Trevor is not the hero in his own story: Review of Trevor Noah's Born a Crime by ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy

 Trevor is not the hero in his own story: Review of Trevor Noah's Born a Crime

Born a Crime is the memoir of South Africa's world-renowned comedian, Trevor Noah, The book chronicles Trevor Noah's life from the moment of conception to the time he became a young adult. Ordinarily, one would expect that Trevor should take Centre stage in his own story and pull the spotlight to himself. However it is Trevor's Mother who gets the shine of it all, not him.

Nelson Mandela is released and Apartheid (the official racial segregation policy of the white South African government) comes to an end six years after Trevor is born. So, except for the fact that his very existence is a contravention of an apartheid law, he doesn't get the opportunity to go against the system or become an activist as many have done before him. Rather, Noah grows up spoilt and almost entirely entitled. Even his grandmother is afraid to Spank him because he turns 'red' while black children remain black when spanked. Excluding Trevor's mother, everyone involved in Trevor's upbringing should be charged with racism for giving him preferential treatment which other black Kids of his time do not get to enjoy. Trevor gets a good education. Trevor is the child who sets his Mother on marathon races any time he does something wrong and she tries to spank him. He is the child always in trouble at school. He is also the child who toys with fire, burning down an entire house at a point.

But do you see Trevor's mother? That woman is the heroine of the story! She is the warrior who goes into Passive battle with the apartheid regime. Moreso, she is the one who has to endure an abusive marriage and triumphs over her abusive husband.

Trevor's mother has been a headstrong lady right from her childhood. She grows to become a staunch and overzealous Christian woman. However, while she gives absolute obeyance  to her religion and God, she shows defiance to the oppressive apartheid system under which she reached maturity. At a time when the law is strictly against copulation by white and black persons, she chooses to start a relationship with a white man who later becomes Trevor's father. She also decides to have, love, and keep a child which is a glaring piece of evidence of her crime.

To Trevor's mother, when you do not agree with a system or perceive it to be unjust, and you cannot attempt to blow things up like the ANC mafia faction, you go against it by mocking it. This explains why when she visits her husband's family and finds the culture of female subjugation against male elevation ridiculous. Her reaction is to mock the culture by overdoing the required acts of courtesies to the men. Trevor's Mother is the type who risks her and her children's lives to jump out of a moving vehicle. Her decision to have and keep Trevor in itself is a mockery of the barbaric apartheid law attempting to keep people of different races from loving each other.

Born a Crime Exposes the Foolishness and futility of racial dichotomy. Try as Hard as the Caucasian government could, the South African apartheid laws against racial copulation failed. Trevor and many other biracial children remain evidence of this failure and thoughtlessness. The memoir posits that humans will love each other because they are humans and are built to live and love, laws notwithstanding.

Aside from the issue of racial schism is the expose of domestic violence and how South African society views this issue. Having dismantled the apartheid system that puts whites in the position of oppressors while blacks remain in the position of the oppressed. South African women had still to fight against another group of oppressors their menfolk; who were bent on keeping women subjugated. Noah's Stepfather; Abel; is abusive and makes life difficult for Trevor and his mother. When she tries to report and have him charged at the police station for domestic abuse, it is shocking to see how the issue is addressed with levity. ( it is a man's world in South Africa, after all.) The policemen who listen to her treat the issue as if it is a minor lovers' squabble that does not require seriousness. They advise that  the issue be resolved privately. Even Trevor's grandmother does not make much of a big deal of Abel's attacks on her daughter as they are sporadic and it is considered normal for a man to beat his wife on Rare occasions. And as she believes, such issues should be settled once the man comes to his senses and comes begging. In South Africa, the shrewd justice system favours Men and leaves women at a disadvantage. Had the police taken the reports seriously, perhaps the tragedy at the end may have been avoided. Trevor's mother almost loses her life to a depraved Abel who shatters her face with a bullet.

Lastly, Trevor reveals how the apartheid system deliberately programmed a life of poverty and squalor for black South Africans who are forcefully hemmed into cramped communities such as Soweto and Alexander while also showing us the deplorable state of South Africa's correctional facilities.

As expected of one of the finest comedians of the 21st century, the story is told with light humour. I find the sh*t, Mall where Trevor's maternity is denied, Hitler at a Jewish school, and pedi girlfriend's episodes particularly hilarious. However, I feel I would have laughed my head off had I heard the story in Trevor's very own idiolect.  I would very much love to hear Trevor read me the story in his own voice while mimicking the voices of other characters as typical of him. However, Trevor, as the narrator, also presents as a garrulous fellow who often gets too chatty, forgets his story, and runs off to events that are almost irrelevant to the story, you can see these at the initial part of the story and also during the time he moved to Alexander and works as a DJ.

All in all, Trevor tells the story of his mother with such sense of clarity and humour expected of a Comedian. the memoir is a statement on the gloomy past of South Africa and proof that any law against the essence of humanity can never withstand the test of time. Going by the title, maybe It was me who felt disappointed that Trevor failed to Pull a Mandela, or 'Sizwe Banzi on me and was disappointed not to see how Trevor physically got entangled with the unjust system. Nonetheless, While we cannot totally expunge Trevor from his own story, his mother remains the heroine of his memoir, Born a Crime, not him. 

©Ubaji Isiaka Abubakar Eazy 2023