Trevor Noah is Africa's most inspiring comedian and now he is well on his way in making Americans laugh along with him. Hosting America's "The Daily Show" on "Comedy Central" is no mean feat, even for an American-born comedian, so Africans view Trevor as something of a miracle.
Trevor was born illegally. By that, he was born in a racially divided country. His Father was a white Swiss and his mother was a black African and they were not allowed to have sexual relations. But they did, and Trevor happened.
Trevor Noah was born marginalized
People often think the draconian Apartheid government applied only to black people.
But in Africa, there is a term for mixed races - colored people.They are often neither accepted into society by pure-blood black people or pure-blood white people, (But to be honest, it's not certain how many fifth-generation whites are white as the driven snow). Trevor fell into that mixed-blood group.
He was not the only marginalized victim of the Nationalist government of South Africa pre-independence. Did you know that under Apartheid rule, a single mother had fewer rights than a certified lunatic? Did you know that a single mother's child automatically became a ward of the state? Did you know that a single mother had to have her fathers permission to open a bank account?
Did you know that the 'Dutch' Afrikaans speaking people who ruled the county hated the white English speakers?
They fought two wars historically and never forgave the British settlers for trying to 'steal their' country.
Did you know that if you were a young white adult you had to go and fight a war or you went to jail? Then, of course, there were many unspeakable things that they did to the black community. Did you know that many white people went to jail for trying to work with black activists to change things in South Africa?
These are all things that were hard to live with, no matter what your color was under the Nationalist Government in South Africa.
For all races, life pre-Nelson Mandela was not a bundle of laughs
So, for many white and black and colored people, life was not all roses in South Africa. And if you think Hollywood and #MeToo is shocking, you really did not want to experience life in South Africa before Mandela was released from prison, if you were an unmarried female of any race, in the workplace.
By the time Trevor was six, Nelson Mandela was released from prison and the lives of blacks and whites and colored people changed. For a start, shops opened on a Sunday and you could buy a beer on a weekend. This made many people wish that Nelson had been released years before. White students could get on with study without mandatory military call-ups.
Lots of things turned around for people across the social spectrum of South Africa, but nobody was laughing. The country had forgotten how to laugh. Then Trevor Noah came into our lives and people of all races and genders learned how to laugh again.
Trevor taught Africa to laugh and now Americans can learn too
Even in America, people are learning how to laugh.
Laughter is good for the soul. America needs to laugh right now. Trevor Noah is brutally honest and even non PC at times. But he grew up in a turbulent world where often there was no room for PC.
If you want to know more about Trevor buy his book, "Born a Crime." But this article is not a story about his life, or how he learned to laugh. It is a story about how he taught all of Africa to laugh and now he's doing the same thing to his American audience. Laugh. Take the time to watch a few of his shows. They will make you laugh and above all make you realize that you can do anything if you set your mind to it.
