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away, but the priest always brought them to the ground. Trevor found this very amusing. However, as he and his family lived in Eden Park, a suburb outside Johannesburg, he always had to walk a long way to church, which he did not like. Some Sundays they would go to evening services, after which he would be so tired that he would just go to bed. When he was thrown out of the car, there was also such a service. While his 9-month-old brother was getting dressed, he took a bath. As his mother only had an old second-hand car which she had bought cheaply, it often wouldn't start. Trevor hated this car as it had been responsible for many things in his life, including the death of his mother, as she had married a mechanic who had tortured her and then put a bullet in the back of her head. The car wouldn't start this time either, Trevor hoped they could stay at home as the way was much too tedious otherwise, but his mother wanted to take a minibus. However, Trevor didn't want that, so he argued with his mother about what God wants and what the devil is doing to prevent this. When his mother said a word that had several meanings, he knew that the discussion was over. At that time Trevor still went to a Catholic school and was the sports day champion every year, his mother always won the mother trophy because she always chased him and wanted to kick his ass. It was like a Tom and Jerry game. As the son got older and could run away from his mother she always called a thief so Trevor could be caught by other people. In addition, there were always protests and violence in the streets, as it was decided that the blacks would be allowed to rule but it was not clear who, a struggle for power broke out. He and his mother used to watch all this in the news, yet his mother was not afraid. The day he was thrown out of the car, his mother and little brother took a minibus, because the blacks could not sit in the public transport, but these minibuses were run by criminals and if someone stole the bus route from the other, he was often killed. After they were on the minibus, they were stopped by another group a short time later and the driver was beaten up. Trevor's mum saved the man's life by saying he was just trying to help her and they got on the bus with the others. After talking to Trevor's mum, the bus driver noticed what political party she belonged to. He did not like this and wanted to kill her. To prevent this, the mother told Trevor that they were about to jump out of the car. Trevor did not even notice this because he was almost asleep. When the car started to slow down, the mum pushed Trevor out of the car and jumped in after him. Immediately she ran and she and he took off running, the mother with the small child under her arm. The drivers of the bus were startled and chased them for a while but could not keep up with their speed and left them alone. Then the mother called the police and they waited for the police to drive them home. Trevor didn't understand why they jumped out of the bus and hurt themselves, even though his mother had probably saved his life. Chapter 2: Born in a crime In this chapter Trevor tells how he grew up. At the time he was born it was forbidden for black and white people to have a child or a relationship, he grew up under apartheid. While other children were the proof of their parents' love, he was the proof of the crime they committed. His father was Swiss / German, but could never really build a relationship with his son because he was not allowed to be seen with him outside, only inside he sometimes played with him. In addition, there were districts where only white people were allowed to live, or only coloured people, or only black people. Trevor's mum did not obey this and other laws, and was often arrested and had to pay many fines. However, this did not stop her and she lived in a white neighbourhood because a prostitute had put her in touch with her and told her that she lived in a house rented by a white man. She often went to parties in the evening where white and black people partied together, but these parties were sometimes stopped by the police. Trevor's mum met Trevor's dad in the house they lived in, they had a relationship at first but Trevor's mum wanted a child while Trevor's dad didn't want a child, but somehow Trevor's mum managed to convince him to give her his sperm to have a child. At some point Trevor grew so big that his mother could no longer hide the colour of his skin, so a coloured woman would often run around with Trevor and go to the park, his mother running behind them, as being coloured was not forbidden. Then one day when they went to his grandmother's house, it was quite close. Because his grandmother lived in an area for blacks only and a coloured child was very conspicuous there, and it was still forbidden for a black mother to have a coloured child. So in this region everything was much more controlled and the police were heavily armed and there were only two roads in and out. When there was a riot they could blow up everything with bombs. However, they somehow managed to smuggle Trevor into his grandmother's house where he was only allowed to play in the backyard and in the house because his grandmother was afraid of being caught and Trevor would then have to go to a youth home and his mother to prison. But one day Trevor dug a hole under a fence and ran around on the streets, immediately everyone panicked and looked for him, including the police. This was because the grandmother's neighbour was a black man who worked for the whites and betrayed everything that was illegal. However, he was not caught. After Nelson Mandela came to power, Trevor found out that there were many other coloured children who had fled from the police to foreign countries like Switzerland or Germany, which was easier for the children because mixed parents were not forbidden here. Trevor then spoke to his mother, but she only said that she was born here and wanted to live here and that was why she did not flee. Chapter 3: Trevor, pray In this chapter Trevor tells how and where he grew up. He