Trevor Noah Says He Grew Up 'In The Shadow Of A Giant' (His Mom) (2024)

Daily Show host Trevor Noah was born in South Africa and speaks six languages. Spiegel & Grau hide caption

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Trevor Noah Says He Grew Up 'In The Shadow Of A Giant' (His Mom) (2)

Daily Show host Trevor Noah was born in South Africa and speaks six languages.

Spiegel & Grau

As the child of a black mother and a white father in apartheid-era South Africa, Daily Show host Trevor Noah was the living, breathing evidence that a crime had been committed.

Under apartheid, interracial couples who had engaged in sexual relations could be punished with years-long prison sentences, and biracial children like Noah could be taken away from their parents. As a result, Noah spent much of his early life in hiding.

He tells Fresh Air's Terry Gross, "My grandmother kept me locked in the house when I was staying with the family in Soweto. ... If the police did show up ... it was a constant game of hide-and-seek."

After apartheid ended in 1994, Noah and his mother faced new challenges, including his mother's relationship with an abusive alcoholic. Now Noah revisits his childhood with the new memoir, Born a Crime. It's the story of his life, but the comedian is clear about who the real star of the book is.

"I thought that I was the hero of my story, [but] in writing it I came to realize over time that my mom was the hero," Noah says. "I was lucky enough to be in the shadow of a giant. My mom's magic dust sprinkled on me and I hope I have enough of it to be as brave as she was and continues to be."

Born a Crime

Stories from a South African Childhood

By Trevor Noah

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Interview Highlights

On how the law forbidding interracial relationships was enforced

People were encouraged to snitch. It was a police state, so there were police everywhere. There were undercover police; there were uniformed police. The state was being surveilled the entire time, you know, communications were monitored and anyone could snitch.

It could be your neighbor if you were living in a white area; it could be your neighbor if you were living in a black area. A lot of black people worked with the police as snitches. ... They were afforded special privileges, they may have been paid by the police, but you never knew who was informing on you.

On his mother being arrested for seeing his father

I was really lucky in that my mom and dad never got caught in the act, so to speak. So my mom was caught fraternizing with my dad, my mom was caught in the building that my father lived in, my mom was caught in a white neighborhood past curfew without the right permits. My mom was caught in transition, and that was key, because had she been caught in the act then, as the law says, she could've spent anywhere up to four years in prison.

So on and off my mom would spend a week in jail — she would spend a day in jail here, a week again, a week and a half, two weeks. ... My gran would tell me, "She'll be back."

Nobody knew where anybody was. The police didn't afford you a phone call, you just disappeared for a while. What was scary was we lived in a state where some people disappeared forever. If the police believed that they were planning any form of resistance against the state, then you were just gone.

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On how his mother's conversion to Judaism affected him

I lived my life as a part-white, part-black but then sometimes Jewish kid, and I didn't understand because she didn't make me convert. ... When I turned 13, she threw me a bar mitzvah, but nobody came because nobody knew what the hell that was. I only had black friends — no one knows what the hell you're doing. So it was just me and my mom and she's celebrating and she's reading things to me in Hebrew. ...

That was the gift my mother gave me. I think that was part of her religious pursuits. My mother's always looking for answers, she's always searching for new information. I think she has a thirst or hunger that very few possess innately, so my mother never stagnated in a place where she said, "I have it all." ... She applied this to everything in our lives, and that was not staying in the space that you are supposed to be in, whether it be racially, whether it be in a community, whether it be gender norms, whatever it was. My mom said, "I am going to seek out more," and so I was constantly confused, which is sometimes a little bit disorienting, but I feel like it leads to a way more colorful life.

On the languages he speaks

I speak six currently. ... I speak English, obviously; Afrikaans, which is a derivative of Dutch that we have in South Africa; and then I speak African languages. So I speak Zulu, I speak Xhosa, I speak Tswana and I speak Tsonga. So those are my languages at the core. And then I don't claim German but I can have a conversation in it, so I'm trying to make that officially my seventh language, and then hopefully I can learn Spanish.

