Born a Crime by Trevor Noah

I just toured Soweto where Trevor Noah grew up in South Africa. Soweto has 50 plus townships where blacks, Indians, and colored people were displaced or forced to live during Apartheid. Nobel Peace prize winners Nelson Mandela and Bishop Desmond Tutu lived on the same block in Soweto and its face has changed over the years reflecting a growing black middle class. Trevor's raw look growing up in post-apartheid Soweto in the 1990s, whose population is over 1 million today, is riveting.

"Born a crime" is how he describes his birth as it was illegal for a white man and black woman to be together in the 1980s. His Swiss dad and Xhosa mom didn't marry when he was conceived, but even then his life was dangerous because of his light skin. He didn't know anyone else whose heritage was of black-and-white descent making unique situations for him and his mom. If he was with his dad, his mother had to walk on the other side of the road. Or if his mother was walking with him and the police came by she'd have to drop his hand and pretend he wasn't her child or else she would be accused of kidnapping a white person's baby.

The overarching theme in Trevor's book is honoring the tenacity, cleverness, and education his mother gave him growing up during a time when there were not many opportunities for South African blacks. He gives personal details interspersed with nonfiction facts that are helpful in understanding the current climate and culture in South Africa. For instance, I'm baffled as a foreigner by the crazy minibus taxi drivers that overload their vans with passengers and drive through lights, drive on sidewalks, drive on walkings paths, drive through fields, stop anywhere they want to pick up passengers, block lanes, and seem to pride themselves in their maniacal driving. In six months I've seen them almost hit a person walking as they spun out of control on the shoulder, tip a van over on its side driving too fast on a roundabout, and go over an embankment trying to pass another van, to name a few. There has been a turf war too, where drivers from two groups shot and killed each other because one group was taking what others considered their routes. Turf wars are common and Trevor describes this hell-on-wheels, gang-like transportation system that most of the population uses to get to and from work. His harrowing experience in one of these taxis and getting tossed out of it while it was moving as a nine-year-old is one of many stories that will keep you flipping the pages.

Trevor's experience in different schools shows the variety of learning experiences that influenced him and his gift with languages that allowed him to be liked by different groups of people, while at the same time, remain an outcast. I didn't understand when he wrote about the Bantu education system and had to look that up on my own. Basically, the 1953 Bantu education act extended Apartheid to black schools and implemented an inferior and racist education system that denied black children the same educational opportunities as white children.

The chapters about Trevor's abusive stepfather shooting his mother execution style and threatening others is frightening in its portrayal of the violence Trevor dealt with in his life. It's amazing that his mom survived her gunshot wounds and joked about it with Trevor in the hospital. The mix of humor and seriousness helps balance the dark spots and makes for an engrossing read. While I enjoyed the book I did think the pacing was off. The end felt rushed and too much time covered leaving me with questions.

Also, some parts of the plot are not always in context and the last chapter repeats a beginning part, but none of this takes away from an easy-to-read authentic tale. In the last chapter, I wasn't quite sure if the mom was engaged. And did others in the group get shot at like her fiance? It sounded like it. His brothers and his relationship with them are not always clear and Isaac's age conflicts with the age Trevor says his mom was at this time. The editing seemed sloppy in parts. But these are minor details. The excellent character development of Trevor's stepfather's dual sides of being charming and violent show a complex person. The relationship with his biological dad is heartwarming and heartbreaking. Many things are done well such as how there was no recourse for his mother with the police and how the justice system didn't serve her.  Trevor's love for his mom holds the plot together giving it cohesiveness even if the context is uneven. I hope he pens another book explaining his journey to the US and breaking into national media.

4 Smileys

Cry, the Beloved Country by Alan Paton

We are moving to South Africa so I thought I had better read this bestseller from 1948. I listened to the audiobook performed by the actor, Michael York. His incredible voice changes helped me visualize the characters; however, I should have read the book as my weakest learning style is auditory and it took me awhile to get the African village names and characters sorted. The Reverend Stephen Kumalo, who lives in Ndotsheni, a village in eastern South Africa, receives a letter saying his sister, Gertrude, is ill and he should come to Johannesburg. Kumalo hopes to find his son, Absalom, who has also gone to Johannesburg and he has not heard from in a few years. In Johannesburg, Kumalo is assisted by Msimangu, the priest that sent him the letter, and the two set off to find Gertrude and Absalom. Along the way they see economic and social conditions that gave rise to apartheid. Alan Paton's writing is lyrical and full of emotion; a social protest novel that reveals the political and social issues of the time. I think it would be good paired with "Things Fall Apart," that shows the breakdown of the tribe from a black man's perspective; whereas, "Cry the Beloved Country," is from a white man's perspective that reveals postcolonial attitudes of liberalism and Christian paternalism.

