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Trevor Noah: Born a Crime Stories from a south African childhood Spiegel & Grau, 2016

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Outside Source 1, Beginning of the apartheid 

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Before Trevor was even born, this event would effect how he was treated, his life, and how he grew up. It was the segregation/separate development of all of the separate racial groups in South Africa

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Trevor Noah was born on February 20, 1984. being mixed he was illegal in south Africa

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Apartheid in South Africa

Racial segregation and white supremacy had become central aspects of South African policy long before apartheid began. The controversial 1913 Land Act, passed three years after South Africa gained its independence, marked the beginning of territorial segregation by forcing Black Africans to live in reserves and making it illegal for them to work as sharecroppers. Opponents of the Land Act formed the South African National Native Congress, which would become the African National Congress (ANC).

Did you know? ANC leader Nelson Mandela, released from prison in February 1990, worked closely with President F.W. de Klerk's government to draw up a new constitution for South Africa. After both sides made concessions, they reached agreement in 1993, and would share the Nobel Peace Prize that year for their efforts.

The Great Depression and World War II brought increasing economic woes to South Africa, and convinced the government to strengthen its policies of racial segregation. In 1948, the Afrikaner National Party won the general election under the slogan "apartheid" (literally "apartness"). Their goal was not only to separate South Africa's white minority from its non-white majority, but also to separate non-whites from each other, and to divide Black South Africans along tribal lines in order to decrease their political power.

Apartheid Becomes Law

By 1950, the government had banned marriages between whites and people of other races, and prohibited sexual relations between Black and white South Africans. The Population Registration Act of 1950 provided the basic framework for apartheid by classifying all South Africans by race, including Bantu (Black Africans), Coloured (mixed race) and white.

A fourth category, Asian (meaning Indian and Pakistani) was later added. In some cases, the legislation split families; a parent could be classified as white, while their children were classified as colored.

A series of Land Acts set aside more than 80 percent of the country's land for the white minority, and "pass laws" required non-whites to carry documents authorizing their presence in restricted areas.

In order to limit contact between the races, the government established separate public facilities for whites and non-whites, limited the activity of nonwhite labor unions and denied non-white participation in national government.

Apartheid and Separate Development

Hendrik Verwoerd, who became prime minister in 1958, refined apartheid policy further into a system he referred to as "separate development." The Promotion of Bantu Self-Government Act of 1959 created 10 Bantu homelands known as Bantustans. Separating Black South Africans from each other enabled the government to claim there was no Black majority and reduced the possibility that Black people would unify into one nationalist organization.

Every Black South African was designated as a citizen as one of the Bantustans, a system that supposedly gave them full political rights, but effectively removed them from the nation's political body.

In one of the most devastating aspects of apartheid, the government forcibly removed Black South Africans from rural areas designated as "white" to the homelands and sold their land at low prices to white farmers. From 1961 to 1994, more than 3.5 million people were forcibly removed from their homes and deposited in the Bantustans, where they were plunged into poverty and hopelessness.

Opposition to Apartheid

Resistance to apartheid within South Africa took many forms over the years, from non-violent demonstrations, protests and strikes to political action and eventually to armed resistance.

Together with the South Indian National Congress, the ANC organized a mass meeting in 1952, during which attendees burned their pass books. A group calling itself the Congress of the People adopted a Freedom Charter in 1955 asserting that "South Africa belongs to all who live in it, Black or white." The government broke up the meeting and arrested 150 people, charging them with high treason.

Sharpeville Massacre

In 1960, at the Black township of Sharpeville, the police opened fire on a group of unarmed Black people associated with the Pan-African Congress (PAC), an offshoot of the ANC. The group had arrived at the police station without passes, inviting arrest as an act of resistance. At least 67 people were killed and more than 180 wounded.

The Sharpeville massacre convinced many anti-apartheid leaders that they could not achieve their objectives by peaceful means, and both the PAC and ANC established military wings, neither of which ever posed a serious military threat to the state.

Nelson Mandela

By 1961, most resistance leaders had been captured and sentenced to long prison terms or executed. Nelson Mandela, a founder of Umkhonto we Sizwe ("Spear of the Nation"), the military wing of the ANC, was incarcerated from 1963 to 1990; his imprisonment would draw international attention and help garner support for the anti-apartheid cause.

On June 10, 1980, his followers smuggled a letter from Mandela in prison and made it public: "UNITE! MOBILIZE! FIGHT ON! BETWEEN THE ANVIL OF UNITED MASS ACTION AND THE HAMMER OF THE ARMED STRUGGLE WE SHALL CRUSH APARTHEID!"

President F.W. de Klerk

In 1976, when thousands of Black children in Soweto, a Black township outside Johannesburg, demonstrated against the Afrikaans language requirement for Black African students, the police opened fire with tear gas and bullets.

The protests and government crackdowns that followed, combined with a national economic recession, drew more international attention to South Africa and shattered any remaining illusions that apartheid had brought peace or prosperity to the nation.

The United Nations General Assembly had denounced apartheid in 1973, and in 1976 the UN Security Council voted to impose a mandatory embargo on the sale of arms to South Africa. In 1985, the United Kingdom and United States imposed economic sanctions on the country.

Under pressure from the international community, the National Party government of Pieter Botha sought to institute some reforms, including abolition of the pass laws and the ban on interracial sex and marriage. The reforms fell short of any substantive change, however, and by 1989 Botha was pressured to step aside in favor of another conservative president, F.W. de Klerk, who had supported apartheid throughout his political career.

When Did Apartheid End?

Though a conservative, De Klerk underwent a conversion to a more pragmatic political philosophy, and his government subsequently repealed the Population Registration Act, as well as most of the other legislation that formed the legal basis for apartheid. De Klerk freed Nelson Mandela on February 11, 1990.

