from Central West Africa (the Congo basin). Of these migrant groups, the Nguni peoples, formed by the Swazi, Ndebele, Zulu, and Xhosa tribes settled close to the eastern coast of this territory, while the Sotho-Tswana tribes (Tswana, Pedi, and Sotho peoples) chose to settle on the interior plateau, also known as the Highveld. The Northwestern part of modern-day South Africa was inhabited by the Tsonga, Lemba, and Venda tribes. 

All these tribes were divided, and there were often conflicts between them. The first Europeans to arrive in South Africa were the Portuguese. However, their interactions with the local population were minor because they were mostly interested in discovering a trading route to the Far East. In the second half of the 17th century began the Dutch colonization. The Dutch wanted to create an enclave, a permanent settlement, on the spice route between India and the Far East. The first Dutch ships arrived on the South African coasts on April 6, 1652. VOC (VereenigdeOostindischeCompagnie) was the company responsible for the development of the settlement, so they brought over farmers and slaves to strengthen the base and to provide food supplies and shelter for the passing ships.

The slaves were originally from the Dutch colonies of Indonesia, so at this point, the South African territory was populated with different races: the native blacks, the European whites (Dutch, German, and French), and slaves from Indonesia. There were some conflicts between the blacks and the Europeans, but the local tribes couldn’t destroy the Dutch settlement. Inevitably, the mixture of the races was only a matter of time, so “hybrid” babies were soon born after the Dutch settled in South Africa. 

The settlement has taken more portions of land, and many other settlers came to South Africa to live in this colony. Amongst the colonists were farmers of Dutch, German, and French origins, who also brought Christianity to these lands, but it wasn’t Catholicism that was present in South Africa, it was protestant religions like the Dutch Reformed Church, the Lutheran Church, and the Calvinist Church. A new language was born, Afrikaans, which was Dutch with a strong influence from the Zulu language. To this day, Afrikaans is still an official language in South Africa. 

In the 19th century, just after the Napoleonic Wars, the Kingdom of Holland lost control over South Africa, and the British Empire took over the colonies, which was not something the Afrikaners (Dutch colonists, also known as the Boers) were very comfortable with. Slowly, the English influence over these colonies increased, leading to the abolishment of slavery. This caused many Dutch settlers to migrate inland and come into conflict with the local tribes. However, not only the Boers adventured inland, but also the British were very curious about what this land had to offer. This is what led to the discovery of diamonds and gold in South Africa.

On many occasions, the Europeans were victorious against local tribes, so they easily secured land inside this country. This is how the Boer republics were born, like the Orange Free State and the Transvaal Republic, as forms of resistance against the British. Conflict over the natural resources of the South African soil was imminent, and the Anglo-Boer Wars started. The Boers were victorious in the First Anglo-Boer War, but the British were determined to seize control over the Witwatersrand gold mines and eventually defeated the Boers using troops from all over the British Empire.

The year 1902 marked the end of the Second Anglo-Boer War and also the fall of the Transvaal Republic. In 1910, the Union of South Africa was founded—a state which united the Orange Free State, Natal, Transvaal, and Cape Colony into one country. It was a British Independent Dominion in the form of a constitutional monarchy, with the British monarch being represented by a Governor. Other territories, like modern-day Lesotho, Swaziland, and Botswana, were placed directly under British rule. The union parliament had a pro-British politics, but they also issued some very harsh segregationist laws, like the 1913 Natives’ Land Act, which limited the land available for the majority black population to 8%, more than 90% of the available land was in possession of the white people, who were around 20% of the total population. 


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