This resource is for year 12 students studying Born a Crime by Trevor Noah in the VCE Victorian English Curriculum for 2026.

Introduction

Trevor Noah’s Born a Crime genre that are stories about his own life, his childhood and adolescence, and it is made up of anecdotes and memories that at times jump around with flashbacks and flashforwards, small vignettes that in first person and often have a humorous text for comic effect. Therefore, Noah’s memoir is not simply a story about the horrors of apartheid, or about the brutality of structural racism. It is a story about resilience, resistance, family, patriarchy, justice, faith, sacrifice, humour, coming-of-age, education, language, and luck despite these things.

Divided into 3 parts that loosely conform to the three stages of Noah’s life from early childhood through to adolescence. Within each chapter there is a broader commentary on social, racial, and political aspects of life in South Africa and personal anecdotes. Before or after each chapter, there is also a short passage that acts as a lead-in, provides context, or sometimes offers a different perspective. The short contextual passage discusses the lasting impact of apartheid in South Africa.

The language, which plays a significant theme of the text is informal, witty, sometimes coarse, and often hilarious, but is chosen with words for their particular effects. Noah’s humour does not minimise the very real violence and struggles of his childhood, it is used to highlight both the adversity he faced and the strength of his will to overcome those struggles. Throughout the text, dark and often disturbing memories are filtered through this lens of comedy.

Prologue and Epigraphs to the Text

The book begins with a dedication from Trevor Noah to his mother who is the most important person in the text. To contextualise the ‘crime’ of his birth, Noah also includes an excerpt from the 1927 Immorality Act, which includes two points: forbidding European males from having ‘illicit carnal intercourse’ with ‘a native female’ and vice versa.

Apartheid in South Africa

Apartheid was a system of institutionalised racial segregation and white supremacy in South Africa from 1948 to the early 1990s. It was a legal framework that enforced strict separation between racial groups, with the white minority holding political and economic control and the black majority being denied basic rights, including where they could live, work, and go to school. The system was officially ended with the country’s first multiracial elections in 1994.

Born a Crime in a Nutshell

Trevor Noah’s memoir about his childhood and adolescence in South Africa during and after apartheid. Born to a Black Xhosa mother and a White Swiss-German father, he was a mixed-race child whose existence was illegal under apartheid laws. The book recounts his life navigating racial hierarchy and poverty, his close and supportive relationship with his rebellious mother, and how he used humour and language skills to overcome violence and find his identity.

Language opens a pathway towards opportunity

In Born a Crime, it is clear that a knowledge of multiple languages enables opportunities that help Trevor and his mother to continue to move forward, and aspire to a life that would be otherwise inconceivable without that knowledge. Throughout the memoir, their abilities as multilingual shapeshifters mean they have the resources to communicate and construct circumstances that give space for love, empathy, and connection; often with those who may otherwise present as a threat. Language provides them with the ability to connect with potential enemies and even expose the hypocrisy of apartheid.

While language provides many opportunities, it is also apparent that South Africa’s ‘Tower of Babel’ is fertile ground for misunderstanding and exploitation. Noah’s rich and textured narration and dialogue is loaded with accented English, and the layers of various tribal dialects and tongues, inviting the understanding that language can be ‘used to cross boundaries, handle situations, navigate the world’ (p. 55). While understanding multiple languages gets Trevor and his mother out of some impossibly dangerous situations, it also helps him to identify, examine and expose the hypocrisy of apartheid South Africa and those who label them as ‘other’.

All Resources created by englishtutorlessons.com.au Online Tutoring using Zoom for Mainstream English Students in the Victorian VCE Curriculum 2026