Born a Crime; Stories from a South African childhood by Trevor Noah 2017 304pg

Trevor Noah explains Apartheid, post Apartheid South Africa   12/12/19

His mother of Xhosa extraction did a course and became a typist and rented a flat in Hillbrow was friendly with a Swiss neighbour and decided to have a kid with him, born 1984. Later moved to Jobert Park area and when he was bigger they lived at his grandmother in Soweto. His grandparent had owned a house in Sophiatown a mixed neighbourhood.  Before apartheid European missionaries provided blacks with education and a knowledgeable man is a free man. Racism has no logic about it. 
He describes how his mother schlepped him to black, mixed and white churches and he got quite an education and learned sing from that.
 He was able to learn a number of black languages and didn't know anything about white society.  Later on he was put into Maryvale Catholic school and was a advanced learner and later into HA Jack school in Johannesburg a government school. Here he was put into a mostly white class as he had high grades but opted to go to a black class as he had little in common with the white kids.
Blacks consider cats to be witches
1985 The Immorality Act was cancelled, so mixed race marriages were no longer illigal
Years later he finds that his white father live in Camps Bay, Cape Town and visits him. He discovers that Robert has collected every press cutting about Trevor.
His stepfather hears he was bullied and catches the culprit and beats he without pity when the kids father comes to complain beats him also.
We get a description of the mini bus system and that it is all run by protection godfathers, the Apartheid government did not provide services for the black so they had to solve problem within the communities. Black society had to work on the side and avoid the authorities. After apartheid this is what basically has taken over control of the whole country. rather than the government.
He finished matric at Sandringham High and then wants to make money to study. With friends that market pirated DVDs and then make selections of top tune and become disc jockeys with dancers and entertainers. He gives a description of Alexander and the vibrant life. He explains how a number of black kids got weird names including Hitler.
Under Apartheid people worked at slave wages then a minimum wage law came out causing massive unemployment.
 When he was 9 his mother married Able and when he stopped hash  went onto alcohol he was Tsonga and wanted a subservient wife. She now had a baby Andrew 9 years later Isaac was born. The cheapest food in season is mopani worms - caterpillars. Because he slept in different cars at his fathers garage he found the best to sleep in.
South Africa has 11 official languages Afrikaans English then Zulu Xhosa Tswana, Sotho, Northern Sotho, Venda, Tsonga, Southern Ndebele.
If you are caught with a stolen car, it is possible that you car jacked it by murder. Colored gangsters were considered the most ruthless. The book describes men's violence against women and when they complained the police were not keen to lay charges.

One of the things that I liked reading about was the parts of Johannesburg that I knew so well as a kid in the 1950s and later on till I left S. Africa at the end of  1976.