introduces Debie to all the family he knows and lives with. It consists mainly of women. He also tells how people build their houses and how poor everyone was in this area, for example, several people had to share one toilet, there was no running water, and it often took forever to build houses with real walls. It also became clear once again how superstitious and religious the community near him was. They often met and prayed together. Trevor was often the centre of attention because he could speak English and, according to their belief, the English prayers were perceived by God. Trevor also believed that his prayers were special after his grandmother pointed it out to him. The toilets were in a very bad condition, often with flies flying around and only newspaper for toilet paper. Then one day it rained and there was no one in the house except Trevor and his blind great-grandmother. As he had always been afraid of the toilet and the flies, he decided not to go to the toilet but to kaken on a newspaper and to throw it away. However, his great-grandmother heard this and informed everyone that she had heard something suspicious and Trevor went to sleep. When the flat started to smell, his mother was able to identify the cause. They all thought they had been cursed and burned the shit in the yard, and got everyone else from the community to come so they could help them drive out the demon. This time Trevor was also asked to say a prayer, which he did, but he chose his words wisely and said that maybe it wasn't a demon. That night he couldn't sleep too well and prayed to God again. However, it didn't come out that it was him who had heard the shit, because he didn't want to go to the toilet because he was afraid of it and it was all still wet that day. Chapter 4: Chameleon In this chapter Trevor learns about the races for the first time. For example, after he played with his cousins and they got hurt, he was not punished while the others were. Here Trevor realised that he was treated differently. Even in the neighbourhood he was considered very special, he was allowed to do things that were not normal for anyone else, and that was only because everyone saw him as white. Trevor's mother, however, still punished him because she saw him as a disobedient child. Trevor, however, did not perceive all this as different racial treatment, but thought he was treated that way because he was him. His mother learned many languages and Trevor learned to speak them too. These language skills opened doors for them, because no matter who spoke to them, they could answer them in their own language and the others would see them as part of their group. After apartheid ended, all the children could go to school. Thanks to his mother's job, Trevor was able to go to a private Catholic school. Here the classes were very mixed and there was no racial segregation, but some were still bullied. But not because of their origin or race. When Trevor then moved from primary school to secondary school, he was put in a class with all white children. This was because there was an aptitude test that sorted the children into classes from smart to stupid. All the black kids were in the not-so-smart groups. During the break, Trevor recognised the racial segregation again, but here he made himself very popular with the black children with his great language skills and made many new friends. As he did not make friends with the white children, he asked the headmistress to transfer him to the black class. The headmistress did so after a discussion. Here Trevor once again had to decide between white and black. He always saw himself as black because he grew up in a black family. Others first saw him as white because of his skin colour, but then also recognised him as black after he had shown them his language skills. Trevor worsened his outlook on the future just so he could be in the black class. Chapter 5: The second girl This chapter is about Trevor's mother. She had an older sister, the first born, and a brother who bore the family name. This made her quite worthless. At first she was brought up by Trevor's grandmother, but when she was nine years old she wanted to live with her father, which her mother agreed to and let her go. However, he took her to Trevor's aunt. There she lived for a long time in a hut with many cousins. But the aunt had only taken her in to let her work. She often had to go hungry and sometimes ate mud to feel full. Despite the ban at the time, there was a school near the unt. Trevor's mum attended school so that she could read and write, and she also spoke English. After school she worked as a seamstress in a factory and was paid a plate of food. After some time she wanted to return home to Trevor's grandmother. She did so and learned the profession of a secretary, which was very unusual for a black woman at that time. Since she now earned the most money, she had to provide for the family. She did this until she ran away and returned to the city. There she built up contacts and worked as a secretary. Here she also met Trevor's dad and gave birth to Trevor. When the house she was hiding in became too small, she moved with Trevor to a coloured area, Eden Park. This was because she was considered a prostitute in a black neighbourhood and could not afford the white neighbourhoods. Here she lived with Trevor, she did everything she could to educate Trevor and she did. She gave him many books to read, which were donated to them. Nevertheless, Trevor treated everything very carefully. His mother remained very frugal as they still didn't have much money, but they now had a proper house and Trevor had his own room. They did not buy anything new and took many donations from the church. Trevor's mum tried to show Trevor the whole world and all the opportunities he had, others thought she was crazy to show him because at that time apartheid was still in place and he would never have been able to leave the ghetto. Nevertheless, Trevor's mum wanted to show him that there was more than just the ghetto and that all doors were open to him. His mother also brought him up as if there was no apartheid, even though she