Born a Crime

Trevor Noah opens his memoir by articulating a central premise: that apartheid relied on creating artificial divisions between groups of people so that the white colonial elite could maintain their hold on power. He introduces the major tribes of South Africa, with a focus on the two main groups: the Zulu and Xhosa. He identifies the Zulu as having taken a forceful and combative approach to resisting colonial power, while the Xhosa primarily used strategy and political maneuvering. These different approaches led to increased tension between the two groups, and once apartheid fell, systematic oppression was replaced by different African tribes fighting against one another.