Born A Crime: Stories from a South African Childhood

Photo by Aro Ha

Before I made my way to South Africa, I picked up a book by a comedian who’s work I really enjoy. While travel books are great, I thought a first-person narrative would be a better view.

In his book, Trevor Noah speaks about his upbringing in his material quite a bit, but I had figured this was a good way to get a view on what it was like for him to grow up in Johannesburg, which was one of the first spots on my journey.

This book is an amazing, well written and candid account of the daily situations him and his family faced in South Africa and how the apartheid had effected his life.

While I absentmindedly expected the book to be largely humorous (basing my assumptions on his stand-up material and my previous experience of reading books by comedians), I found this to be quite a shocking and eye opening read. The book reads easily yet still managed to stop me in my tracks with some of the things that Trevor speaks about. I would definitely recommend this one for anyone, especially if you are headed to S.A.