Born a Crime

Reading Check and Short Answer Questions on key plot points are designed for guided reading assignments, in-class review, formative assessment, quizzes, and more.

Chapters 1-5

Reading Check

1. As Noah explains in his overview of apartheid in South Africa, the number of Black South Africans outnumbered white ones by what ratio?

2. How many nights a week, typically, does Noah attend church as a child?

3. What group does Noah dub “the white tribe of Africa”? (Chapter 2)

4. Noah’s father, named Robert, is a mixture of which two white ethnicities?

5. Who was the only “semi-regular” male figure in Noah’s early childhood?

6. Noah explains how, with his “mixed” identity, he could adapt in adverse environments to be whatever race would be advantageous to him. Within this explanation, he compares himself to what animal?

7. In Noah’s words, the apartheid government built a specific kind of school to “cripple the black mind” (Chapter 5). What is this type of school called?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Using the Xhosa and Zulu tribes in your response, describe how white South Africans in power controlled various levels of rights and privileges in order to control the tribes and keep them quarrelling with one another.

2. Why is Noah ejected from a moving vehicle by his mother at the age of 9?

3. South African Christianity, in Noah’s opinion, is a perfect example of how South African culture tends to mix the old and the new, the ancient and the modern. How so?

Paired Resource

"Trevor Chats with His Grandma About Apartheid and Tours Her Home, 'MTV Cribs'-Style"

• In this The Daily Show clip, Noah visits his 91-year-old grandmother Gogo/Koko in her home in Soweto, the primary setting for Noah’s childhood stories in Chapters 1-5.
• This video provides a clear picture of the township of Soweto as well as Noah’s childhood home and suggests connections to the themes of Language as a Cultural Tool and Identity and Race in Apartheid South Africa.
• What struck you most about Gogo’s/Koko’s recollection of apartheid South Africa? What were her memories of Noah with regard to his acceptance by other Black children in the community?

Chapters 6-8

Reading Check

1. Under apartheid’s racial classification system, how were Chinese people classified?

2. When Noah is an adult, rather than having verbal arguments, he and his mother work through their disagreements by what means?

3. What is Noah’s family nickname for him when he is a child?

4. Noah’s mother had two of what kind of animal as pets that were later murdered by their neighbors?

5. In Chapter 7, who does Noah say is his “first heartbreak”?

6. Noah and his father see each other with regularity until Noah turns 13, when his father moves to what city?

7. Noah’s father is known for opening the first integrated business of what kind?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why did Noah’s mother tell Noah that he needed to find his father?

2. Fufi would regularly jump over Noah’s family’s five-foot fence. What happens when Noah follows her on one such occasion when she leaps over the fence?

Paired Resource

“Trevor Noah’s Mom Doesn’t Care He’s a Celebrity”

• In this video interview with Noah, he explains to Jimmy Kimmel more about his mother’s tenacious spirit and his experience of growing up with her.
• How does Noah’s mother not caring that he is now a celebrity fit into what you know about her personality as described by Noah in this section?

Chapters 9-14

Reading Check

1. As described in Chapter 9, what type of tree grows in Noah’s front yard during the time when he lives in Eden Park?

2. When Noah is 12 years old, he transfers from a Catholic school to what primary school?

3. What holiday does Noah recall celebrating in school for the first time at his new primary school?

4. What gifts does Noah bring to his classmate Marlene, as described in Chapter 10?

5. Noah attended a “Model C school,” which was run by a mixture of both government and private stakeholders. Noah compares Model C schools to what type of schools in the United States?

6. Noah compares his beautiful friend Zaheera’s appearance to that of what well-known actress?

7. As the only Black child in a white suburb, Noah writes in Chapter 13 about what being his main strategy for making friends?

8. How many official languages does South Africa have?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Why does Noah consider having an undefined heritage a “curse”?

2. What is the important resource that Noah’s mother is particularly good at conserving? Describe one of the more unusual ways she conserves this resource.

Paired Resource

“What Happened to Teddy?—Between the Scene"

• In this brief clip from The Daily Show, Noah recounts an encounter with Teddy as an adult, years after Teddy’s expulsion from school.
• Knowing what you know of Teddy from this section of the book, does this outcome align with what you expected?

Chapters 15-18

Reading Check

1. What are the names of the three Chinese students transferred to Sandringham that Noah mentions in Chapter 15?

2. What is the gift that Daniel gave to Noah that “changed his life” (Chapter 15)?

3. When Noah becomes a successful DJ, what is the unusual/striking name of the most talented dancer in his dance crew?

4. In what neighborhood did Noah’s friend Sizwe live?

5. Chapter 17 begins with Noah telling the story of how he once stole what item because his mother would not buy them for him?

6. When Noah is arrested for being in a (supposedly) stolen vehicle, the prison guard keeps trying to speak to Noah in what language?

7. How does Noah refer to the dessert that’s known to Americans as Jell-O?

Short Answer

Answer each question in at least 1 complete sentence. Incorporate details from the text to support your response.

1. Briefly explain what differences and similarities Noah sees in how history is taught to school children in Germany, South Africa, and America. What does Noah understand to be the significance of the differences?

2. Why were “cheese boys” in a uniquely difficult situation when apartheid ended, according to Noah?

Paired Resource

"Why South Africa Is Still So Segregated"

• This 2021 Vox clip examines the laws and legal policies that sustain segregation in modern-day South Africa, even though apartheid has ended.
• How does the portrait of South Africa presented in the video compare with the one we find in Noah’s Born a Crime?

Recommended Next Reads

No Easy Walk to Freedom: Speeches, Letters, and Other Writings

• A collection of essays, speeches, and other writings by South African president Nelson Mandela, written between 1953 and 1964
• This collection gives readers a look at the evolution of Mandela’s political outlook, strategies, and anti-apartheid activities.
• No Easy Walk to Freedom on SuperSummary.com

No Future Without Forgiveness

• First published in 1999, this is the memoir of Nobel Prize for Peace-winner Desmond Tutu, focusing on his political work from 1995-1998, but also describing his childhood in apartheid South Africa.
• No Future Without Forgiveness on SuperSummary.com