Sheep magazine Archive 3: issues 18-24

BORN A CRIME
Trevor Noah charts his rise from South Africa’s townships
The Daily Show host’s new book reveals how he bridged the race gap to
become one of the country’s brightest exports
Marianne Thamm
from the Daily Maverick
Trevor Noah is regarded as one of South Africa’s biggest exports: the boy
from the townships who made it big in the US and ended up hosting The
Daily Show, one of the most influential satirical news programmes on
American television.
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But the odds always seemed stacked against Noah, as they are for South
Africa’s black citizens. Many are trapped by the legacies of colonialism,
apartheid and post-apartheid profligacy and face poverty, hunger,
violence, bullying, racism and limited opportunities.
But there was an extraordinary buffer between this brutal world and
Noah, as his autobiography, Born a Crime: Stories from a South
African Childhood, makes clear.
‘For my mother. My first fan. Thank you for making me a man,’ Noah
writes in the book’s dedication. For indeed without his mother, Patricia
Nombuyiselo Noah, and the rebellious spirit that enabled her to face
XMAS 2016