Trevor Noah accepts the Leadership in Democracy award at the NDI 2019 Democracy Gala

and now, ladies and gentlemen, it is my honor to present the ND i Leadership and Democracy Award to incumbent Trevor Noah. Thank you and good night. First of all, thank you Secretary Albright for ambushing me at an event in Seattle and telling me you'd be here. I grew up. In a country where I grew up and we were raised by many amazing and powerful women and Secretary Albright, you would fit in perfectly as an African mother, you really would, thank you so much for inviting me here. Thank you very much for that beautiful interpretation. I think we have a lot in common.

I also live in a very dangerous place known as the United States and it has truly been quite a journey for me. I'm not going to lie, you know? I grew up in a country where many of you know that apartheid laws restricted freedom of expression. They know everything from songs that were considered political to comedies that were expressly political. I didn't have much access to satire. I didn't grow up knowing that you could say whatever you wanted. about their government and I was lucky that when I was young apartheid ended and I started to see people saying what they felt.

I started seeing people expressing who they were talking about what was happening around them and the most magical thing I saw them do. They made people laugh while they were doing it and laughter for me has always been a powerful tool because I always believe that it is the core essence of who we are and it reminds us of who we are as human beings. You are not afraid when you laugh. you, you, you know you're gone and you're surprised when you laugh, it's really just you at your core, that's why your laugh sounds as ugly as it does and I always loved it, I always loved the power of humor.

I loved how people could use it to disarm those who would perceive them as enemies. I loved how people could use it to unite people towards a common goal. I remember one of the first times I saw comedy told in a setting I really didn't think it would be. I was at a protest with my grandfather and we were walking through the streets of Johannesburg and I don't know what the protest was about. I don't know why people were marching. The only thing I remember is that I was with him in the streets and there were policemen on horses and there is something about a policeman on horseback that makes them even scarier than they already can be and we would never walk near horses and on this occasion we we get particularly close. me and my grandpa my grandpa is a very boisterous and funny man and he looked at the cop and the cop looked at us and said hey get out of the damn road move and my grandpa stopped you know this possum thief man 70 something 80 something years old and he looked at this police officer and said teacher, can I ask you a question?

He didn't know anything about the world, but he knew that what he had just done could get us killed. You don't talk to a man on a horse and my grandfather looked at him and I have to give you a little context before I tell you what he said the week before in South Africa we had had our version of the Kentucky Derby and when the horses run and someone kisses the winning horse and the person who would kiss the winning horse was the prime minister of South Africa and I will never forget it. My grandfather looked at the policeman and said teacher, I have a question for you, why can your president kiss a horse but he won?

I didn't kiss my sister and I was like wow biting and powerful and I mean when I was a kid I was so quick like wow I mean I don't even know what just happened here and the cop looked at him and his eyes they shine, it's not rounded and he looked at my grandfather and said what and I think the confusion and the end and the curiosity took over because he said I don't know why and my grandfather said because you don't. I didn't see my sister and I saw something in that moment that I had never really seen before.

I saw that policeman laugh, he laughed from his belly in a way he didn't even expect, he laughed with my grandfather and I had never seen that before. I had never seen a white cop laughing with a black guy and we left and I remember as a kid I just remember thinking wow, jokes are great, you can make people laugh, jokes are great and it wasn't until many years later that I realized. how brilliant that whole idea was I didn't know what my grandfather was doing, I mean, in one fell swoop and in just a few sentences he had criticized the very idea of ​​apartheid in South Africa he had questioned the structure that had held it back for so long and the The way he had done it made his oppressor laugh with him and he came out unscathed and I think it took me years and years and years of learning comedy and satire and and the tools that we use.

He used to make people laugh to really understand what he had done. I mean, at first I thought of it as a joke and as the years went by I began to understand how wonderful that little moment was and that stuck with me. That's what I've been. All my life, that's how my family has been all our lives, we have laughed through difficult times, you know, as a family, as a nation, you know, and we laughed as we celebrated the dawn of a new era in South Africa. I saw comedy emerge. I saw a black performance on stage for the first time performing before the White people in South Africa, you know, and I saw for the first time the power, the power that this medium has to uncover truths that people are so afraid to talk about, and I really felt lucky and I always think I'm lucky because the birth of comedy in South Africa really sparked something interesting and maybe it was because Africa experienced a bloodless revolution, but we immediately had a thriving comedy community, we immediately had this beautiful comedy industry.