Kumalo and Msimangu are good men that travel from place to place observing how the black man has lost "his tribe" and support system since white men has colonized Africa. Kumalo comes from the country and views the city as a corrupting influence on young people. Traditions with a chief as head of the tribe and support system of others members who teach moral behavior has been replaced by the white man's influence and this is represented in the lawless city of Johannesburg. The result is corruption as people live in fear.

Kumalo begins his journey rooted in the old ways and once he travels to Johannesburg he discovers that the world has changed and he must change with it. The erosion of African society is symbolized in representations of a barren land and the erosion of the red soil that bleeds into the rivers like an open wound. Stephen Kumalo's home is decaying with his sister turning to prostitution and his son committing murder. Kumalo clings to the old ways at first realizing that he must change by the end to adapt to a changing world, but he suffers terribly along the way and like Stephen, the first Christian martyr. Kumalo must lose his son, sister, and family before gaining a new one. He realizes that he must reach out to help those in need or suffering and give to them selflessly; hence, creating a new tribe.

Kumalo meets his brother, John, who has rejected the tribe but who has an incredible voice or speaking ability that others listen to, but he is corrupt and only thinks of himself. He is hollow and unreliable as a friend or relative. A foil to him is Dubula, a man that is the voice of the boycott. His motives are unselfish and Kumalo and Msimangu realize that he would make a great leader because power would not corrupt him. He's morally stable, unlike John Kumalo. Many times throughout the novel the power of corruption is brought up and it is the self-sacrificing men that are held up as examples to emulate.

The economic and deplorable social conditions are revealed throughout the journey, but it is mainly through James Jarvis that the white person is supposed to recognize actions he or she can take to help mend the gap with blacks. James Jarvis is a country man like Kumalo and when his son is murdered he reads his notes discovering his son thought deeply about the racial problems and was trying to change the world to be a better place. James is changed and decides to work for a solution toward helping the tribe. He introduces a man that shows the blacks agricultural methods that will help till the soil or heal a broken land by beginning something new for the blacks.

When I read, "Huckleberry Finn," as an adult I could see why others took offense at the stereotypical portrayal of blacks. In Paton's novel, the whites are superior and the blacks are left with the whites making morally correct decisions to benefit them. Stephen calls James Jarvis an angel because he's showing the natives agricultural techniques and he's building a new church which allowed him to remain a pastor there. This is supposed to help them with the tribal displacement but it is always the whites in this story that have the knowledge and vision for the tribes. Paton wanted South African natives to embrace Christianity because this would lead to moral living and he suggests farming as a way to get back in touch with the land.

I've been reading Jared Diamond's book, "Collapse," about elements that lead to a society's demise. Poverty, over farming, deforestation, climate, and environmental issues are usually significant factors along with different catalysts that cause the collapse. Paton focuses mostly on moral decay and the break down of the tribe. While Paton's attempt to change racial injustices is noble, his story shows at the same time the attitudes of the day full of colonial views of an enlightened Western civilization replacing a barbarian one. Many find his book outdated because of his portrayal of blacks. For further reading on this topic, I put the article at the bottom of the page. This is a story that will lead to plenty of discussions.

5 Smileys

Source: Paternalism, Ideology, and Ideological Critique: Teaching "Cry, the Beloved Country" Author(s): Patrick Colm Hogan

Source: College Literature, Vol. 19/20, No. 3/1, Teaching Postcolonial and Commonwealth Literatures (Oct., 1992 - Feb., 1993), pp. 206-210
Published by: The Johns Hopkins University Press Stable URL: http://www.jstor.org/stable/25112003 Accessed: 08-06-2016 15:44 UTC