Testaments of Resistance and Resilience: An Analysis of Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Abstract

Where there is Oppression, there is going to be resistance. This is the story of almost every Independence struggle history has ever seen. Such was also the story of one the most shocking and horrendous tale of oppression the world has come to know, the apartheid system of South Africa.  It was a system of institutionalised racial segregation that divided the whites and blacks living in South Africa, which gave the former full rights to enjoy all the privileges that the natives ought to enjoy rightfully, depriving the latter of every good thing the country had to offer.  This paper will attempt to throw some light on the whole system by analysing a work of art not written by an outsider, but through the eyes of a person who was born into it and saw apartheid for what it was and what it did to the blacks living in South Africa. It is a memoir written by South African comedian Trevor Noah titled Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood, an autobiographical work published in the year 2016 where Noah narrates instances from his childhood living in post-apartheid South Africa.

The book is a kind of dedication to Noah’s mother, Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah, a symbol of resistance. Patricia Noah broke almost every rule imposed by the White government, from having a good education and moving in to a house in a white  neighbourhood to having a relationship with a white person resulting in giving birth to child of mixed race, a crime for which the punishment was death. The paper will attempt to bring out the struggles and tales of resilience of the black people under apartheid by analysing the experiences of the Noah Family with special emphasis on Patricia Noah who can be seen as an embodiment of Resistance, resilience and above all sheer stubbornness to comply with the rules of the colonizers.