Prompt: Analysis of the influence that Patricia Noah had on Trevor Noah based on his book Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood as well as connections with current events. (MLA Format)

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Trevor Noah was born in South Africa during apartheid in 1984 to a strong-willed black mother of Xhosa descent and a white father of Swiss descent. During this period of institutionalized racial discrimination and segregation, “carnal intercourse” between Europeans and native Africans was illegal; thus, Trevor was, as the title of his eloquently written book suggests, Born a Crime. This led to an unusual childhood - most of which was spent indoors, amongst family, or with his parents being required to pretend that he was not their son when they were in public places. It wasn’t until 1994, when Noah was 10 years old, that apartheid ended and his mere existence was no longer a threat to his parents’ fundamental freedom from incarceration. Despite apartheid ending, its negative impact continued to reflect itself in the racial tensions and divide based on cultural identity and language between the multitude of ethnic groups who lived in South Africa. As a result of a number of factors including lack of equal access to various resources, economic and otherwise, Trevor and his mother moved around a number of times throughout their lives. This exposed him to a variety of unique challenges and opportunities. Fortunately, his mother Patricia Noah had the drive, intelligence, and common sense to navigate that. She applied her strengths - her faith, willingness to challenge the status quo when needed, commitment to educating her son, and her disciplinary style - to further equip Trevor with the tools and life experiences to shape him as a man and persevere in South Africa and beyond.

Patricia Nombuyiselo Noah was a force to be reckoned with - headstrong, persistent, willful, nonconforming, and yet, profoundly religious. Religion played such a great role in Patricia’s life that she took Trevor to three different churches every week, quoted Bible verses on the regular, and, for a long time, limited his music choices to gospel. Nothing could stop her from going to church, even her car breaking down one day, forcing her to take Trevor and his then-infant brother to hitchhike to get to church, putting them in one of the most dangerous situations he’d encounter as a child that led to him being pushed out of a moving car in an attempt by his mother to save his life. Throughout the book, her faith plays a large part in granting her the courage to face difficult situations, including surviving and maintaining a positive attitude that she credited to Jesus after sustaining a gunshot wound to her head. She also had the determination to challenge rules that she felt were arbitrary or unfair, including the time that Trevor was expelled from Catholic school for sneaking behind the altar to drink grape juice and eat Eucharist after being told that he was not allowed to take communion due to not being Catholic. (85-86) Trevor explains, “My mother grew up with these rules and questioned them. When they didn’t hold up, she simply went around them. The only authority my mother recognized was God’s.” (87) Despite Trevor encountering numerous situations where he questioned the logic and reasoning behind his mother’s faith-based decision making, he certainly adopted the courage and resilience that helped her to continuously push the boundaries set by her society.

Patricia refused to be confined by the bounds of societal expectation for a black single mother in that era and raised her son the same way. She wanted to give Trevor everything she never had and poured herself into him, feeding his body, spirit, and mind. (70) She was more willing to spend money on education, buying him any book she could get her hands on, signing up for a subscription program for a series of how-to books, and investing in a set of encyclopedias for him. (67) With as much time as Trevor had to spend indoors as a child prior to the end of apartheid, this led to him developing a love for books that lasted. Patricia also taught her son how to critically think by quizzing him on what he learned through reading and how he might apply things like Bible passages to his life. (68) Despite being raised in relative poverty, she also managed to show him how the wealthy lived to give him something to aspire to and worked hard to afford him a better education than others with her background. She took him to do things that, at the time, were more acceptable amongst the more privileged white community, such as ice skating or to the drive-in movie theater. In reference to how his mother raised him as if there were no limitation on where he could go or what he could do, Trevor wrote, “We tell people to follow their dreams, but you can only dream of what you can imagine, and, depending on where you come from, your imagination can be quite limited.” (73) She made sure he saw that the ghetto was not all there was to the world. Sometimes Patricia would take young Trevor on drives to look at mansions, propping him up on her shoulders so Trevor could excitedly describe all the amazing things he saw from swimming pools to tennis courts. (72) Patricia certainly showed him both the beauty as well as, unlike other parents who tend to exclude or shelter their children, the harsh realities of their world.

Another unique experience that Trevor had as a child due to his mother’s methods was his exposure to the realities of adult life. She spoke to him like an adult, which was unusual in South Africa at that time. (68) She told him stories of having to keep her wits about her and avoid getting raped by strange men in the village. (65) Due to her ambition and desire to work in the city, she made friends with prostitutes who taught her where and how to live and work in the city without being questioned by the police. Before he moved out of his mother’s home at the age of seventeen, Trevor Noah was exposed to many realities of adult life including prostitution, petty crime, and the damaging consequences of domestic violence due to his mother’s relationship with a man named Abel. Throughout these experiences, she taught him to respect women. Despite her unconventional lifestyle leading to his unusual childhood, she remained committed to raising Trevor with discipline.

Patricia’s method of discipline included a blend of her wit, faith, letter writing, and often, as common amongst parents in South Africa, old school corporal punishment. Fortunately, Trevor never had any doubt as to why he was receiving his punishment and knew that it was coming from a place of love, not rage or anger. (84) She would beat him, then casually ask him to watch TV on her as if nothing had happened, explaining that she only did it because he did something wrong. (84) She knew the world would be unkind to him just on the basis of his skin color. Trevor found himself in such a situation when he was pulled over by a white police officer when, as a teenager, he was out driving one of the old cars from his stepfather Abel’s workshop. Due to the car not having proper registration, like many of the older cars at the workshop, Trevor was arrested on suspicion of driving a stolen vehicle. When he was released a week later, Patricia said to him, “Everything I have ever done I’ve done from a place of love. If I don’t punish you, the world will punish you even worse. The world doesn’t love you. If the police get you, the police don’t love you. When I beat you, I’m trying to save you. When they beat you, they’re trying to kill you.” (242) Like many black parents in the US who feel the need to prepare their sons for the potential of racial stereotyping by law enforcement with extra caution in light of heartbreaking cases like that of Eric Garner and George Floyd, Patricia was disciplining Trevor to prepare him for a world that would not be so fair if he broke their rules.

Patricia was truly a remarkable woman who was determined not to have her son be held back from opportunities due to the color of his skin and the effects of systemic racism that she herself had to face - including something she referred to as “the black tax.” Trevor explains, “Because the generations who came before you have been pillaged, rather than being free to use your skills and education to move forward, you lose everything just trying to bring everyone behind you back up to zero." (66) This is also apparent in the US, where systemic racism prevented many in the black community to take advantage of opportunities that, due to laws or lack of regulation to protect against racial bias in the past, were more available to those who were allowed to own land, live in neighborhoods with better school districts, or secure better jobs. Patricia taught her son courage and resilience which proved useful as he faced challenges throughout his life, including the short stint he spent selling pirated CDs and acting as a low grade loan shark in a rough area like Alexandria. She taught him how to treat women with respect by showing him her own struggles and making an example out of her abusive relationship with a cruel man like Abel, leading to the development of his present day feminist ideals. Patricia also talked to him like an adult, which may have contributed to his critical thinking, communication skills, and intelligence. Even in her methods of discipline, she displayed strength, consistency, and clarity to teach him accountability and consequences from a young age. She taught him that his opportunities were limitless, allowing him the freedom to challenge authority and test his imagination in setting goals for himself. Through all of these experiences, Patricia Noah certainly played a great part in shaping and influencing Trevor Noah to become the successful man he is today - host of the Daily Show and author of the critically-acclaimed bestseller Born a Crime.

Works Cited

Noah, Trevor. Born a Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood. Reprint, One World, 2019.