On code-switching between different languages and accents in different situations

I think it was something I inherited from my mother, who learned to do it. I, like a baby duckling, was merely mimicking the survival traits that my mother possessed, and I came to learn very quickly that language was a powerful, powerful tool.

Language and accents govern so much of how people think about other people. It's been happening since the beginning of time. Even now in America, you know when people say they "hate immigrants," they're not referring to a Canadian immigrant, they're not referring to somebody who has an accent [that] is slightly different to theirs — it's often that voice that throws you off. ... When you hear somebody speaking in an accent, it's almost like they're invading your language while they're speaking to you. Because if you hear someone speak another language, you almost don't care, but when they speak your language with an accent it feels like an invasion of something that belongs to you. ...

Code-switching is fun for me. I don't even do it intentionally. I just find speaking to one person, I change a few words, I change my tone, I change my accent slightly. It's a seamless transition that I do without even thinking, like a chameleon. I don't think that I'm doing it, I just do it.

On how having severe acne as a teenager affected his sense of identity

I shied away from any type of photograph ... because I thought I was hideous, because in my eyes I was. I had giant nodules on my face, around my neck, and the puss would ooze out of them. I had to go on medication repeatedly and the medication makes you suicidal and depressed and then you have to go off it because of your kidneys. It was just such a trying time.

In school that's your cache; how you look and what you can do determine everything in school. ... I was one of those kids who just stayed in a corner and watched the world pass them by. And I think, if anything, the biggest knock you experience in that world is — in terms of your identity — is you feel like you are less than you are, you feel like you don't have the right to belong. You're watching the world and the world exists without you.

On what Donald Trump's win made him realize about his job at The Daily Show

Doing what I do now, I've come to realize now more so than ever that I have to approach what I do every day on The Daily Show with complete honesty. Funny enough, one of the biggest moments of realization was when Donald Trump won the election. Because when I came into the show, I said, "I think this guy can win." This is when he first came down that escalator and gave his first speech. ... And then I was like, "Wow, this guy is going to do well." I remember then people laughed at me. ...

I've seen this before. I have seen clowns that go on to take over their countries. I've seen buffoons who end up ruling their worlds. And it came to pass, and I've just come to realize I'm going to share my point of view.

Some people won't like me for it. I will work every day to be as honest as I can, because I do believe that we are all trying to get to the same place, but various people have tricked us into believing that we're not. ... In South Africa ... a government, very successfully, convinced the majority of a population that every single person there was blocking the other people from achieving greatness in the country, only to realize that we were all being oppressed at the same time.

Trevor Noah Says He Grew Up 'In The Shadow Of A Giant' (His Mom) (2024)

FAQs

Trevor Noah Says He Grew Up 'In The Shadow Of A Giant' (His Mom)? ›

"I thought that I was the hero of my story, [but] in writing it I came to realize over time that my mom was the hero," Noah says. "I was lucky enough to be in the shadow of a giant. My mom's magic dust sprinkled on me and I hope I have enough of it to be as brave as she was and continues to be."

What was Trevor Noah's famous quote? ›

I don't regret anything I've ever done in life, any choice that I've made. But I'm consumed with regret for the things I didn't do, the choices I didn't make, the things I didn't say. We spend so much time being afraid of failure, afraid of rejection. But regret is the thing we should fear most.

What was Trevor's relationship with his mom like growing up? ›

The bond between Trevor Noah and his mother, Patricia, is one of profound love, admiration, and mutual respect. Patricia's nurturing spirit and her sense of humor played a pivotal role in shaping Trevor's comedic talent and unique perspective on life.

What does Trevor say he inherited from his mother in Chapter 6? ›

Trevor says he was blessed with a trait he inherited from his mother: the “ability to forget the pain in life” (p. 94).

