Who is Trevor Noah’s mom? In what ways did push the boundaries of apartheid and post-apartheid era South Africa? And how did she shape the comedian into the success he is today?

Trevor Noah’s mom is Patricia Noah. She chose to give birth to Noah as an act of protest during apartheid and raised Noah primarily on her own. Trevor Noah’s mom taught him to be assertive, creative, and independent.

Learn how Patricia Noah’s early life turned her into the woman she became, and how her relationship with Trevor developed over the years.

Early Life: Trevor Noah’s Mom

Trevor Noah’s mom, Patricia, like Noah, never felt a true sense of belonging growing up. She was a troublemaker as a child, already stubborn, and rebellious. Her mother didn’t think Patricia acted like a girl should act.

As neither the eldest daughter nor a son who would carry on the family name, she wasn’t significant in her family structure. She and her mother were always at odds.

Patricia Goes to Live With Relatives

When Patricia was nine, she requested to live with her father. Her mother complied, but instead of taking her in, her father sent her to live with his sister in Transkei, the Xhosa homeland. She wouldn’t reunite with any of them for 12 years.

At her aunt’s house, she lived with 14 cousins in a hut, all from different parents. They were also children whose parents didn’t want them around or couldn’t afford them.

In Transkei, so little land had been allocated by the government, the residents were crammed in. There was no water or electricity. The land was overrun and the soil infertile. Money was scarce, so most families subsisted through low-level farming.

Patricia was only taken in to help work the fields. There was barely enough food for all the children to eat. When they did have food, she had to fight the others for it. When they didn’t, she would steal food from the animals: whatever scraps she could scrounge. Sometimes, she ate dirt just to feel something in her stomach.

The only saving grace in Transkei was the still-operational missionary school, where Patricia was able to learn English. She learned to read and write, and when she was old enough, she went to work in a factory close by. As compensation, she received a meal. To Patricia, it was the best meal of her life because she’d earned it and didn’t have to rely on anyone else.

When her aunt became sick, Patricia went back to Soweto and enrolled in the secretarial school that would change her life. She was 21. Her move to Johannesburg a year later was to escape what she called the “black tax,” or the destiny of poor blacks who have to make up for the past degradation of their families. She knew that if she stayed in Soweto, she’d never make it anywhere, no matter how hard she tried, because she’d always be stuck trying to bring everyone in her family out of poverty.

Young Adulthood: Trevor Noah’s Mom

Many aspects of Patricia’s life at that time were illegal. During apartheid, there were few jobs available for blacks. Men worked as manual laborers on farms, in factories, or in mines, and women worked in factories or as domestic workers. But Patricia was never one to conform.

As a young woman living in the township of Soweto with her family, she took a typing course. Skilled jobs or executive positions were reserved for whites, making her efforts seem futile. But the government, under pressure from international communities regarding the unjust nature of apartheid, rolled back the restrictions on labor in the 1980s. White business owners could now hire “diversity hires,” or the token black person, in clerical positions low on the corporate ladder. Patricia was able to find secretarial work for a large pharmaceutical company located in a suburb of the rich white area of Johannesburg.

It was forbidden for blacks to live in Johannesburg. But Patricia had grown tired of life in Soweto. So, one day, she packed what little belongings she had and moved to Johannesburg. She was 22.

Trevor Noah’s Mom Hides in Plain Sight

Patricia had to find a way to live in a city that forbade it. At first, she slept in public restrooms. Then, she met a few Xhosa prostitutes who helped her learn how to live in the city. The women helped Patricia disguise herself as a maid so she could walk around undetected. They helped her meet white men who were willing to rent apartments to black women for a price, which was often not monetary. Fortunately, Patricia made enough from her job to pay rent and didn’t have to barter with her body.

She was often caught and arrested. Black maids were forced to carry documentation validating their labor status and right to move around the city, which other laborers were not allowed to do. Patricia didn’t have this documentation, but she always had money to pay the fine. She would be released from jail and go back to doing the same thing.

Patricia Noah’s Protest

Patricia’s apartment was in a culturally active, artistic community called Hillbrow. This location was more liberal and home to whites who disapproved of or didn’t care about apartheid. One of these people was a Swiss-German named Robert.

Robert was almost twice Patricia’s age, and their relationship was more friendship than lovers. Still, one night, she propositioned him about having a child. Not only was having Robert’s baby a form of resistance for Patricia, it was also advantageous. She wanted a baby, not a marriage, and Robert said he didn’t want a child. Also, because it was illegal, he could have no legal claim to the baby. He said no many times before finally conceding.

On February 20, 1984, Patricia gave birth to Noah. She told the doctors the father was from a different country to explain Noah’s complexion. Despite their dubiousness, the doctors accepted her story because they had to fulfill the requirements of race and nationality on the birth certificate. On Noah’s birth certificate, there is no one listed as his father and his nationality simply says “another country.”

Patricia Conceals Her Crime

It was dangerous for Trevor Noah’s mom Patricia to be seen with a mixed child. As a baby, she could wrap him up in a swaddle to hide him, but as Noah grew bigger, hiding him became problematic.

She found a solution. Patricia acted as if Noah was a colored child, meaning he had colored parents, which wasn’t illegal. She sent him to a colored daycare and found a colored woman in her building who agreed to pretend to be Noah’s mother when they went out. Patricia would act as the maid. If Patricia had to take Noah out alone, she’d have to pretend he wasn’t hers if any police were around.

Motherhood: Patricia’s Strength

After apartheid ended, Trevor Noah and his mother, Patricia, would often drive through their community of Eden Park amidst fires and rioters in the streets. Most of their neighbors hid from the violence, but not Patricia. She had a life to lead, and she wasn’t about to allow the violence to get in her way. Trevor Noah’s mother Patricia was stubborn, brazen, and brave, qualities Noah admired in his mother. On one Sunday morning when Noah was nine, he would find out just how fierce his mother was.

Trevor Noah’s Mom Throws Him From a Moving Bus

It was on one of these Sundays when Trevor Noah’s mother threw him out of a moving vehicle to save him from a violent encounter. Here’s how the story began. Patricia owned a used VW Beetle that broke down constantly. That morning was no different. Without a car, Noah, Patricia, and his infant brother, Andrew, were required to take a minibus.