Racial Discrimination
'The child is back with his people and you'll be on the wrong side of the law if you try and upset things again. You would not have been able to have kept him much longer in any case.' pg185
Petrus tried to convince Fiela that Benjamin is not returning, after Petrus saw the magistrate.
Race plays an important role in the interactions between characters in Fiela's Child. Matthee uses dialogue to illustrate how the relationship between the white and the "Coloured" is often strained and conflicted.
Census takers
The Colored are expected to address their white peers as “master” or even “your worshipful Lord,” as seen when Fiela instructs Benjamin about how to speak to the magistrate.
Petrus implies since Fiela is black she wouldn't have been able to get away with it and the law eventually will catch up with her.
By exposing that the characters view the correspondence between white and black as that of master and servant, Matthee denounces the dehumanization and discrimination inherent in a society where black people are expected to constantly denigrate themselves. That the word 'Colored' is routinely capitalized further serves to distinguish black from white.
'Very few of you coloured people do know.' pg 16
The van Rooyens, as residents of the forest, have more in common with the Komoeties in terms of class than they do with the English people in Knysna village.
Because Fiela is black, the government also finds it acceptable to take Benjamin and provide her with little explanation.
The census takers implying that most coloured people don't know their date of birth because they have no sense of time. Its very offensive as the census taker is probably assuming that Selling's family was poor and wasn't able to tell the time or date and instead they just live life day by day.
The word 'Coloured' is also capitalised to have a clear description between the blacks and the whites like the Komoeties and the census takers.
'He called me missus, Ebenezer, it's too terrible. Like a 'Coloured' ' Ebenezer's ( census taker ) wife pg 129
This line—spoken by the wife of Ebenezer, the census man who took Benjamin from the Long Kloof—expresses the normality of racism in 19th-century South Africa. The wife is shocked that Benjamin, a white child, has referred to her with the same terminology as a black person would do. This not only surprises her but also makes her pity Benjamin, as she and many others believe that life in a black family is inherently inferior. The irony, of course, is that Benjamin is much happier in the Komoetie home than with the van Rooyens and eventually makes his own decision to return there to live
'During which pestilence or disaster were you born' pg 16
Very offensive. Census taker just assuming that FIela was born during a disaster and not normally. He thinks that all Coloured People are born during pestilences or diasters.
When Barta finally reveals that Benjamin is not truly Lukas, Elias acknowledges that they are lucky that Fiela is black, for wrongfully taking a white child from a white family would have far worse consequences. These small examples paint a bigger picture of the various forms of prejudice faced by black people in South Africa.
Yet the racial difference makes them feel superior to the Komoeties and thus particularly justified in "rescuing" Benjamin from a Coloured household. Elias' fury at being called "master" by Lukas articulates how the white supremacy of the time endowed a sense of pride and power to poor whites like the forest dwellers.
'He looks older than nine to me' pg 20
This shows the census takers not trusting what FIela says because she is Coloured. They assumed that since Fiela was black with a white hand-child she would lie about the child to protect him and keep him.
The census takers kept questioning her asking for more and more specific details to try and link pieces of the storu=y together to see if Fiela was telling a lie. They kept asking Fiela how did the Benjamin reach their home and even though Fiela said it was impossible for a three year old to travel from Knysa to the Long Kloof due to the harsh environments, the census takers kept suggesting different ideas and perspective of how the child ended up at her doorstep. Showing racial discrimination as the census takers didn't believe a coloured woman