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Chapter 2
Themes
Key
LitCharts assigns a color and icon to each theme in Fiela’s Child, which you can use to track the themes throughout the work.
Race and Identity
Parenting
Justice
Humanity vs. Nature
Summary
Analysis
Fiela sees some bad omens but only recognizes them as bad in hindsight. With her husband, Selling Komoetie, she watches her children, including Benjamin, as they herd an ostrich back home with thorny branches. Fiela and her whole family are “Coloured” (multiracial, and what would be considered Black in most other parts of the world today) except for Benjamin, who is white. Fiela discovered Benjamin abandoned when he was about three years old. It has been a hot summer, and Kloof gets little relief from it, with ostriches being one of the few things that live there. Ostriches often die when young, but Fiela has a male one named Kicker that survived. The ostrich her children are leading now is a hen that Fiela bought and hopes to mate with Kicker.
In South Africa there is a standalone group on the census called “Coloured” that refers specifically to people with mixed European, African, and Asian heritage. This population group is particularly prevalent around the Western Cape of South Africa, where this story takes place. This use of “Coloured” is different from in the U.S./UK, where “Coloured” (or “Colored”) simply means “Black” and can carry an outdated, offensive connotation, whereas “Coloured” in South Africa is still in use today.
Themes
When Benjamin gets back with the other children and the ostrich, the first thing he does is check on his boats, which he carves out of pieces of wood. Just then, two men in black hats and suits approach Fiela. They look like either preachers or peddlers. Fiela is suspicious of strangers. The men explain that they’re census-takers there from the government. Fiela hopes that Benjamin goes far away with the boats so the men don’t see him. The men ask if anyone here can read and write, and Fiela says she can. She begins giving the census-takers information for Selling and then for herself, including approximately when they were born and when they got married (1859).
The children and the ostrich show an early example of humanity’s relationship with nature. Benjamin and the others can’t control the ostrich—they can only guide it with the thorn branches to show what’s wrong. This has parallels with Fiela’s own parenting method, where she guides her children but also gives them a lot of independence (shown in this passage where she allows Benjamin to go off on his own to play with his wooden boats). The suits of the census-takers convey their higher status.
Themes
Fiela worries again about Benjamin when the census-takers begin asking questions about her children. Kittie, their first child was born in 1856, then Dawid in 1857, Tollie in 1858, and Emma in 1860. Finally, after hesitating Fiela says Benjamin, who is about 12 years old, was born in 1862. The men get suspicious when Fiela says there’s no one else in the house, noting that in this area, “hangers on” often live with families, but Fiela says there’s no room at her place for anyone who can’t work.
Since Fiela’s Child is a work of historical fiction, the time of the setting is important, and so this passage helps establish how Fiela’s and Selling’s fictional life stories intertwine with the real history of South Africa. The census-takers comments about “hangers on” hints at a racist attitude—they believe many Coloured people are “hangers on,” meaning they’re unemployed or otherwise unable to provide for themselves.
Themes
All of a sudden, while Fiela is answering questions for the census-takers, Benjamin comes back from his boats. The census-takers instantly notice that unlike the rest of Fiela’s family, Benjamin is white. The men get suspicious and ask where Fiela found Benjamin. She says she found him right where they are sitting, about nine years ago. Fiela guesses that Benjamin’s mother abandoned him. The men remember a child that disappeared around that time in Kom’s Bush. Fiela protests that while Kom’s Bush may seem close, there are steep mountains around Kloof, and it’s impossible a three-year-old child made his way over them, especially nine years ago when there were no roads. She believes Benjamin looked too clean to have come from far away.
Although the census-takers don’t act violent toward Fiela or explicitly insult her, they nevertheless betray their racist attitudes in more subtle ways. Even though they themselves are outsiders, they constantly doubt Fiela’s opinions, not believing her claim that it’s impossible for a child to make it from Kom’s Bush to Long Kloof. Fiela tries to use logic to prove that Benjamin can’t be the missing child, but the census-takers give more credence to their gut feeling that there’s something wrong with a Coloured woman raising a white child.
Themes
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The census-takers accuse Fiela of lying to them. She admits she doesn’t know when Benjamin was born but that everyone in town knows he’s her son. The one man goes over to Benjamin and begins talking to him about boats. Eventually, the two men get ready to leave, but they say that they are going to inquire about the other missing child.
The census-takers suspect that Fiela is lying to them for no other reason than because she’s Coloured and they don’t trust Coloured people. As agents of the government, they reflect the law’s bias against Coloured people.
Themes
