trevor noah is leaving daily program; one of the things we will miss is his funny stories about his parents and his upbringing. Noah often spoke of raising him as a mixed child in apartheid South Africa and his mother’s attitude towards fame.
For those who haven’t seen, Trevor’s mom cares little about his fame. This piece will look at Trevor’s parents and upbringing.
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Trevor’s mom and dad conceived of Noah as a form of rebellion against the apartheid regime.
Many years before Trevor came into the world, the South African government passed a law banning sexual relations between Europeans and natives. The police strictly enforced that law, but there were people like Noah’s mom and dad who rebelled against the apartheid regime. Clandestine spaces existed in South Africa where people of all races congregated at the risk of arrest.
Robert and Patricia welcomed Trevor in February 1984. Patricia was of Xhosa descent while Robert was Swiss. Patricia’s rebellion against the government had consequences as she was occasionally arrested for being in white neighborhoods after curfew. Trevor told Terry Gross the Fresh air:
“My mom was trapped, you know, in the building that my dad lived in. My mom was caught in a white neighborhood after curfew without the correct permits… So every once in a while my mom would spend a week in jail. Here she would spend a day in jail, another week, a week and a half, two weeks… The police wouldn’t let you make phone calls. You just disappeared for a while. And what was scary was that we lived in a state where some people disappeared forever.”
Looking back, Trevor told Terry Gross that it was hard growing up as a kid of color. He didn’t see it as difficult at the time because he was a child, but he remembered the times when his grandmother told him to hide under the bed when the police were doing random searches in the house.
The discriminatory government managed to turn the natives against each other. In his book Born a Crime, Trevor wrote about a time when his mother threw him off a moving bus after the Zulu driver kidnapped Trevor and his mother. Patricia jumped as well, holding her young son Andrew, but her landing protected him from the impact.
Trevor’s abusive stepfather shot and nearly killed Patricia
Patricia had a sick Beetle that spent a lot of time in the garage. It was during one of those trips to the garage that Patricia met Abel. The couple hit it off and got married in 1992. Unfortunately, Abel was abusive towards Patricia and Noah. He had two children with Patricia, Andrew and Isaac, before the couple divorced in 1996.
Thirteen years later, Abel confronted Patricia and her husband, Sfiso Khoza, as they were leaving the church. He blamed Patricia for ruining her life and shot her in the leg and the back of her head. Miraculously, the bullets missed all major nerves and blood vessels. Abel then threatened Noah’s life, causing Trevor to flee to Los Angeles.
Abel was arrested and convicted of attempted murder.
Trevor’s mom converted to Judaism but did not force Noah to convert
Patricia raised Noah in the ways of Christianity, but when Noah was 10 years old, he converted to Judaism. Noah told Terry Gross that his mother’s inquisitive nature led to her conversion. He said:
“She said, okay, I’ve read the Bible. I have read the Bible again. I am reading the bible again. Okay, let me, where does this Bible come from? What does this Old Testament say, who are the Israelites? Who – what is Judaism? And then she left, and I’m going to study that. And, you know, I almost wanted to get to the core.”
Patricia didn’t force Noah to convert, but when he was 13, she gave him a bar mitzvah. No one attended the event because, according to Noah, no one except Patricia knew what it meant. Noah told Terry Gross that Patricia still sends him text messages in Hebrew even though she doesn’t understand most of them.
Trevor’s mother reportedly owes more than R24 million in outstanding taxes
In November 2022, Patricia Noah received a final demand letter from the South African Revenue Service. [SARS], requesting the payment of more than 24 million Rand in outstanding taxes. Patricia runs PN Noah Estates, a commercial real estate firm. By The citizenthe letter says:
“According to the records of the South African Revenue Service, you have not paid your tax debt for one or more years and tax periods. You are requested to make full payment within days from the date of this demand letter.”
The correspondence set out their remedies, including payment in installments, filing a formal dispute to the claim, and committing a portion of the tax. The letter continued:
“A civil judgment has been entered against you, in which case a writ of execution may be issued for the court bailiff to seize and sell your property.”
Categories: Biography
Source: vcmp.edu.vn