Blooming comedy, you know? that was I was free to speak my mind and here we were for the first time black comedians and white comedians black audience members white audience members Asians of Indian color all together in a room telling truths using this medium and some of those troops Some of them were painful. They were very familiar, but one thing that was always common was that they made people laugh and that was one of the first spaces in South Africa where we really saw people come together. I never considered myself a political comedian. I still don't do it. per se and I remember when I moved from South Africa, you know, a friend of mine said to me, so now you're going to go to America to present the daily show and I said yes, you know, I mean, I'm looking.

I'm looking forward to the change. You know, I have lived in a country for so long where we have a leader who has completely ignored all the norms and practices that made this nation what it is today and a leader who has enriched his family through unscrupulous actions. . it means and continues to diminish everything we have built this nation on. I said I'm looking forward to a break from that. I'm going to a first world country and I came to the United States and Barack Obama was president and I was like wow, this is going to be easy, this is sweet, there's not much to talk about, but we'll figure it out and then 2016 happened and also my program and many people have told me that they left.

Yo, Trevor, do you think? you would be hosting the daily show you want for Donald Trump, do you think that would have been? And the truth is, you don't know when people say, so it's good for The Daily Show, no, it's not good for the Daily Show. I don't think any leader who is divisive and abrasive like Donald Trump is is good for comedy, if anything I think comedy is good for him, you know, I think, and one thing I've always appreciated, especially in America . It is the ability to laugh at a leader who does not want to be laughed at.

It is one of the fundamental pillars of freedom, it really is because, fundamentally, in my opinion, when you can laugh at someone in power, you remind them that you love them. You like that you are still a human being who is responsible to other human beings and once that is eliminated there is no more jokes there is no more laughter there is no more fun and that is why I am often very careful to stay away from the idea that the comedy allows freedom no, no, freedom, freedom allows comedy, comedy is a byproduct of that freedom, when you have comedy, then you know you have a certain element, you have a certain amount of freedom and that is something that appreciation. every day, so I thank you for allowing me to be in this room with some of the most incredible satirists in the world who work in much more hostile environments than I do.

I dream of working on, you know, some of those who told their stories now. and in catchy, I'm a big fan of yours. I don't know what part of the room you're in, but I loved it, I loved watching the show in Nigeria and I loved the stories that were told on the show, so I appreciate this, I will say. This before I go, although one thing I have learned in this time is that comedy is based on a few things, one is based on freedom and it is also based on a common understanding and a common agreement about the truth, which is why people love because it is true and as the truth erodes we have learned that jokes become less funny because people do not know what the truth is and that is why they do not know what they are laughing at we have learned that we have learned that irony, satire and sarcasm has slowly had to take a backseat and we've had to become more explicit and I don't want to be alarmist as a person, you know, I don't like it when people are like Oh, America, no, no, no.

I don't know if it's doomed or not, what I do know is that there are often signs that the freedoms one takes for granted are actually being eroded. No dictatorship began overnight. In fact, many of them started out as a

democracy

, and I know that many Americans often take pride in themselves. saying we won't be here in America or anywhere until it happens I'm not saying it will happen I'm saying we have to be vigilant to make sure it doesn't happen, you know, I remember Barack Obama saying before he left. he told people, he said, you know, everyone,

democracy

is something that we have to make sure we don't take for granted, a lot of people didn't listen and they said, don't worry, Barry, we got you, we went black, we're not.

We will never go back, we have learned, we have learned, we have learned that you can always go back, so I appreciate this, I appreciate the platform, I appreciate living in a beautiful country where I can do what I do, you know, I appreciate it. John Stewart, who started a legacy that has spread around the world and inspired people to do this in multiple different ways and I will tell all of us to continue. I continue to fight for freedoms around the world. Let us continue to uplift those who have no voices, let us fight to be progressive, let us advance marginalized voices using comedy, using whatever freedom of expression we are allowed, but no, let us never forget that that is the main thing, the same democracy that gave us freedom. the same democracy that can get you a Donald Trump, so good evening, ladies and gentlemen, thank you for having