Stories From
A South African Childhood
Trevor Noah
John Murray
2016 288
Pages
“Racism is a
problem everywhere else in the world, in South Africa it is the law”.
Under that
law (now happily defunct) the birth of comedian Trevor Noah to a black Xhosa
woman and white Swiss father was nothing less than a crime; an act punishable
by a five-year prison sentence. But people being people, and the pull of
individual personal attraction being too strong, even the stringent enforcement
of Apartheid failed to prevent widespread race-mixing.
This is
something our caste panchayats, moral police and anti-“love jihad” activists
should also seriously consider. Despite the best efforts of these sundry worthies,
inter-religious, inter-regional and inter-caste marriages DO take place. And that’s
besides the many Indians with spouses who are foreign nationals...
The best way
to puncture the absurdities of this essentially untenable stand against consenting
adults forming unions of their own choice is by using humour. Luckily, Noah,
currently anchor and host of The Daily Show on Comedy Central, is
professionally well capable of doing so. However, the humour he employs is of
the wryly ironic and sardonically witty kind; not laugh-out-aloud slapstick.
Born a Crime provides an anecdotal first-hand account of the last days
of Apartheid and its aftermath, and what it was like to grow up in South Africa
as a mixed-race child, when one wasn't white enough to be considered white, nor
black enough to be considered black.
This is the engaging story of a mischievous young boy who grows into a
restless young man as he struggles to find himself in a world where he was
never supposed to exist.
It is also the story of Noah’s close relationship with his
fearless, rebellious, and fervently religious mother. Sometimes brutally
emotional, his tales of a South African childhood weave together a moving and
funny account of making a way through a damaged world in a dangerous time,
armed only with a keen sense of humour and a mother's unconventional,
unconditional love.
Comments
Post a Comment