Fiela’s Child: Chapter 11 Summary & Analysis

Fiela gets angry as she walks to Knysna. Still, she prefers walking to waiting around for news of Benjamin. Before Fiela left, Selling warned her not to get angry at the magistrate, since this might just cause him to punish her. She knows he’s right, but she hopes God will still be able to help her somehow. Her biggest fear as she approaches the magistrate is Selling’s past. Many years ago, while Fiela was pregnant with Emma, Selling committed a murder.

In a flashback to many years ago, when Fiela is still young, people begin to talk about how Selling, the richest “Coloured” man in town, seems to have chosen Fiela over all the other hopeful women in town. Fiela has a couple of Selling’s children before they’re married. Selling works for a white harness-maker named Petrus who wants to keep Selling around as a worker, so he himself helps arrange for Fiela and Selling to marry, even providing them a little money to start their life together.

One Christmas Eve, Selling helps lock up Petrus’s property while he and his family are away. But a sheep that Petrus had gifted Selling to fatten before Christmas turns out to be missing right when Selling plans to slaughter it. That evening, Selling is out for a long time, and when he comes back, Fiela notices he has no lamb and also no knife. Fiela just kills a goose instead and tells Selling to report the lamb’s theft to the police.

On Christmas morning, two constables come to the property. They allege that last night Selling stabbed Kies Laghaan when he caught Kies skinning his lamb and claiming it was one of his own. Kies died that night. With Petrus out of town, there’s no one to stop the constables from leading Selling away. Early in the new year, Selling has to face a hanging judge, all while Fiela is eight months pregnant.

Petrus returns and hears about Selling’s murder charge. He uses his influence to get Selling’s hanging reduced to a life sentence. A few months later, after Emma is born, Petrus tells Fiela that he knows where Selling is working on a prison gang. Fiela wants to go to him, but Petrus warns her against it. But nothing will persuade Fiela to stay away.

Fiela knows of a hidden route, an old elephant track, that might take her to where Selling is working. She needs to breastfeed Emma, so she brings Emma on the trip. She finally makes it to the prisoner work camp, where she sees guards in green uniforms watching over the convicts. She sees Selling and wonders how to get to him, particularly while carrying Emma.

Fiela climbs up a gorge to try to be closer to Selling, fearing Emma will wake up and attract a guard’s attention with noise. She makes her way up but then sees the guards ordering all the prisoners together and fears she’s too late. Selling passes right by her without even realizing.

A week later, Fiela finally manages to make contact with Selling. She smuggles him food this way for four years. At one point during those years, she slips him a note about her discovery of Benjamin. Eventually, Selling’s health becomes too poor for him to contribute much work. The convicts are building a road, and many die in the process.

With the completion of the road that Selling’s gang is working on, Petrus comes to Fiela and promises her that he’ll go check on Selling before they send him away. A few days later, Fiela is shocked to see Selling himself walking with difficulty back toward their home in his convict’s clothes. She learns that Prince Alfred was nearby to shoot elephants and to celebrate the opening of the road, which will be called Prince Alfred’s Pass. Alfred pardoned several of the convict-workers, including Selling.