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.