didn't know if apartheid would ever end. Chapter 6: Loopholes This chapter shows how ill-bred Trevor was at a young age. When he was born, he was very headstrong at first and always thought only of his own wishes. Trevor's mum had imagined raising a child would be much easier. He always messed up a lot, but because he always ran away or could talk his way out of the situation, his mother decided to write letters telling him what to do in the house and what he had done wrong. He couldn't answer these letters so easily. He would have to write a letter back to her himself. So Trevor learned the language and how to write good letters. But he kept on writing shit. He didn't really want to fuck things up, he just had so much energy as a little kid. Since his mother also noticed this, she sometimes played with him in the park like a dog, so Trevor would get tired. In the Catholic church, too, he was always building rubbish and was punished for it, even with beatings, but he only had to laugh because the rector didn't know how to do such things. Trevor had learned from his mother to question everything, which he did, but often made many mistakes. Because he was always punished by the Catholic church, and they had done so much shit, they wanted to improve his behaviour or they had to kick him out of school, but it didn't come to that, because Trevor had already left the Catholic school before, and went to the state school. This was a good thing, because the school still resembled apartheid and because his mother had changed jobs, they had to pay all the costs themselves. His mother did not punish him for leaving school, but she did not give up on education. however, she was soon in an awkward situation after Trevor burned down a white family's house. From that day on, many in the family were afraid of him and called him a terror, and his mother was so stunned that she couldn't move him. But how did a white family's house burn down in the first place? Trevor's favourite things were knives and fire. After Trevor's mum had a new friend who was allowed to live with a white family who also had a son, they let them play together. One day Trevor brought a magnifying glass and some matches. They played with them at first, but after leaving them unattended in a room to play in the street, they caught fire and the whole house burned down. Fortunately, the family has insurance and Trevor's family did not have to pay anything. However, the white family kicked Trevor's mum's boyfriend out of the house, who then came to their house. He blamed Trevor for destroying his life. Chapter 7: Fufi This story is about pets. However, the family did not have just one pet, but several. First Trevor's mum got two cats from a colleague at work. This was impossible in the black neighbourhoods because of their superstition that cats were associated with witches. Therefore they were often killed. But since Trevor's family lived in a coloured neighbourhood, they thought this superstition was not so strong here. But they were wrong, one day when they came home, their cats had been brutally murdered and their house had African witch written on it. Trevor couldn't get over the loss of these animals very well, because the cats didn't show him much love either. He even forgot their names quite quickly. But soon a new phase of life began with dogs as pets. This was very common at that time. Every black family had a dog. This served as an alarm system. This time Trevor's mum got 2 dogs from a colleague. Because dogs are given names with meaning, dogs often had the same name, such as Dirty or Spotty, but Trevor's dog was called Fufi and his mother's dog was called Panther. However, Trevo's dog was deaf. They did not know this until his death. So a burglar broke the dog's spine and he had to be beaten to death at the vet. But before that, there was a lot of heartache. Because Trevor's dog could jump over the big wall and was therefore always with another family during the day. Trevor found this out after he stayed in the house during the holidays and his mother went to work. When he then followed Fufi, he noticed how he went to another family, but they also called the dog their dog. Only after Trevor's mum had given the other family some money did they let the dog go. That day Trevor learned a very important lesson about love. While others had this experience late in life, he had already had it and was able to help his friends through the difficult times. Chapter 8: Robert This chapter is about Trevor's father, as the title suggests. After Trevor was born, Robert decided to let him live in his life. After Robert's mum married Abel, contact slowly broke off. So Trevor had to take care of his own life. It was only after he was 24 and had not seen his father for almost 10 years that his mother got him to see his father. This turned out to be more difficult than he thought, but he was finally able to contact his father through the Swiss embassy. He invited him to his home. Robert had prepared Trevor's favourite meal and acted as if they had only seen each other last Saturday. What Trevor didn't know was that Robert had never forgotten him, since Trevor had become famous through his clubs and media appearances, Robert was able to stay informed about Trevor. In fact, he was so proud of Trevor that he put together an album of everything he could find about him. Trevor tried to get to know his father better as he knew almost nothing about him, but his father remained very secretive. Nevertheless, he tried to get closer to Trevor during the time he was with him. But to make up for such a long time you need a lot of time, and Trevor had to learn that first. So he tried to squeeze everything out of Robert immediately, like in an interview. But this did not work because his father was cagey and told him that this was no way to get to know each other. Chapter 9: The mulberry tree Here it becomes clear that even after apartheid, racial segregation did not stop. So Nelson Mandela rned everything people thought upside down. This leads to everyone hating everyone. Whites saw Trevor as too black, blacks saw him as too white and so on. So there