What does Trevor want us to know about his upbringing? ›

The connection between this chapter's preface and end of chapter 38 is that Trevor wants us to know that his upbringing was difficult, but that it was also one that taught him how to push through those difficulties and come out stronger.

What advice does Trevor's mom give him? ›

Trevor's mother told him "Learn from your past and be better because of your past, but don't cry about your past. Life is full of pain. Let the pain sharpen you, but don't hold on to it" . Do you think he followed his mother's advice based on his memoir?

What did Born a Crime quotes about his mom? ›

"My mom raised me as if there were no limitations on where I could go or what I could do. When I look back I realize she raised me like a white kid - not white culturally, but in the sense of believing that the world was my oyster, that I should speak up for myself, that my ideas and thoughts and decisions mattered."

What crazy thing did Trevor's mom do when he was 9 years old? ›

I was nine years old when my mother threw me out of a moving car. It happened on a Sunday. I know it was on a Sunday because we were coming home from church, and every Sunday in my childhood meant church. We never missed church.

How did Trevor's mom raised him? ›

Like her parents, she raises Trevor to be obedient and respectful and beats him when he was not. While Patricia's parents expected their discipline to go unquestioned, Patricia always gives Trevor a reason for his punishments so that he can understand what he is to gain from them.

What happened to Trevor's mom at the end? ›

Mrs. Philips was sentenced to prison for an unknown amount of time. It is also unknown what she was sentenced for, but it could possibly be related to drugs, as Mrs. Philips appears to be a Deludamol addict.

What is the most important lesson that Trevor learns from his mom? ›

Trevor Noah's mom taught him to be assertive, creative, and independent. Learn how Patricia Noah's early life turned her into the woman she became, and how her relationship with Trevor developed over the years.

What shocking news does Trevor's mother tell him? ›

Trevor was shocked to learn that his mother had, in fact, paid for Trevor's lawyer. Patricia explained that she was so hard on Trevor because she loved him, and that the world would try to kill him.

What are two central values that Trevor and his mom share about life that are more important to them than wealth? ›

He and his mom were always laughing and having fun, and they were always there for each other. The two central values that Trevor and his mom share about life that are more important to them than wealth are love and family. They are both very close to each other, and they always put each other first.

What was Trevor's relationship like with his mom growing up? ›

Trevor and his mom's relationship was like the relationship between a cop and a criminal in the movies. They were bitter rivals but respected each other and somehow grew to like each other. His mom was always trying to rein him in and over the years her tactics grew more and more sophisticated.

What is something that Trevor inherited from his mother? ›

Chapter 6 Quotes

I was blessed with another trait I inherited from my mother: her ability to forget the pain in life. I remember the thing that caused the trauma, but I don't hold on to the trauma. I never let the memory of something painful prevent me from trying something new.

What was Trevor's religious upbringing? ›

Even though Christianity had been forced on native South Africans by the Europeans, Trevor's mother was a devout Christian who took her family to multiple churches every Sunday. Each church offered something different and catered to a different racial demographic—mostly white, mostly Black, or mixed.

What are the quotes from Chapter 17 of Born a Crime? ›

Chapter 17 Quotes

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.

What does Trevor mean when he says crime cares? ›

The hood made me realize that crime succeeds because crime does the one thing the government doesn't do: crime cares. Crime is grassroots. Crime looks for the young kids who need support and a lifting hand. Crime offers internship programs and summer jobs and opportunities for advancement.

What did Noah's grandfather call Trevor? ›

His extended family would treat him like a white person. His grandfather would even call him “master” and insisted Trevor ride in the back seat of the car to chauffer him from place to place.

What is a quote about being mixed in Born a Crime? ›

Because a mixed person embodies that rebuke to the logic of the system, race mixing becomes a crime worse than treason. I became a chameleon. My color didn't change, but I could change your perception of my color.

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