The father of Trevor Noah, a well-known comedian, political commentator, actor, producer, director, and television host from South Africa, is Robert Noah. During the height of Apartheid, Robert was a foreigner living in South Africa.
In the course of reading this article, you will learn what made Robert Noah stand out as well as a few more fascinating facts about Robert Noah. He was one of the few distinctive foreigners who lived in South Africa during this time.
Robert Noah’s biography
Trevor Noah, a comedian and multitalented individual from South Africa, is descended from Robert Noah. He is Swiss-German and used to relocate quite a bit, possibly as a result of the nature of his work. He was a very private person, and not much is known about him. In actuality, not much is known about his upbringing or family except for what has so far come out of his friendship with Trevor Noah.
Here Are 10 Facts You Didn’t Know About Robert Noah
1. Robert Noah’s Line of Work
The most well-known fact about Robert Noah—even to his son—was that he worked as a chef in both Canada and New York. This information, along with the fact that he was a chef and a well-known one at that given the amount of travel he did, suggests that he was one at the time he met Trevor’s mother in Johannesburg.
2. He despised apartheid.
Robert Noah detested segregation and apartheid. He was a foreigner with a difference, for sure. He detested racism and homogeneity and did not comprehend the reasoning behind the division of people based on skin tone.
3. Robert Noah Started A Distinctive Restaurant
During the apartheid era, Robert Noah opened the city of Johannesburg’s first-ever integrated restaurant. There was seating available in the restaurant for people of all racial and skin tones. He opened the restaurant against all odds and legal restrictions, and it became a huge success.
4. Robert had to shut down his eatery
The special license was given out of necessity even though Roberts’s restaurant had a license and the right to exist. But he had the freedom to run his restaurant however he pleased. White people, however, opposed Roberts’ plan for an integrated restaurant and worked to have it closed down.
Inspectors went to the restaurant and investigated several potential reasons to close it. These excuses ranged from health violations, which Robert was not responsible for, to demands for separate restrooms for the various races. Since Robert wouldn’t agree to these demands, he decided to shut down the restaurant.
5. He Was a Crime Offender
In the apartment complex where they both lived, Robert first met Patricia, his son’s mother. Patricia, a woman of color, was not permitted to rent a home in that neighborhood, but she obstinately did so, which usually led to a police report and perhaps even a jail sentence. Robert was aware of this, as were his other neighbors, but nobody brought it up and they all chose to ignore her.
6. Patricia and Robert Noah never wed.
Patricia Nombuyiselo (Noah), the mother of Robert Noah’s son, and Robert Noah never wed. It’s debatable whether they even had a romantic relationship at all. Trevor was a result of Patricia’s insistence. Robert was of Swiss-German descent, and Patricia was from a South African Xhosa-speaking tribe.
Robert eventually caved into Patricia’s proposal and got her pregnant out of wedlock even though he didn’t want to have children and Patricia wasn’t interested in getting married at the time. Trevor was born on February 20, 1984, thanks to Patricia.
7. He Put His Life In Danger To See His Son
When apartheid was at its worst, Trevor Noah was growing up in South Africa. Because it was against the law and a crime for a white person to interact with people of color, let alone father a child of color with a person of color, his dad couldn’t be seen with him. Robert and Patricia had to come up with a way to allow the father and son to meet and interact as a result. This would typically involve Robert taking his son to the park where they would interact while keeping a safe distance from one another.
8. Robert Noah’s Fatherly Role
Robert moved to Yeoville, which was a newly segregated area after Apartheid ended, and was thus free to see his son without fear. As there were children of other races at the park as well, it was legal for Robert to take Noah there and play with him.
When Robert and Noah started spending weekends and most holidays together, Noah found it to be a wonderful experience. Noah recalls his father as a quiet man, though. He would mostly listen, watch, and pay attention; he hardly ever spoke. However, Robert was a wonderful father and showed Trevor a lot of love.
9. He stopped speaking to Trevor
Trevor’s father stopped speaking to him when he was 13 years old. There are a variety of causes for this, including the possibility that Trevor reached the stage of adolescence where he desired to be independent of his parents.
The fact that Patricia married an abusive and openly jealous man who didn’t like it when his wife visited the father of their son is another factor.
These caused Trevor’s trips to see his father to lessen, and eventually, Robert moved to Cape Town. Trevor wasn’t concerned about his father moving to Cape Town at the time because he was too busy growing up.
10. Robert Noah Followed His Son’s Ascension To Stardom
Patricia encouraged Trevor to look for his father after he had been out of touch with him for about ten years. Despite Trevor’s best efforts, the mission was proving to be unachievable until he finally persuaded the Swiss embassy and managed to track down Robert.
When they reconnected, Robert showed Trevor a scrapbook of all of Trevor’s accomplishments over the years, dispelling Trevor’s belief that his father didn’t care about or love him. Trevor was reassured by his dad’s love for him through this deed.
A Succinct Summary of the Fallout Between Robert Noah and Trevor Noah and their Eventual Reconciliation
When Trevor’s visits grew less frequent, Robert Noah and his son Trevor lost contact. Trevor’s visits decreased from occurring every weekend to every other week, once a month, and finally whenever Patricia was able to elude her husband’s gaze while carrying her son.
Father and son’s relationship deteriorated as a result of this and the whites’ flight from Yeoville to Cape Town, which Robert participated in along with many of his friends when other races began moving into the community.
Trevor became so preoccupied with school and creating a life for himself that he found it easy to put his dad and his whereabouts out of his mind. He was still troubled by the ideas, though, because he was interested in learning why his father had abandoned him.
At this point, he had a stepfather and stepbrothers, but it wasn’t satisfying for him because his stepfather was abusive and nothing like his devoted and loving father, Robert.
Patricia insisted that she became pregnant with a foreigner who had returned to his country to save Robert from any problems, and as a result, she and Robert never wed and Patricia did not register her son, Trevor, with his father’s name as this would have put both of them in trouble during that period of intense apartheid and segregation. As a result, Trevor was unable to find his father at the time when he wanted to reach out to him.
Trevor believed that his father had stopped caring about and loving him, but his mother insisted that Trevor look for his father because she was certain that he still did. Given that Robert Noah had always been a very private person and that not many people knew him, this mission proved to be incredibly challenging.
Trevor had to go through the Swiss embassy, but no one helped him in his search because he had no proof of his relationship with Robert in the form of a certificate or other document. The only thing the embassy agreed to do was send Robert a letter. When Robert received the letter, he replied, and that was the start of the process leading to the reconciliation of father and son.
Trevor Noah decided to look for his father when he was 24 years old and had already accomplished a lot in life. Trevor wanted to tell his father about these accomplishments, catch up with him, and ask all the questions he had for him.
Trevor felt he was about to meet someone he didn’t know, which made the father-son meeting in Cape Town seem awkward. They hadn’t seen each other in ten years, and a lot had changed. Only a few details of their early relationship could Trevor recall.
However, there was no awkwardness because as soon as Robert and Trevor saw one another, their relationship quickly returned to normal. Robert even prepared Trevor’s childhood favorite dish, the “Rosti,” which he had never had before. Trevor was also shown an album by Robert that he had created from clips of all of Trevor’s published articles and victories. This warmed Trevor’s heart and made him realize that his father had not forgotten him but rather had been closely monitoring his progress toward success.
To make up for lost time and make up for the time that apartheid and Robert’s abusive stepfather had stolen from them, Trevor scheduled additional visits to Robert after this one.