Robert Noah is the father of popular South African Comedian, Political commentator, actor, producer, director, and television host, Trevor Noah. Robert was a foreigner living in South Africa during the heat of the Apartheid.
He was one of the few unique foreigners who lived in South Africa during this period and in the course of reading this article, you will find out what made him stand out and a couple of more amazing facts about Robert Noah.
Who Is Robert Noah?
Robert Noah is the father of South African Comedian and multi-talented, Trevor Noah. He is a Swiss-German who used to move around quite frequently then perhaps due to the nature of his job. He was a private man and very little was known about him. In fact, almost nothing is known about his background and family except, for now, the relationship with Trevor Noah which has revealed a few things about him.
Here Are 10 Details About Robert Noah You Didn’t Know
1. Robert Noah’s Profession
The most about Robert Noah known to the public and even his Son was that he was a chef in Canada and New York. This information put alongside his line of business in Johannesburg as of the time he met Trevor’s mum suggests that he was indeed a chef and a renowned one at that because he traveled a lot too.
2. He Hated Apartheid
Robert Noah hated apartheid and the idea of segregation. He was indeed a foreigner with a difference. He hated racism and homogeneity and he did not understand the concept behind the separation based on skin color.
3. Robert Noah Opened A Unique Restaurant
Robert Noah opened the first-ever integrated restaurant in Johannesburg during the apartheid. The restaurant accommodated people from any race and with any skin color. He defied all odds and laws to set up the restaurant and it grew to be a huge success.
4. Robert Was Forced To Close His Restaurant
Although Roberts’s restaurant was licensed and had the right to exist, the special license was distributed out of necessity. He, however, had the right to do what he wanted with his restaurant. However, some white people did not buy Roberts’s idea of an integrated restaurant and sought to have it shut down.
Inspectors visited the restaurant and looked for many reasons to shut the restaurant down. These reasons were ranging from health violations which Robert was not guilty of, to insisting on separate toilets for the different races and since Robert wouldn’t have that, he opted to close down the restaurant instead.
5. He Was A Culprit To A Crime
Robert met Patricia, the mother of his son in the apartment building where they lived. Patricia a colored woman was not permitted to rent a house in that neighborhood but she stubbornly did and the result of this would usually be a report to the authorities and possibly, an eventual jail term. Robert knew this, alongside his other neighbors but nobody reported her and they all covered her up.
6. Robert Noah And Patricia Never Got Married
Robert Noah and the mother of his son, Patricia Nombuyiselo (Noah) never got married. In fact, it’s quite uncertain if they had as much as a romantic relationship. They had Trevor from the insistence of Patricia. Patricia was from the Xhosa-speaking tribe of South Africa while Robert was of Swiss-German origin.
Although Robert did not want to have a child and Patricia wasn’t interested in getting married at the point, Robert finally gave in to Patricia’s proposition and got her pregnant out of wedlock. On the 20th of February 1984, Patricia gave birth to Trevor.
7. He Risked His Life To See His Son
Trevor Noah grew up in South Africa at the peak of apartheid. His dad couldn’t be seen with him because it was illegal and a crime for a white to have anything to do with colored people let alone father a colored child with a colored partner. Due to this, Robert and Patricia had to devise a means of letting father and son meet and see. This was usually tripping to the park where Robert would connect with his son while maintaining a safe distance from him.
8. Robert Noah As A Father
After Apartheid ended and Robert was now free to see his son without fear, he moved to Yeoville which was a newly segregated area and so could afford to take Noah out to the park and play with him as there were kids from other races at the park too and it was allowed.
Robert and Noah began to spend weekends and most holidays together and it was a blissful experience for Noah at the time. However, Noah remembers his dad to be a man of few words. He rarely spoke and would mostly listen, watch and pay attention. Robert was however a great father and very affectionate to Trevor.
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9. He Lost Touch With Trevor
When Trevor was 13 years old, he lost touch with his father. The reasons for this range from the fact that Trevor probably got to that teenage stage in his life of wanting to be away from his parents.
There is also the fact that Patricia got married to an overtly jealous and abusive husband who wasn’t comfortable with his wife going to see the father of her son.
As a result of these, Trevor’s visits to his dad’s became less frequent, and eventually, Robert moved to Cape Town. At the time, Trevor was busy growing up to even bother about his dad’s move to Cape Town.
10. Robert Noah Kept Track Of His Son’s Journey To Stardom
After about 10 years of losing touch with his dad, Patricia encouraged Trevor to search for his dad. Trevor did all he could do but it was proving to be an impossible mission until he finally convinced the Swiss embassy and was able to locate Robert.
Their reconnection revealed that contrary to what Trevor thought about his dad not loving or caring about him, Robert actually did as he showed him a scrapbook he kept of every published feat of Trevor over the years. This act reassured Trevor of his dad’s love for him.
Brief Summary Of Robert Noah And Trevor Noah’s Fallout And Their Eventual Reconciliation
Robert Noah and his son, Trevor, lost communication and touch when Trevor’s visit became less frequent. Trevor moved from visiting every weekend, to every other week then once a month, and then it was whenever Patricia was able to sneak out of her husband’s sight with her son.
With this and the flight from Yeoville to Cape Town by the whites which Robert was part of as many of his friends were fleeing too when other races started moving into Yeoville, Father and son grew farther apart.
Trevor got busy with school and building a life for himself that he was easily distracted from thinking about his dad and his whereabouts. However, the thoughts still bugged him as he was curious to know why his dad had abandoned him.
He had a stepfather and stepbrothers at this point but it wasn’t fulfilling as his stepfather was abusive and nothing like his caring and affectionate father, Robert.
Due to the fact that Patricia and Robert never got married neither did she 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, and Patricia insisted that she got pregnant for a foreigner who had returned back to his country in order to save Robert from any problems, therefore, Trevor was unable to locate his father at the time when he wanted to reach out to him.
Trevor felt that his father stopped loving and caring about him, but his mother kept telling him it wasn’t the case and insisted that Trevor look for his dad as she was certain he loved him. This mission proved to be really difficult because Robert Noah had always been a very private person and nobody knew much about him.
Trevor had to go through the Swiss embassy but since he had no certificate or document proving to be related to Robert, he wasn’t assisted in his search. The embassy only agreed to send a letter through to Robert and when he got the letter, he replied and that was the beginning of the journey towards father and son’s reconciliation.
Trevor Noah was 24 years old when he decided to look for his dad and he had achieved quite a lot in life. These achievements, Trevor wanted to share with his dad as well as catch up with him and get answers to all the questions he had for his father.
The meet between father and son in Cape Town was seeming to be an awkward one as Trevor felt he was about to meet someone he didn’t know. It had been a decade since they last saw and a lot had changed. Trevor could only remember bits and pieces from their early relationship.
The awkwardness wasn’t the case though because when father and son saw each other, they quickly fell back to how they were and Robert even made Trevor’s favorite meal when he was a young lad; the ‘Rosti’. Robert also showed Trevor an album he made from clips of all Trevor’s published articles and wins and that warmed Trevor’s heart and made him realize that indeed his dad did not forget him but on the contrary, he was closely following up on his journey to being a successful man.
After this visit, Trevor arranged more visits to Robert in order to try and make up for lost times and catch up with whatever time apartheid and an abusive stepfather stole from them.
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