A new constitution, which enfranchised Black citizens and other racial groups, took effect in 1994, and elections that year led to a coalition government with a nonwhite majority, marking the official end of the apartheid system.

Sources

The End of Apartheid. Archive: U.S. Department of State.
A History of Apartheid in South Africa. South African History Online.
South Africa: Twenty-Five Years Since Apartheid. The Ohio State University: Stanton Foundation.

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Apartheid: Definition & South Africa | HISTORY

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Apartheid, the legal and cultural segregation of the non-white citizens of South Africa, ended in 1994 thanks to activist Nelson Mandela and F.W. de Klerk.

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#3) 1987, Realizes being mixed is illegal and learns about racism 

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#3) 1987, Realizes being mixed is illegal and learns about racism 

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At the age of 3 Trevor digs a tunnel in his backyard and escapes so he can be with other children. Trevor didn't know before that being mixed or biracial was then illegal in South Africa. His mother worried for his safety

Quote 1

“If you’re Native American and you pray to the wolves, you’re a savage. If you’re African and you pray to your ancestors, you’re a primitive. But when white people pray to a guy who turns water into wine, well, that’s just common sense.” (page 6)

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Abel was a negative aspect in Trevor's life and soon came to be an abusive alcoholic

Quote 2

“Abel wanted a traditional marriage with a traditional wife. For a long time I wondered why he ever married a woman like my mom in the first place, as she was the opposite of that in every way." (page 36)

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#5) 1990, Burns down white family's house  

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#5) 1990, Burns down white family's house  

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Trevor was playing with matches and a magnifying glass in the garage of a white friends house and accidentally starts a fire that burns down the whole house

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Trevor's mother had a child with her boyfriend Able, Andrew Shingange was born sometime in 1992 as no one knows his real birthday

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#7) 1992, Trevor's mother throws him out of a moving car

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#7) 1992, Trevor's mother throws him out of a moving car

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Trevor and his mother needed to escape an angry and racist minibus driver after church on Sunday and his mother threw him out of the moving bus and then proceeded to jump after him, saving both of them

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The system of legislation that used segregation against colored citizens of South Africa was abolished and having mixed children was no longer illegal

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#9) 1993, Moved to a mixed neighborhood called Eden Park

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#9) 1993, Moved to a mixed neighborhood called Eden Park

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Trevor and his mom moved to a mixed neighborhood for the first time and Trevor is learning who he is.

Quote 3

"When I was 5 years old, we moved to Eden Park, a neighborhood adjacent to several black townships on the outskirts of Johannesburg — half-colored and half-black, my mother figured, like us" (page 58)

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Trevor brought a knife to school so he could stay safe from a bully. He was sent to a psychologist (for the third time). The psychologist believes and agrees with him and allows him to leave the school.

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Trevor breakes his cousins ear drums and all the kids get in trouble. When his grandmother decideds not to beat Trevor she says she dosent know how to beat a "White child". Temperance Noah, Trevor's 80 year old grandpa tries to start a boxing match with Trevor when he was only 12 for a fair chance

Quote 4

“I don’t know how to hit a white child. I am afraid that he will bruise and turn blue and green and yellow and red.” (page 112)

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#12) 1996, Sent to a government school and learns about the power of being bilingual 

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#12) 1996, Sent to a government school and learns about the power of being bilingual 

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Trevor was sent to a government school and was put into advanced classes. When he went to recess, all the races were separated. just Trevor and an Indian kid were left alone. Trevor makes friends with him and shows him all the  African languages he can speak. The Indian kid wants to show the other kids. Then the others realize he may look different however Trevor is still the same as them through language.

Quote 5

“Language brings with it an identity and a culture, or at least the perception of it. A shared language says 'We’re the same.' A language barrier says 'We’re different' .” (page 134)

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#13) 1996, His mother brings home two dogs 

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#13) 1996, His mother brings home two dogs 

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Trevor's mother comes home with two dogs.  Trevor names them Fufi and Panther. They keep Fufi.

Quote 6

“I sobbed the whole way home, still heartbroken. My mom had no time for my whining. “Why are you crying?!” “Because Fufi loves another boy.” “So? Why would that hurt you? It didn’t cost you anything. Fufi’s here. She still loves you. She’s still your dog. So get over it.” (page 140)

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Trevor's dad, Robert Noah moves out of their home and finds a house in Capetown with a new girlfriend

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Trevor needed to make money and learned that he could sell pirated CD's for a good profit and met a lot of friends and cool people in the business

Quote 7

"This was the most liberating thing in the world, because now I can afford choice." (page 151)

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Trevor learned about how she was like him, also mixed and at the time illegal. He learned her story about how her family was smuggled out of the country

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Trevor's mother had a child with her boyfriend Able, Isaac Shingange was born sometime in 2003 as no one knows his real birthday

Quote 8

"When my mom had decided to keep Isaac, I was
so close to writing her off. I couldn’t stand the pain
anymore." (page 266)

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His mother's boyfriend Able shot Trevor's mother Patricia Noah in the leg and in the head. His mother survived the incident and never talked to Able again. Noah was able to cover his mothers medical bills and they thanked god for this miracle

Quote 9

"Abel had fired from behind the car. The bullet went into the back of her head and exited through the front of her face, and blood sprayed everywhere. Her body slumped over the
steering wheel." (page 283)

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She miraculously woke up in a hospital bead after surgery with the odds almost non-existent of her living.

Quote 10

"The other bullet went through the back of her head, entering below the skull at the top of her neck. It missed the spinal cord by a hair, missed the medulla oblongata, and traveled through her head just underneath the brain, missing every major vein, artery, and nerve." (page 312)

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Trevor's mother, Patricia Noah died on April 5, 2005 due to natural causes