TREVOR NOAH: APARTHEID TOOK CUES FROM U.S.

Apartheid was a system of race-based segregation enforced by the South African regime of white settlers between 1948 and 1994. It controlled every detail of the life of non-white people—Blacks, Coloureds and Indians—where they were allowed to live, with whom they could marry, where they could work, and even which hospital or school they could go to.

In this clip, comedian Trevor Noah (@trevornoah on IG and X) explained that apartheid extended to criminalise his existence. ‘Me being born was illegal. My dad couldn't be on my birth certificate,’ he told ‘The Breakfast Club,’ a New York-based radio programme. His Xhosa mother and Swiss-German father were in an illegal relationship, according to apartheid law. 

Noah also explained how apartheid was not developed in a vacuum, as the government of South Africa sent emissaries around the world to study racism in places like Australia, the Netherlands and the United States.

Despite apartheid officially ending in 1994, Black South Africans remain disproportionately poverty-stricken and unemployed, leading to wealth inequality and lack of property ownership. Meanwhile, white settlers held 72 per cent of private farmland in the country in 2017, according to the South African Department of Rural Development and Land Reform. However, white South Africans constituted less than 8 per cent of the 2022 population, per the South African government's statistics office.

Post-apartheid efforts, such as the 1995 Truth and Reconciliation Commission, the 2003 Black Economic Empowerment legislation, and land reform, have attempted to redress the injustice. However, the progress has been slow and often criticised as symbolic or insufficient.

Apartheid is no longer the law, but its architecture remains. As Noah demonstrated, racism in South Africa is not just something that occurred. It is a living reality.

Video credit: @breakfastclubam (IG and X)

Sources

https://bcrw.barnard.edu/event/white-rights-what-apartheid-south-africa-learned-from-the-united-states

https://www.facinghistory.org/ideas-week/south-africans-respond-american-racism

https://lithub.com/trevor-noah-on-growing-up-in-south-africa-under-apartheid/#:~:text=My%20mother%20lied%20and%20said,I'm%20from%20another%20country.

https://harvardpublichealth.org/equity/apartheid-legacy-south-africa-health

https://files.eric.ed.gov/fulltext/ED613962.pdf

https://www.gov.za/sites/default/files/gcis_document/201802/landauditreport13feb2018.pdf

https://www.gov.za/about-sa/south-africas-people